Hard choice

With two sons locked in a drug-induced spiral, and a judge having labeled his home a “drug emporium,” Andy Reid faces what looks like an incredibly difficult decision:

Should he stay or go?

The second-worst thing he could do is stay on as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The worst thing he could do is step down.

How simple this would be if all Reid had to do was spend more time with his children, love them more, be there to warn them about the dangers of using heroin or cocaine or too much OxyContin.

But addiction doesn’t work that way. Addiction is smashing into another driver’s car while you’re high on heroin. Addiction is getting a thrill out of being the rich kid selling drugs in the poor, violent neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Addiction is smuggling prescription drugs in your rectum so you’ll have them in your jail cell.

Clearly, addiction is what afflicts Reid’s sons Garrett, 24, and Britt, 22, and -- heartbreaking as this has to be -- their father wouldn’t be doing them any favors by derailing his life.

“With addiction, you cross a line and go from someone that you can deter from using drugs by giving them good information and guidance, to the fact that they now have a disease. They’ve changed their brain,” said Richard Rawson, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA’s Semel Institute.

Rawson compared addiction with cancer or heart disease, saying, “You’re not going to lecture somebody on eating too many lipids if they’re having a heart attack. You’re going to get them into treatment.”

For now, Reid’s sons are going to prison. They were sentenced in separate hearings Thursday, and the judge questioned whether they should be living at the family’s suburban Philadelphia home, where both were residing at the time of their arrests.

“There isn’t any structure there that this court can depend on,” said Montgomery County (Pa.) Judge Steven O’Neill, who handed both men sentences of up to 23 months in jail.

The judge seemed unconvinced when Britt said his parents were unaware of his illegal activities. Calling the Reids “a family in crisis,” O’Neill said both sons had been overmedicated throughout much of their lives and that Britt got hooked on painkillers when he suffered a football injury in high school.

“It sounds more or less like a drug emporium there with the drugs all over the house, and you’re an addict,” O’Neill told Britt. The judge said searches of the family home and vehicles netted drugs, guns and ammunition.

Britt was involved in a Jan. 30 road-rage encounter, and police found a shotgun and hollow-point bullets along with cocaine, marijuana and the painkiller OxyContin in his car. Later, at the family’s house, police found a handgun they believe he had waved at the other driver.

On the same day, after Garrett had injured another motorist in an accident, police found vials of heroin and steroids, more than 200 pills and a drug scale in his car.

It was Garrett who told the court he enjoyed being the rich kid who dealt drugs in “the hood,” but that, “I don’t want to be that kid who was the son of the head coach of the Eagles, who was spoiled and on drugs and OD’d and just faded into oblivion.”

Yet he is apparently still addicted. Earlier in the day, authorities found 89 prescription drug pills in his jail cell. They believe he smuggled them in his rectum when he was jailed earlier this week.

As for Britt, it’s hard to know how seriously he takes this. After appearing serious during a meeting with a judge in August, he was glib in exiting the courthouse. Asked by reporters if he had any comment, he looked into the camera and said, with a half smile, “Hi, Mom and Dad.”

Reid and his wife, Tammy, were in the courtroom on Thursday but had no comment. Neither did the Eagles nor the NFL.

Exactly how much of a role Andy Reid’s career played in all of this will never be known. He took a five-week leave from the Eagles last spring to work on his family life, but then returned and never discussed his sons’ problems in any depth. He did, however, say then that he would not resign his post.

NFL coaches have incredibly demanding jobs that require far more than a typical 40-hour week. But there are a lot of jobs like that, and millions of parents -- good, bad, hard-working, lazy, loving, hateful -- with children addicted to drugs.

The point is, Andy Reid has little control over the choices his adult children make. Quitting his job to sit home and wring his hands will not make a bit of difference when Garrett or Britt is deciding whether to use.

So what should the coach do? His sons are eligible to apply for a court program that would require them to regularly report to authorities, undergo drug testing and hold jobs. That needs to get done.

Advocates of a tough-love approach might also advise him to stop providing his sons with high-priced attorneys to help bail them out of trouble, and perhaps not allow them to live under his roof. But those are his decisions. There are no easy ones and no guarantees.

By nature, Reid is a fighter. He grew up in Glendale, and friends tell a great story about him getting in a scrape with the Marshall High quarterback about 40 years ago -- when Reid was a 6-year-old ball boy.

But the latest fight is one even that tough kid can’t win. It’s up to his sons. Their dad can be supportive and strong -- all the while knowing he’s utterly powerless over their addictions.

Because in the end, he’s mostly a spectator.

sam.farmer@latimes.com