"APPARENTLY, close enough is good enough.

Jeffrey Lurie and Joe Banner renewed their vows with Andy Reid because, they said, he's the best.

Better than Jon Gruden. Better than Tony Dungy. Better than Mike Shanahan and Mike Holmgren and Bill Cowher.

"We look at the landscape out there. If we could pick the coach we wanted, it would be Andy Reid," said Eagles puppet master Joe Banner. "You have to look at the circumstances . . . what they've achieved and what Andy's achieved over the course of their career.

"The judgment we've made was, of the people that are or could be available, the person we prefer to have as our head coach - with a singular focus, at this point . . . of winning a Super Bowl - who is that?"

Maybe that means the other guys aren't as hungry as Reid.

Maybe that means Reid has more to prove.

Regardless, this offseason's coaching corral is richer than the 1983 quarterback draft, but the Eagles are standing pat.

Well, that's not totally fair.

Like Reid, Dan Marino and Jim Kelly never won a Super Bowl, either.

Neither did Dungy, in his first stop . . . nor Gruden, nor Shanahan. It took Holmgren five seasons, but he had the best quarterback and best defensive end the league has ever seen, and Holmgren hasn't won again. It took Bill The Chin 13 seasons to deliver in Pittsburgh.

The Eagles don't think any other coach should snake away with what Reid has built.

Which is fine, and just. Reid makes them significant, and that's enough.

"You can't win a Super Bowl unless you're in line to get into the playoffs," said Lurie.

Not every owner follows that line of reasoning.

The Eagles actually referenced Dungy in their announcement of Reid's extension - Dungy, fired after the 2001 season, the fourth time in five seasons he had taken the previously moribund Buccaneers to the playoffs.

That firing lacked any sense of fairness. Cutting ties with Reid, too, after this season or next, when his previous deal expired, would be equally wrong.

Fans have a right to a competitive franchise. They have no right to be guaranteed a title every season.

Joe Torre and the moneybags Yankees couldn't do it. Bill the SuperGeniuus and his Brady Bunch can't do it. Once free agency took hold, the Cowboys and 49ers stopped doing it, too.

The Eagles referenced Jerry "Spider" Sloan, too, the non-champion Utah Jazz coach whose 22-season, Hall of Fame NBA tenure leads active pro coaches. They brought up Jeff Fisher, too, the Titans' coach the past 16 seasons who is 5-6 in playoff games, with just one, failed, Super Bowl appearance.

The Eagles like guys like that."