To Eagles players, Garrett Reid was one of us

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Colt Anderson kept trying to piece it all together.

On Saturday afternoon, he and Garrett Reid hung out in the weight room at Lehigh University doing what they have done together for months - lift weights.

"The team went into the indoor [facility], and he and I stayed in, worked out," Anderson said Monday. "He seemed to be fine, just doing good. I left, he left. Just a normal day."

The next day was anything but normal. Reid, 29, was found dead in his dormitory room just after dawn as Eagles players and coaches were leaving for practice.

"I was stunned, shocked," said Anderson, who has spent the last eight months rehabilitating from a knee injury with Reid often by his side. "It still hasn't really hit me yet. I'm just trying to put the pieces together, why it happened."

Anderson spoke before Andy and Tammy Reid released a statement Monday evening acknowledging that their son Garrett - who had struggled with drug addiction - "lost the battle that has been ongoing for the last eight years."

The thought that Garrett Reid's death was drug-related colored many of the comments made by the Eagles before the Reids' statement. But the players who spoke of Garrett Reid preferred to remember the coach's son who "loved being around the guys," as Anderson said.

"He was one of us," the safety added. "He was like a teammate."

A teammate, but Reid also was a mascot of sorts. He assisted the Eagles' strength and conditioning staff and spent much of his time around the team in the weight room, encouraging the players in their lifts or "spotting" them.

"He was my 'hype' man," Eagles quarterback Michael Vick said. "He motivated me. He got me in tune and just motivated me to work out as hard as I can, and he was a confidant in doing so."

The gaunt Reid who appeared in and out of court in 2007 on charges related to drug possession remade his body after he was released from prison in 2009. He seemed to have channeled his compulsions into working out.

"He acted like a bodybuilder almost, was always flexing in the mirror, would tell you what the best protein was," linebacker Casey Matthews said with a laugh. "He was kind of like a meathead."

But he had found his calling, according to the Reids and many players. Even though he worked under head strength and conditioning coach Barry Rubin and his assistant, Travis Crittenden, and implemented their programs, Reid had his own philosophies, players said.

"I think the weights were definitely his calling," Anderson said. "He was passionate about workouts - what kind of supplements we should be taking, how to get our lifts stronger, how to perform our lift better."

Of the five Reid children, Garrett most resembled his father. He was a few inches taller than Andy Reid, certainly not as thick. But they had the same round face and the same glare.

"When you talk to Garrett, you see Andy," Vick said. "It is just two different personalities, two different people, but the same makeup."

Center Jason Kelce, like Anderson, spent much of the offseason at the NovaCare Complex rehabilitating a significant injury. He said he didn't see the Garrett Reid who was known mostly for his January 2007 arrest for injuring a motorist while he was on heroin and his stints in and out of prison.

"I don't want to get into his past. I think that that's been gotten into enough," Kelce said. "All I can speak on is as an individual and a person I knew."

Garrett Reid appeared, to some of the players, to have overcome his personal demons.

"That kid never had a bad day," Anderson said. "It's amazing considering what he went through. I felt like he was in a happy place doing what he loved."

Several players understandably declined interview requests about Garrett Reid. Jon Dorenbos often was seen in Garrett Reid's company. The long snapper didn't want to answer questions about his friend. But he did make one statement:

"He was just," Dorenbos said, "a cool dude."