Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid listens to a question during a news conference at the team’s NFL football training facility, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, in Philadelphia. Speculation grows as to whether Andy Reid will be fired by the Eagles. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

I had to read the Associated Press’ report on Andy Reid three times because I thought I must be reading it wrong. The odds of Reid coaching the Philadelphia Eagles next year are zero percent. Reid will be fired on Monday and the only question is whether it’s before or after breakfast.

If Jeff Lurie, the Eagles owner, does not fire Reid the city of Philadelphia might just explode and vaporize. Reid being present a minute past noon on Monday is a year too long. I know it, Lurie knows it and every single person in the city knows it. This is Reid’s team, he built it. The years Reid was successful he delegated the defense to Jim Johnson, and ever since Jim passed away in 2009, the Eagles defense has been pathetic and awful.

Reid decided to make an offensive line coach, Juan Castillo, who had no coaching experience on the defensive side of the ball, head of defense. This after the failed Sean McDermott fiasco. When Reid fired Castillo five games into the season, it was an admission of his own stupidity and the kicker is the defense got much much worse.

The offensive is where Reid is a supposed expert but his play calling and game plans have been beyond poor, for the past two seasons. The Eagles were 3 and 1 this season and many talking heads on ESPN were expecting the Eagles to make a deep playoff run and maybe even getting all the way to the Super Bowl. I watched those first four games and even at 3 and 1, my 6 and 10 preseason prediction did not make me nervous. The Eagles were the worst 3 and 1 team in NFL history, and I don’t know how they won any of those games.

They were lucky at best to win those games, especially against the Giants. After that week ESPN had a stat that the Eagles were 11-1, when LeSean McCoy gets at least 20 rushes per game. The Eagles were something like 4 and 12 when he did not get the rock 20 times a game. So what did Reid dial up, after learning when Shady gets 20 carries they almost never lose? He did it again! He outsmarted himself, and decided never to give the ball to McCoy 20 times in a game since going 3 and 1. They lost every game in that stretch until McCoy suffered a potentially career ending concussion against the Redskins, about two days after the game had been decided. Reid’s explanation for having McCoy out there was he was trying to win the game, down 25, with a few minutes to go.

Why Andy Reid will be fired

Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid’s job is on line and the team’s continued poor performances are making his end closer. Now at the end of the regular season,speculation is at an all time high as to whether Andy Reid will be fired by the Eagles. (AP Photos)

The past few years under Reid, the defense, offense and special teams have plunged into the worst depths of the league. Every single week Reid says these problems are entirely his fault and are not acceptable. Listening to an Reid press conference is worse than Chinese water torture. He admits the team’s failure is his own fault. With all that said, and as if that is not enough to have Reid fired, I can think of two more reasons why Lurie is going to can Reid on Monday.

First, Lurie likes a good business and Reid on the sidelines next year will lead to an empty stadium, for sure. The value of the Eagles might plunge $200 to $400 million, if Reid keeps his job and Lurie won’t let that happen.  But the biggest reason Andy Reid has to be fired and frankly should retire and never return to the NFL, is allowing his son Garrett Reid, a known drug addict, into the Eagles training camp.  In 2007, Andy Reid was ripped apart by a judge, at Garrett’s arraignment. The judge laid many of Garrett’s faults squarely on the parents and mostly on Reid.

To bring someone like that around your NFL training camp, and worse give him discretionary money for steroids and heroin, is beyond comprehension. I really am surprised the all mighty Rodger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, has not investigated the steroids found in Garrett’s bag of needles and heroin. I guess the only reason is the steroids were not the latest and greatest of things easily detected by today’s NFL tests. The reality is Garrett was shooting up a ton of heroin and then going to work in a NFL weight room, with NFL players.  When they found Garrett dead, Andy barely seemed surprised.  His reaction was of someone who knew his son had relapsed and unfortunately died from it.

Reid’s game plans this year have been especially weak and likely attributed to the fog he is in over his son’s death. He even put out a press release stating Garrett’s passing didn’t distract him, which shows just how much it did in fact affect him.

Reid says he wants to coach again next year and if not Philadelphia somewhere else, because he is football coach and that’s what he does. His family, friends and potential employers need to pull him aside and tell him to retire or take a multi year break to repair his soul and family.  I will miss the Andy Reid of 1999-2004. Each year since 2005, Reid’s coaching has suffered. In 2008, I signed a petition that was going around in Philadelphia to fire him. This is possibly the worst Eagles season of my life. The other Eagles teams to win 4 or 5 games were expected to be bad. This team was expecting the Super Bowl. And even with the injuries, they missed on every metric to define a good club house.

Farewell Reid, but don’t let that door hit you on your way out.