Andy Reid reacts to losing a misguided challenge against the
Giants. (AP Photo/Tom Mihalek)

With the holiday season upon us, and my life-long sports wish recently granted, I feel compelled to share with the world some of the things I’ll finally be free to wish for now that the drought is over.  This week, we take a look at the one wish I would trade all the others to bring to fruition: I wish the Eagles would fire Andy Reid.

Sitting at 5-4, in the divisional cellar, Reid’s Eagles are a combined 19 points from a 9-0 record.  Unfortunately, ineptitude in close games isn't a new trend.  Since being outmaneuvered by Brady and Belichick, Reid’s Eagles are just 13-19 in regular season games decided by eight points or fewer, and just 8-14 since then-offensive coordinator Brad Childress left before the 2006 season to coach the Minnesota Vikings.  That number shrinks to just 6-14, a winning percentage of .300, if one excludes meaningless victories after being eliminated from playoff contention in 2007.   The Eagles were, by contrast, 17-6 in one possesion games during their four years of dominance culminating in their appearance in Super Bowl XXXIX.

Jim Johnson’s defense, though it has trouble getting off the field at times, has kept the team within striking distance in every game they’ve played this year.  Yet Reid’s offensive expertise hasn’t allowed them to seal the deal.  Donovan McNabb is clearly healthier than he’s been since the Super Bowl, and has the best receiver he’s had since T.O. in DeSean Jackson.  But a healthy McNabb hasn’t been able to mask this team’s largest problem over the past several years: the head coach’s arrogance.

Reid’s press conferences, long since a joke in Philadelphia, are more fodder for a drinking game than they are informative in any meaningful way.  One need only count the “I need to do a better job with that”s in any given session to grasp just how quickly this could get the party started.  But more than anything, they’re a weekly reminder of just how assured Reid is of his own intellectual superiority.  Here are just a few more:

• the game he lost last year because he didn’t come into the season with a punt returner
• the games he has lost this year because he doesn’t have a fullback or a short-yardage back
• his refusal to utilize first-round picks
• his further refusal to trade any of his apparently expendable draft picks to improve his team’s greatest need
• his refusal to admit that his current starter at said position of need hasn’t performed well enough to merit his place on the team
• and finally, his refusal to reward someone who clearly outperformed said starter with another start

Perhaps if I celebrated Christmas, I’d want something else, but all I want for Chanukah is a new head coach. 

Current favorite for next week’s wish: I wish the Eagles would re-hire Rich Kotite when they fire Andy Reid.