The trials and tribulations of Andy Reid’s family — to be specific, the criminal behavior and convictions of Reid’s sons, Garrett and Britt — have long been grist for the CSTB mill, and as such, I’d be remiss in not linking to a lengthy article from Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer in which Ashley Fox claims the upheaval has made the Iggles coach “stronger and more real.”
When Julio Algarin, warden at the Montgomery County Correction Facility, got word in 2007 that he was going to have Andy Reid’s sons as inmates, his reaction was: “Aw, jeez.”
“I’m suspicious by nature, because it’s my job,” said Algarin, a man with dark eyes and salt-and-pepper hair, “and I’m saying, ‘Andy Reid and his kids in here, what’s going to happen now? Is it going to be a media blitz? And am I going to have to do this, and do that?’ “
Algarin could see it. The never-ending phone calls asking for special favors, like private meeting rooms and direct money drop-offs. There would be the attitude, and the denial, and the misplaced blame. Algarin expected textbook celebrity entitlement.
That’s why, early on, Algarin asked his guards: “Mr. Reid, Mrs. Reid, any problems?” “No sir. Not at all,” was the response Algarin got. “Very, very friendly. Very polite.”
Going in, Reid had made a series of conscious decisions. He wasn’t going to hide. During his Thursday night visits, he was going to be accessible, friendly, polite, and accommodating to everyone in the prison – the guards, the inmates, the other visitors, the warden.
“It was important so the boys didn’t get razzed about me more than they were going to get razzed, that I didn’t walk in there going, ‘I’m Andy Reid,’ ” he said. “I’m not that way anyway, but, I mean, I thought it was important that they saw I was a normal guy. I was a coach, but I was normal.”
Not to make light of what sounds like a very sad family situation — especially because I’ve made light of it about a half dozen times already — but how many amongst us were up at night wondering if Andy Reid was going to pull a Mr. Big Time routine during his prison visits? And of all the horrors that a young person might face in a correctional facility, where does “getting razzed” figure on the long list? Unless “razzed” is a euphemism for something else entirely.
Fuck—the first moment I saw that cover pic, I thought it was Vincent D’onofio and Kathleen Erbe exposing some sort of affair they had in Philly.