The News Of …

This practice day was tougher than any other for the Philadelphia Eagles. After all, sadness, shock, and sorrow beyond anyone’s belief hovered over their training camp site on a day when they lost “a part of the family.”
Garrett Reid (the troubled 29-year-old son of Eagles coach Andy Reid) was found dead Sunday in a dorm room at the club’s Lehigh University training camp, where he spent many summers hanging out with his father’s team.
Police said the death was not suspicious, and the cause was under investigation. The coach’s oldest son had a long history of drug problems, once admitting “I liked being a drug dealer” and went to prison for a heroin-fueled car crash.
Reid’s death, of course, stunned the Eagles, who took the field only because their coach wanted them to continue with their scheduled practices.
Michael Vick, Nnamdi Asomugha and Jason Avant spoke briefly following the afternoon practice. Each offering prayers and condolences to the Reid family. Owner Jeffrey Lurie fought back tears when talking to reporters and general manager Howie Roseman broke down after delivering the news in the morning.

Andy Reid and his son.

Garrett Reid, the oldest son of Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, was found dead Sunday morning in his room at the club’s training camp at Lehigh University. He was 29.
The police chief at Lehigh, Edward Shupp, said a 911 call was made at 7:20 a.m., and that Garrett Reid was dead when a policeman arrived at the campus dormitory. A cause of death has not been determined.
“There were no suspicious activities” – Shupp said.
Reid struggled with drug abuse for years and was imprisoned for a 2007 high-speed car crash in which another driver was injured. Police found heroin, which Reid admitted to using, and more than 200 pills in his car. When he surrendered to begin serving his sentence in that case, prison guards found Reid had tried to smuggle prescription pills into jail.
Reid seemed to have rebounded from his problems in recent times and was assisting the Eagles’ strength coaches at camp in an unofficial capacity, a not-uncommon sort of role for NFL coaches’ sons. Many of the coaches and staff stay in the Lehigh dorms.
In the midst of his legal troubles in his early 20s, Reid said he “got a thrill” out of being a drug dealer in a lower-income neighborhood just a few miles from his parents’ suburban Villanova mansion.
“I liked being the rich kid in that area and having my own high-status life” – Reid told a probation officer, according to court testimony in November 2007. “I could go anywhere in the ‘hood. They all knew who I was. I enjoyed it. I liked being a drug dealer.”

Garrett Reid was the eldest of the Reid’s five children. He was at Lehigh along with his father and the rest of the Eagles for training camp. When practice began Sunday morning, the team, in an unusual move, gathered on the field in prayer. Andy Reid (almost a permanent fixture) was not present.
An hour or so later, Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, joined by Shupp and the Northampton County coroner, announced that Garrett Reid was found dead in a dorm room at Lehigh’s Sayre Park, where the Eagles reside during camp.
“On arrival, attempts were made to revive the individual were unsuccessful” – Shupp said. “Garrett Reid was deceased on the officer’s arrival. There was no suspicious activity.”
Northampton County coroner Zachary Lysek, who pronounced Garrett Reid dead, said that he was conducting an investigation with the cooperation of the Lehigh police department.
“This is a tough morning for all of us in the Eagles family” – an emotional Roseman said. “Garrett grew up with this team, which makes this news even harder for us to process.”
Andy Reid returned to his Philadelphia-area home to be with family, the Eagles said. Team owner Jeffrey Lurie, who was originally scheduled to hold his annual state of the Eagles news conference on Sunday, instead delivered a somber statement later in the afternoon.
“I’ve watched Andy try so hard with his family over the years” – Lurie said. “He cares so much about his family that it’s a hard one. You see a man that really cares, and sometimes what happens happens in life, and, you know, as he and I discussed, it’s like life throws you curveballs.”