He was a fired coach walking, he already knew that, but Andy Reid figured: If I’m going out anyway, I ought to remind everybody I was in the room. It was gray and windy that Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, when he hopped off the Philadelphia Eagles team bus at MetLife Stadium for one last skirmish with the Giants.

The Giants needed a win and some help in Detroit to keep their Super Bowl defense alive. The Eagles were simply eager to end a season that had devolved into a 4-11 mess, hoping to avoid an 11th loss in the final 12 weeks. Reid brought a little friend with him — the Super Bowl ring he’d earned as an ᴀssistant for the Packers back in 1996.

It was a curious choice, a reminder both of his greatest day but also of the fact that he’d never quite been able to duplicate that with the Eagles despite coming close an awful lot. Reid had already earned his reputation as a guy who can get you close, just not get you there. The ring seemed to symbolize all of that.

Then, first play of the game, he ordered an onside kick. Alex Henery pulled it off beautifully. Brandon Hughes recovered. One final trick from a coach who always seemed to have a bagful of them, and it cast an immediate pall on 80,657 Giants fans looking for a closing-day parlay there and at Ford Field.