Reid: Childress 'a great coach'

While talking with the Twin Cities media this morning, Eagles coach Andy Reid made it clear that Brad Childress has a job waiting for him in Philadelphia if no other opportunities present themselves heading into next season.

"Brad knows that anytime Brad wants to come back here, I'm here with open arms," Reid said. "I think Brad Childress should be given another opportunity as a head football coach. He does a heck of a job."

Reid and Childress go back a long way into the college coaching ranks. They've been friends for years. Childress was one of Reid's first hires when he got the Eagles job in 1999. They spent seven seasons together before the Vikings hired Childress after the 2005 season. And, as you know, Chilly was sent a packin' a few weeks back, sacked during the most disappointing season in 50 years of Vikings football.

"I know it's football," Reid said when asked about his reaction to the Childress firing, "but I can't tell you I didn't feel bad about it. He's a close friend and I think he's a great football coach."

Reid said he has not talked to Childress about returning to Philadelphia as an assistant.

"He's enjoying a little time down on the beach [in Florida]," Reid said. "That's a good thing. He needed to get away from the situation, and he did."

Asked if he would take Chilly back, Reid said, "I would be honored."

"I'm a big leslie frazier fan," Reid said. "He was a great player, but he also was a heck of a football coach at the college level, the small-college (level), where you really have to coach. Work, work. work.

"So when I brought him here, he had that work ethic and he wanted to be great at what he did. He studied and he didn't only study the receivers, running backs and tight ends, but he got in with our line coach and he learned protections. He dug in there and found ways he could exploit offensive lines to make everyone on his defense better. That's not an easy thing to do and he did that. He's very good. Very, very good. I knew he would be a very good head coach. By the time he left here and had this pro game figured out, I said, `This guy right here, he's going to be a head coach some day.'"

Asked if he'd recommend to the Vikings that they hire Frazier on a long-term basis, Reid said:

"I with I had that kind of clout. That's not my decision to make, but I will say this: If I was an owner, which I'm not, but if I was, I would hire Leslie Frazier. He's a phenomenal person. You never have to worry about him as a person. His players respect him, and he's a heck of a football coach."