'We like winners': How Eagles fans feel about Chiefs coach Andy Reid's Super Bowl success
Relationships running their course is a reality, and oftentimes, an excuse for breakups.
It applies to the split between Andy Reid and the Philadelphia Eagles. They shared many memories together, the ups and downs, before parting ways when it looked like the right time to do so.
And who's to deny it wasn't? The Eagles didn't win a Super Bowl with Reid's replacement, Chip Kelly, but broke through under Doug Pederson, who was replaced by Nick Sirianni this offseason.
Reid has climbed the mountaintop himself, guiding the Kansas City Chiefs to a championship last year and reaching the Super Bowl again in 2021. Both went on their own post-breakup glow-ups. But with Reid still shining, and the Eagles looking at an uncertain future, how do Philly fans really feel about their former man these days?
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'We like winners'
By and large, Reid remains a beloved figure in Philadelphia.
"I loved Andy Reid as a coach, man," said Eagles fan Mike Reska, a retired Navy submarine mechanic who lives in Groton, Connecticut. "I’m happy for him. I won’t say the Chiefs are my second-favorite team, but if they’re in the Super Bowl and it’s not against the Eagles, I’m pulling for the Chiefs because that’s how much I like him. I don’t care about the players on the team as much. I want to see Andy Reid succeed and I’m happy for him and I’m glad he’s got the opportunity to succeed with another team."
Patti Karpowicz, an Eagles diehard from Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, said Reid is the best Eagles coach in her lifetime.
"I didn't like the way fans gave him a hard time here, when we couldn't win the big game, but I understood it," Karpowicz, 55, wrote in an email. "Philadelphia is a tough city. We like winners (that's why we liked Andy), and we hate losing. We're not afraid to tell it like it is."
Oh, there were criticisms. Philadelphia fans have a well-established reputation for being unforgiving. There wasn’t a clock Reid couldn’t mismanage. He tried to take timeouts home with him.
The big hurdle was the Super Bowl. Reid took the Eagles to four consecutive NFC Championship games before advancing to the big game on the fourth try. That berth, in 2004, resulted in a Super Bowl loss to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
Reid made it nearly another decade in the city of brotherly love after that Super Bowl loss. Tragedy struck during training camp ahead of the 2012 season as Reid’s oldest son, Garrett, passed away. The Eagles went 4-12 and missed the playoffs for the second straight season. On Dec. 31, owner Jeffrey Lurie said Reid’s contract would not be renewed. Four days later, Reid agreed to become the head coach of the Chiefs.
"When he left, I knew it was time for him to go, not because he sucked, or that he should have been fired, but because he needed the change," Karpowicz wrote. "He just lost his son, and it appeared he was finding it hard to focus on his job. Time to move on. I've cheered him on since he left. I love that he finally got his Super Bowl win and hope he wins again. He is one of the best coaches to coach the game. He is a player's coach – he gets them – they get him."
Karpowicz isn't alone in wishing Reid future success. Nearly all Philadelphia fans were pulling for him and the Chiefs over the San Francisco 49ers last year, said resident Tom Glover, who is rooting for Reid again this year.
“It was actually nicer because of the fact the Eagles had won a Super Bowl,” Glover said. “Now it’s kind of bittersweet. In no way was I envious he wasn’t our coach. Now, having this sort of tumultuous offseason, I am a little jealous and missing Andy Reid very much.”
The Eagles fired Pederson, less than three years removed from a Super Bowl, after a 5-11 campaign in 2020. Glover and Reska expressed eroding faith in ownership and the direction of the front office. They also remember late 2012, when a change seemed necessary.
If the Eagles flounder under Sirianni, and the Reid-Patrick Mahomes partnership sprouts more Super Bowls, it could sting more.
Future success for Reid aside, he will always have a special place in the hearts of Eagles fans – at least most of them.
"Long, long story short," Glover, 33, said, "I'm very excited for him."
Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.