It’s never a good feeling to lose a loved one so this has to
be a very painful time for Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid who just
lost his son this past week to an apparent suicide.
This was already shaping up to be a tough season for Reid
who many believe is already on the hot seat but to couple the massive
expectations he and his team face this year with the tragedy of a loss could spell
trouble for this championship-starved franchise.
Or could it? As we’ve seen in the past, tragedy usually
bodes well for the success of a team.
Not saying that you would wish a tragedy on someone just for
the sake of a few wins but when a tragedy does occur it seems to raise the
focus of the players, coaches and other people involved with the success of
that franchise.
That focus comes from the galvanizing nature of a tragedy.
When there is a loss that affects the entire franchise the way this one has, it
causes people to look beyond themselves and come together for the sake of those
around them.
And that could be a great thing for this Eagles team. They
are super-talented, deep and confident but they didn’t play together very well as a
team last year.
It could be because of how quickly many of the team’s main
parts were brought together last year or maybe because of the lack of time to
jell because of the shortened offseason.
Then there is the notion that they painted a big target for
themselves with all of their “Dream Team” talk coupled with the great regular
season success they had in 2010. This year though, none of those things will be
excuses if the Eagles don’t make a deep run into the playoffs.
Even before Coach Reid’s loss, Eagles players had backed off
of the Dream Team talk and they weren’t very successful last year so there is
no need to worry about teams targeting them for that reason.
Philly had another good offseason bringing in a few key free
agents to fill spots they felt they were weak at last season and they have the
benefit of a full offseason to get everyone together on the same page.
But the thing that may end up being most critical for the
Eagles is how well they play together this season.
Last season there were distractions like DeSean Jackson’s
frustration with his contract situation and a few grumblings from players on the
defensive side of the ball who felt they were not being used correctly. The Eagles already handled Jackson’s contract situation and have made tweaks to correct
the problems they had defensively last season.
So it seems that Eagles management was already trying to
address any potential problems that could affect the team’s focus this year but
as life would have it, there is always some unforeseen event that has the
ability to undermine your efforts.
And the death of Reid’s son has the ability to make this
team rise or fall. If Reid falls into a tailspin his team will suffer but if he
can find the resolve to focus and persevere through this tragedy, his team will
rally behind him.
We’ve seen it happen before with former Indianapolis Colts
head coach Tony Dungy.
Dungy’s son died back in 2005 towards the end of the season.
Although the team faltered bowing out in their first game of the postseason,
they came back the next year fully determined not to let their coach down again
and ended up winning the Super Bowl.
Last year the New England Patriots were dealing with the
loss of owner Robert Kraft’s wife who died during the offseason. The Patriots
played well last season advancing to their first Super Bowl since their near
perfect season back in 2007.
And Philly’s players really love Reid so there is no reason
to doubt that this team won’t use this tragedy as motivation to help them
advance to their first Super Bowl since the 2004 season. We all know they have
the talent and because of an unfortunate situation, they now have the potential
motivation for a huge season.
Roosevelt Hall is an NFL Blogger for The Sport Mentalist and an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2. He is also a Sports Reporter for Pro Sports Lives. He can be contacted at sportmentalist@yahoo.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.
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