(Britt and Garrett in happier times)

What better way to celebrate a terrific Iggles win over an NFC East rival…than by putting the spotlight back The Reid Family Soap Opera? Bleeding Green Nation has absorbed Jason Whitlock’s critical remarks directed at the Reid family (“Andy has the money and clout to make sure his kids get treated with a little bit of compassion. He needs to spend time talking with his boys and let them inform him how the poor get run over by the system and institutionalized. He needs to talk with Garrett Reid about how kids, especially kids with fathers who spend too much time away from their families, get swept up in pop culture’s glorification of drug dealers and criminals. It’s shameful that Andy Reid is still coaching the Eagles”) and takes an unusual detour in bashing Whitlock. To wit, going after Tony Dungy.

I suppose Jason Whitlock forgot about all the sympathy Tony Dungy, a black head coach, got when his son’s troubles(which were 1000x times worse, after all SOMEONE DIED.) Not only did he get “a pass” but he got national sympathy and everyone gushed over what a great father and great man Dungy is. Tony Dungy has 4 other children and no one was calling on him to quit his job to “get his house in order.

“Before his suicide, Dungy’s son had been taken into custody a few months before after an apparent drug overdose. Yet I heard none of the hand wringing and blame directed at Dungy that I hear directed at Reid. I didn’t hear anyone chastising Tony Dungy for not quitting and I didn’t hear anyone call him “a bad father.” Nor should they have. It was a family tragedy and was none of our business. Neither is the Reid situation.

If the Reid situation is truly “none of our business”, what compelled a judge to characterize the Reid compound as “a drug emporium”? Garrett Reid’s been dealing drugs for the past 5 years. Earlier this year, he was in high-speed car wreck while on heroin. The same day, his charming brother Britt pulled a gun on another motorist in a separate incident.

Unless BGN has further details about James Dungy that he’s not revealing, the analogy is somewhat fucked. Why aren’t the felonious acts of the Reid Brothers “our business”? The younger Dungy took his own life, while the Reids are threatening the lives of others.

If the media and public alike were hesitant to dump on Tony Dungy, perhaps that’s because the man lost his son. It isn’t for me to say whether or not Andy Reid’s priorities are misplaced, but there’s still time for him to make a difference in his kids’ lives. For the sake of Philadelphia’s innocent motorists, I certainly hope he’s successful.