PHILADELPHIA - From above and below, from alongside and from in front, they are all gone now, every one of the buffers between Jeffrey Lurie and his coach for life. With Joe Banner semi-retired, Andy Reid now has 16 games to avoid being next.
That wasn't the stated purpose of a testimonial to Banner Thursday at the NewsControl Compound, a 45-minute ramble about how, as Lurie would say, "there is no better executive in sports than Joe Banner." The stated purpose was to introduce the new president, Don Smolenski, who can aspire to be the second-best executive in sports.
So the Eagles did that, presenting Smolenski, who was connected only to the last 14 years of the franchise's 51-year wander for a championship. They will insist that there had been no football tug-of-war between Reid and Banner, but if it wasn't clear before, it was Thursday: Reid always emerges clean.
The coordinators are fired.
The players leave.
The talent evaluators change.
The nameplates on the president's office are re-affixed.
And then, there is Reid, still and always.
In itself, Lurie's press conference was typically graceful. In context of his last two major press conferences, however, it was rough. The first came at season's end when he publicly refused to extend Reid's contract following an 8-8 season. By any interpretation, that was a finger-wag, the owner's first real public expression of displeasure since he punted Ray Rhodes.
Now, he has trusted control of his business to Smolenski, who is no less a football man than was Banner, but who does not figure to have one syllable of say into who wears a team-issued chinstrap. That job belongs to Reid and general manager Howie Roseman, in that order. And that means that Lurie, already running a nerve deficit as it grows less likely that he will ever begin his promised collection of Super Bowl championships, has one move left.
It is a move he hopes not to make. But if the Eagles fail again next season, it will be either him or Reid - and only one of them is a billionaire-and-change. It has already passed the curious point to the level of comedy that Lurie keeps Reid in charge after so many weird failures. He can safely make the point, though, that the Eagles will have the necessary talent to win a Super Bowl this season, and that changing coaches now could be more disruptive than helpful.
So on the Eagles' football corporate tree, Reid remains, now just one branch from the owner. And that does sound like a chainsaw roaring in the distance.
"I have had full support from Jeffrey, Joe and Howie on all the decisions that have been made," Reid said. "I have the final say on the decisions." He laughed, needling, "I made all the good ones, Joe did all the bad ones." Continuing, seriously, he said, "Listen, I had the final decision on all of them."
He did. Technically. But Banner was a reliable professional safety net. There was always a public sentiment that he was obsessed more with dumping salary than confetti. And as inaccurate as that image was, it did help to cocoon Reid. The rationalization: It was cap management more than timeout management that was keeping the Eagles so championship-free.
Smolenski will not provide that cover. He will keep the Eagles community active, maintain Olympic-class facilities, preserve the positive image of the organization. But it will be a shock if he ever tries to compare the Eagles' on-field achievements with the Steelers', as Banner once did. It's different now. It's Lurie. Beneath him, Reid will be responsible for all-things-football. Roseman will be a rung lower, Smolenski over to the side.
Late in the day, the former president of the Eagles was asked to evaluate Reid's 2011 performance.
"Great," Joe Banner said, half-squelching a sly grin. "I learned a lot about P.R. Great."
In 2012, Reid will have to be even greater. Because there is one less fountain of public relations to cool off any heat.
Follow Jack McCaffery at twitter.com/JackMcCaffery