Voice of Philly Sports Fan: Fire Andy Reid, the sooner the better

Andy Reid was fired yesterday, wasn’t he? Maybe we just missed the announcement. Maybe the drone of his robotic voice was finally silenced, and the news just slipped right past us.

No coach has deserved to be handed a pink slip more than Andy Reid does right now — and not just because his Eagles have lost six games in a row, or because his team has quit on him. No, Reid deserves to be dismissed as Eagles coach because of an incompetence that has become a danger to his own players.

With 1:58 remaining in a game he was trailing by 25 points, Reid exposed the most important player on the team, LeSean McCoy, to a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit that caused a concussion. Keeping McCoy in a lost game like that was ignorant, but not nearly as stupid as the bullheaded response that followed.

“We were trying to catch up and win the game,” Reid said, several times. Even in his delicate mental state, he cannot believe that.

No sane person could. Running the ball in the last two minutes while down 25 points is not a recipe for success, in any league. It is the behavior of a man who has lost a grip on reality.

When asked if he had any regrets about using McCoy at that point in the game, Reid said the one word that should have sealed his doom: “No.” At the time, McCoy was being taken to a hospital to determine the severity of his injury, and still Reid could not grasp the absurdity of his position. Even yesterday, at his weekly news conference, he expressed no second thoughts.

“I have a pretty good feel for our football team,” he said, with a straight face.

The truth is, he has absolutely no feel for his football team. Nnamdi Asomugha is in freefall at cornerback, Kurt Coleman is lost in the defensive secondary, wide receivers Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson are disappearing from the offense, the defensive line is underachieving spectacularly, the offensive line is a sieve, and now — thanks to Reid — McCoy is concussed.

If Andy Reid actually had a good feel for his team, he would have resigned yesterday, or Sunday, or last week, or last month. He has lost his team, has lost his city and will soon lose his job. In fact, it should have happened by now.

Owner Jeff Lurie made it clear before the season that 8-8 wouldn’t be good enough this season. Well, if 8-8 is grounds for dismissal, what is 3-7? Surely, Lurie has been watching these weekly debacles. Surely, he has seen what we’ve been seeing.

Surely, he knows what he has to do.

Andy Reid was fired yesterday, wasn’t he?

Bynum is damaged goods

Andrew Bynum has not played, is not playing and may never play for the Sixers. The big question is, who is to blame for one of the biggest local sports fiascos in recent memory?

What we can say with absolute certainty is that the Sixers received damaged goods in their mega-trade. After a busy weekend for the quirky center, it is clear that Bynum has injured both of his brittle knees — the second problem surfacing after he went bowling. Yes, bowling. He hasn’t practiced yet, but he has bowled.

Of course, the Sixers tried to hide the bowling incident because telling the truth is simply not in the DNA of any of our sports franchises. They constantly preach their love for the fans, and then go to extremes to deceive them. ESPN had to break a story that the team had a responsibility to report first. Only after the news came out did Bynum confirm the story.

So what’s the truth in this Bynum travesty? The most likely scenario is that the Lakers suckered the new Sixer owners. Players with healthy knees don’t go to Germany for experimental treatments, or have lubricant shot into them. Bynum had both right after the trade.

It’s possible that the team doctors blew it when they examined him before the deal became official. This many setbacks cannot happen without a serious pre-existing condition. Knowing the eagerness of the new owners, though, I find it more likely that the front office ignored the grim prognosis.

Fortunately, Sixers fans are not as naïve as the new owners. Tickets to Sixer games were selling for 40 cents apiece on Stub Hub. The Andrew Bynum era isn’t starting well. In fact, so far it has been a gutter ball.

— Angelo Cataldi is the host of 94 WIP’s Morning Show, which airs weekdays 5:30-10 a.m.