Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid has been called everything from a genius and a wizard to a mad scientist. He’s also been called Super Bowl champ.
Reid guided the Chiefs to a Super Bowl title three years ago and he’ll look to do it again when the Chiefs play the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in Glendale, Ariz. But as well-known as Reid is for being one of the brightest offensive minds in NFL history, there’s another side to him that his players appreciate just as much — his softer, jovial side.
Reid, however, is serious about football and life. He’s had many ups and downs professionally and personally. But through it all Reid has preserved and is one win away from joining an elite group of coaches with two Super Bowl wins.
Reid’s players admire him, yet he remains humble amid all his team’s success. Now he’s hoping to finish the job at the same place where this season all began.
‘He still has that kid spirit’
As a 64-year-old man, Reid has the energy of someone 20 years younger. He doesn’t drink coffee in the morning. He says he just gets up and goes without it. Reid, though, surely gets some energy from his taste for fine food, specifically cheeseburgers and barbecue. For his burgers, Reid has a set of criteria that he looks for.
“It’s got to have a good bun,” Reid said. “Let’s start there. And fresh meat. Then you put anything else on it other than mustard and we’re good. I’ll eat it.”
He certainly will. Inside the locker room after the Chiefs defeated the Seahawks the day before Christmas, tight end Travis Kelce walked over with a wrapped present and handed it to Reid.
Reid unwrapped it to reveal an orange Nike shoebox. Reid flipped open the lid and inside was a nice, juicy burger — an early Christmas present he really enjoyed.
“Thank you!” Reid told the team. “May you all get a gift as great as this. Cheeseburger in paradise, baby!”
After the Chiefs’ 31-20 win against the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, Reid said he was going to celebrate the win with the “biggest cheeseburger you’ve ever seen.” And as for the barbecue, in the 10 years since Reid became coach of the Chiefs, he said he’s “never had so much barbecue,” and he doesn’t regret that one bit.
“I’m coming out of 10 years still loving every bite I’ve taken,” Reid joked.
Reid’s often self-deprecating humor resonates with his players, coaches and fans. When asked to name his top three rappers, Reid mentioned the Fat Boys, Jay Z and Master P before pausing.
“You got to give me an easier question than that, doggone it,” Reid said with a laugh.
When asked to name his favorite Rihanna song, Reid passed that to his quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“You’ll have to ask Patrick that one,” he cracked.
Mahomes said Reid’s humor and mild-mannered demeanor exemplify something you don’t see a lot from NFL coaches.
“He still has that kid spirit,” Mahomes said. “And he likes to joke around and have fun and he knows how to get the best out of every single player. And there’s a special, unique quality that he’s able to get the best out of you no matter where you’re from.”
That’s certainly true for many Chiefs players, including Mahomes and Kelce. But Reid’s latest success story is running back Isiah Pacheco. The Chiefs selected Pacheco in the seventh round of this year’s NFL Draft, and Pacheco has gone from bottom of the depth chart to starting in the Super Bowl as a rookie.
Pacheco grew up in Vineland, N.J., which is about 40 miles south of Philadelphia. Though Pacheco played college ball at Rutgers, he grew up an Eagles fan and rooted for them when Reid took the 2004 team to the Super Bowl against the Patriots. Now Pacheco and Reid are both Chiefs.
“When they drafted me, Coach Reid was on the phone and my family was screaming,” Pacheco said. “I had my phone in my pocket because I was so hyped and amped about getting drafted. And Coach Reid is like, ‘Hello? Hello?’ and my family is screaming.
“So I didn’t get to really have a full conversation with him until I got here and I was settled in the building. And they showed love to the family, and I was blessed to be a part of it and ready to work when I got here.”
‘He puts the work in every single day’
While Reid has made a habit of cracking jokes about his love for fine hamburgers, at his core he is a football coach who is destined for the Hall of Fame. Reid spent 14 years coaching the Eagles before he came to Kansas City to revive a franchise that had nearly bottomed out.
As coach of the Chiefs, Reid has led the team to seven straight AFC West titles, five straight AFC championships games — all at home — and three trips to the Super Bowl, winning it once in the 2019 season. But even with Mahomes at quarterback and Kelce at tight end, that type of success doesn’t just happen on its own.
“He puts the work in every single day as well,” Mahomes said. “And so, you never question that he’s prepared and ready to go. He enjoys it.”
At a drawing board, maybe nobody in the NFL is better than Reid at diagraming plays. In Super Bowl LIV against the 49ers, the Chiefs ran “Rose Bowl Parade Right,” a play where everyone in the backfield spun around to the right, and Damien Williams took a direct snap on fourth and short and got the first down.
In the fourth quarter, the Chiefs ran “2-3 Jet Chip Wasp,” and Mahomes connected with Tyreek Hill for a 44-yard bomb that gave momentum back to the Chiefs, who went on to score three touchdowns in the quarter to rally and win the Super Bowl.
More recently, in the regular-season finale against the Raiders, the Chiefs ran “Snow Globe,” a play where everyone in the huddle locked arms and ran around in a circle. Then they lined up and Mahomes took a pitch from Jerick McKinnon and threw the ball to his left across the field to Kadarius Toney, who ran it in for a score, although the play was called back for holding.
Reid’s creativity, however, might be at its finest when it comes to getting Kelce the ball. Reid will have Kelce line up as a traditional tight end as well as on the edge, in the slot and even in the backfield. Under Reid, Kelce has revolutionized the tight end position, and that seems to be trending across the NFL.
“There’s a lot of talent in the tight end room across the league,” Kelce said. “And I’m very fortunate here that Coach Reid showcases my talents on the field a lot and puts a lot of trust in me to have success with this offense.
“And I’m hoping that because of Tight End U, we can keep creating that spark in the tight end room and the mismatch we can have out there on the field. So league wide, we can really get the position that much more engrained in the offenses.”
While Reid is known for his success with Kelce and Mahomes, much of his offensive philosophies were formed in the trenches when he was an offensive lineman at BYU. Reid protected Jim McMahon while playing for legendary coach LaVell Edwards and offensive coordinator Doug Scovil.
“Doug Scovil was very creative in the pass game,” Reid said. “All the other coaches I played and worked for had that kind of philosophy. When I became a coach, I was able to build on that. All the coaches I worked for had that philosophy. When I became a coach, I just kept that going.”
Reid coached offensive line in the college ranks until Mike Holmgren hired him in 1992 as an assistant offensive line and tight ends coach with the Green Bay Packers. In 1997, Reid was promoted to quarterbacks coach and assistant head coach, and in 1999 Reid became head coach of the Eagles. Reid had great success in Philadelphia but also experienced tragedy.
‘I love him because of the man he is first, not the coach’
Two weeks ago, after the Chiefs defeated the Bengals 23-20 in the AFC Championship game, Reid and Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark shared a warm embrace on the field. Clark had 1.5 sacks that night, helping the Chiefs get some payback on the team that knocked them out of the playoffs a year ago.
Many of Reid’s players in Kansas City and Philadelphia consider him a father figure. But maybe none more so than Clark. On Jan. 30, 2018, Clark’s father and three members of his extended family were killed in a house fire in Cleveland. Clark, who had just finished up his third season with the Seahawks, wouldn’t become a Chief until the 2019 season. And his time in Kansas City has been filled with ups and downs both on and off the field.
In September, Clark pled no contest to two misdemeanor gun charges stemming from an incident in L.A. in June 2021. Clark was suspended for two games this season as a result. But Clark credits Reid for sticking by him and believing in him.
“I love him because of the man he is first, not the coach,” Clark said. “The man he is. And I feel like if you know him from that standpoint, you’ll be able to attest to what I’m saying. A lot of guys know him as a coach, and they only see the coach side of him. I’ve actually been fortunate enough to see the other side of him.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with him from that standpoint. And just helping me become a better father, helping me understand life a little bit more. And some of my toughest situations that I had to endure over the last two years and just sticking by me and understanding that guys do have some bad times and guys do eff up sometimes.”
Reid has also suffered family tragedy and hardship. On Aug. 5, 2012, Reid’s son Garrett died from an overdose in an Eagles’ training camp dorm room. And just two years ago, Reid’s son Britt was involved a crash that severely injured a 5-year-old girl not far from Arrowhead Stadium and just three nights before the Chiefs played the Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. The Chiefs lost 31-9 in a blowout.
Britt Reid, who was a linebackers coach for the Chiefs at the time, later pled guilty to felony drunk driving and was sentenced to three years in prison.
While the crash was certainly a distraction for the Chiefs in Super Bowl 55, it seems there have been little to no distractions this time as they ready to take on the Eagles.
‘I love this team’
In Super Bowl 55 against the Buccaneers, the Chiefs had trouble protecting Mahomes. He was sacked three times and always on the run. The Chiefs, however, have largely revamped their offensive line with the additions of Orlando Brown, Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith. Andrew Wylie started at right tackle against the Buccaneers in the Super Bowl and will start against the Eagles.
The group has been together for the last two seasons, and they will face a strong test from the Eagles, who have recorded 78 sacks in the regular season and postseason combined — third most in NFL history.
“I’ll tell you that when you get in the playoffs that combination of the O-lines vs. the D-lines on both teams ends up being the thing that wins or loses games,” Reid said. “And it’s magnified every level you go up, every step that you move up in the playoffs. And so, the Super Bowl, it’ll be magnified at the most.”
The Chiefs enter play as an underdog — and that’s a little similar to how some people viewed their season. With Mahomes having Mecole Hardman as the only returning receiver, combined with the departure of several key starters, many predicted the Chiefs would take a step back this season.
Instead, Mahomes led the league in passing yards with 5,250 and touchdowns with 41. Mahomes also won his second NFL MVP. The Chiefs also relied on as many as nine rookies at times, and they’ve all made big contributions throughout the season.
“Internally we had high expectations understanding the challenge of playing with a bunch of young players,” said Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt. “If you look and listen to much of the national media, you would’ve thought that we had no chance.
“I remember Andy commenting in response to a question that ‘We’re not going to be too bad ourselves’ because people were talking about the other teams in the AFC West. Obviously, really the credit goes to Andy and the coaching staff for getting those young players ready to play.”
The Chiefs opened this season with a win at Arizona, and now Reid is hoping they can bookend the season with a championship on that same field. Should the Chiefs win, Reid would become just the 14th coach to have multiple Super Bowl wins. And it sounds like Reid likes his chances.
“I love this team,” Reid said. “I love the energy. They’re fun to be around. They kind of know when to be crazy and when to crank it down and tune it in and be serious. So, I think it’s a good bunch. Unique.
“I felt like during every week of the season I was getting to know these new guys a little bit better. We had so many changes, and I love the way everything gelled.”
