The media turns on Reid

When wide receiver Reggie Brown says, "The play on the field has to change, drastically. We're not playing well at all," he is speaking the concise truth. But neither he nor anyone in the organization wants to contemplate the consequences, not only for this season but for an era of Eagles football.

In 1999, Lurie spotted something in Reid that persuaded him to give the then-quarterbacks coach of the Green Bay Packers full rein of his football program.

And for most of that time, Lurie could sit back and smile proudly as Reid justified his faith in him by putting together one of the most successful eras in Eagles history.

But since their Super Bowl appearance in the 2004 season, Reid's Eagles have been on a slow descent toward mediocrity.

Reid is the one who hires and fires players. He's the one who picked the one, general manager Tom Heckert, who drafts the players. He's the one who picked the coaching staff and scouts. He's the one who must sign off on any schemes his coordinators devise.

He's the epicenter of this perfect storm of failure.

Reid won a lot of his 90 games with an abundance of talent. That Super Bowl team sent 10 players to the Pro Bowl.

It's not as difficult to win when you have the better players as Reid did, especially in the NFC East, from 2000-2004.

Now his players, the ones he drafted and signed as free agents, aren't as good.

So maybe, all that time Reid wasn't, either.