WHY NOT HAVE A BLAST AND WIN MULTIPLE CHAMPIONSHIPS — THE COUP OF REID?
He performs comedy commercials, loves his cheeseburgers and has a much better time than Bill Belichick, who had scandals and won six Super Bowls when Reid and the Chiefs might win their fourth Sunday
The viewing world will see Andy Reid without his mustache, a strip he first grew as a cadet at a maritime academy. He is 66, but he also loves Pringles. The potato chip folks paid him to trim it, part of a phase showing Reid as a comedic entertainer, such as the commercial in which he shouts aloud:
“Plus it’s more fun to say. Bundle-Rooski! Bundle-Rooski! Bundle-Rooski! Bundle-Roooooooooooski! Bundle-Rooski Doo!”
After which Patrick Mahomes smirks and says, “Yeah, yeah, I’m not going to say that.” With a shaven upper lip, Reid thinks Mahomes and Travis Kelce will tell him “to stick with the ‘stache.” Wait until they see him working as a male hand model, courtesy of Skechers and their Hands Free Slip-In shoes. He is dressed in black with lotion and gold jewelry.
“And to be honest, I kind of love not using my hands,” Reid says.
Welcome to the merry side of Reid, who is the antithesis of crankster Bill Belichick as he tries to become the first coach to win three consecutive Super Bowls. And why not? His father was a scenic artist in Hollywood, where he brought home wigs from the film studio. We’ve known Reid to have a carefree personality that meshes with a hard-crusted stare at the NFL, which he could rule someday as the all-time winningest sideline leader. Don’t put it past him to push the Kansas City Chiefs past the Philadelphia Eagles — again — for victory No. 302, which would leave him 45 behind Don Shula. He can keep dreaming with Mahomes, his ultimate quarterbacking creation, who hasn’t lived three decades yet.
As the craft has evolved from lunatics in the 20th century, Reid meshes reality with faith. His second act in the heartland, after he was fired in Philly, has elevated him near the top of any coaching mountain. Belichick won six Super Bowls in 17 years, but Reid is eyeing four in six years without any hint of Spygate or Deflategate. Deeper in his life are the tragedies he has survived, including the heroin overdose of son Garrett, who died in 2012 as an assistant strength coach during training camp. The football kingdom admires Reid. They are rooting for him to keep coaching … and keep acting.
Part of his fun is reminding us how he loves food. He is a big man, to the point Fox’s Terry Bradshaw told him to “waddle on over here” and told him to “have a cheeseburger on us” after winning in 2023. He felt bad and called to apologize, but typically, he said Reid was “laughing.” Before road games, he performs a scouting report for his team. “He talks about the local cows and what types of burgers we’re going to have,” said safety Justin Reid, who is no relation. Know how much the coach loves a burger in Los Angeles called Original Tommy’s? He arranges to have them delivered in Missouri.
Does this man never stop having a good time? “Andy loves food,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said. “He loves cheeseburgers, but he loves steaks, he loves seafood and it’s always fun to see him enjoying dinner.”
“He finishes his food fast. I’m quick about eating as well,” said Mahomes, who taped an ad with Reid to this effect. “He will grab from other people’s plate. The commercial is really real. That line in the commercial, he made up. He said it once and I remember the director being like, ‘I like that, let’s keep running with that.’ ’’
He also appreciates the best enemy playcallers. Belichick gasped when asked about the braintrust of opponents. Reid cited Belichick and Vic Fangio, defensive coordinator of the Eagles. “I feel like I can’t get rid of him. Seems like every year, once or twice or three times, he’s there. He does a great job,” he said of Fangio. “I always say Bill Belichick is probably the best coach I’ve had a chance to go against in my career as a head coach.”
Why would Reid be upset, at all, that Tom Brady is allowed to participate this week in the Chiefs’ meetings? Who cares? During the season, the league told Brady to stay clear because he’s a very involved owner with the Las Vegas Raiders, Reid’s divisional rival. The ban was dropped for this week, though he isn’t attending practices. “When he was approved as an owner of the Raiders, there were a lot of discussions internally (among owners) and that ended up being the recommendation of the league office, that it didn’t make sense to have him in the production meetings,” Hunt said. “That’s where that rule came from. Since he’s doing the game this week, we have no issue with him being in our production meetings. He’ll have the access that any broadcaster would have.”
Please laugh out loud at Brady when he says his Vegas role is low-key. “My ownership interest is just much more of a long-term, kind of behind-the-scenes type role,” he said. Long ago, Reid enveloped plays that wouldn’t be seen until the playoffs. “Andy Reid is an unpredictable dude,” said Eagles safety Lewis Cine, knowing Buffalo defenders claimed he ran plays they’d never seen in the AFC championship game. Trick plays are part of his scheme, including three that led to influential scores in Super Bowl victories. Even Brady, if attending practice, wouldn’t know.
“Yeah, that’s the fun part,” Reid said. “I’ve got these coaches here that have creative minds. They love doing it, and we get the players involved, too. It doesn’t matter if it’s a lineman or a quarterback. If they’ve got something good, let’s put it out on the table and see what you’ve got. I’ve got 51 percent of the vote, but I’m still open-minded with it.”
There was a time when Reid wasn’t so cool. When he left the Eagles, he felt torturous community vibes felt the last two seasons by one his successors, coach Nick Sirianni. He immediately accepted a job in Kansas City and eventually drafted Mahomes. The job has been a riot ever since. “You think back to 2013, when Andy joined the organization, made us an immediate winner and really changed the culture here, and then a few years later, he got the quarterback that he had been waiting his whole career for,” Hunt said. “I think there was a comment earlier about why it’s so hard, why nobody has ever gone back to have a chance at a three-peat, I think it’s because those teams didn’t have the combination of Andy and Patrick Mahomes.”
Of course, Reid is returning next season. His decision has nothing to do with passing Shula. “That’s not part of it. I just enjoy teaching,” he said. “I don’t get caught up much in the stats or the records. I enjoy being around the guys. I enjoy football, the game. You can’t put in the hours we do and not enjoy it. I love the game. I think if you’re going to be a coach, you have to be a teacher first. There is a lot that goes into that. It’s not just knowing your stuff, but how it’s presented.”
Do we believe in the Coup of Andy Reid? We do. He wants to win championships and have a blast, which is supposed to be the idea. Ask him to name his favorite books. “How about the Bible, The Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price?” he said. “I like ‘em all.”
Combine his best reads with the Bundle-Rooski.
Is this the platform of the greatest coach ever?
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.