“Andy has an unparalleled ability to scheme guys open,” says Ray Didinger, who as a sports activities columnist in Philadelphia after which a producer for N.F.L. Movies has adopted Reid for 1 / 4 century. “He can do it with great receivers, like he’s had in the past, or he can ride with pretty good receivers, which is all he had last year. I look back on that second half, and I think it was the greatest 30 minutes of his career.”
The N.F.L. playoffs start this weekend, and the Chiefs, having received their division for a exceptional eighth straight time, are once more among the many favorites. Going into the ultimate regular-season recreation, Reid’s crew had the fourth-best odds at one main sportsbook to win the Tremendous Bowl — 14 of the 32 groups make the playoffs — and it didn’t look as if the Chiefs must face a dominant opponent earlier than the A.F.C. title recreation. However by their excessive requirements, they’ve had an up-and-down 12 months, primarily as a result of their receivers drop too many passes (they lead the league in that doubtful class) and too usually run the mistaken routes. If Reid can get this group of not-so-great cross catchers to the Tremendous Bowl, it might be his fourth journey in 5 years and may be an excellent better achievement than that second half final 12 months.
Each Tremendous Bowl-winning season kicks off in the course of the previous summer season. One Sunday final July, Reid rose earlier than daybreak on the faculty campus the place his crew was gathered to arrange for the season, a dorm at Missouri Western State College: Scanlon Corridor, to be actual, a freshman residence with tiny rooms, shared loos and partitions product of cinder block. His gamers — the nearly-$60-million-a-year quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the star tight finish (and Taylor Swift boyfriend) Travis Kelce and all the remainder of their teammates — had been bunked in the identical dormitory, although absolutely nonetheless snoozing in their very own 11-by-14-foot quarters. In a modest concession to consolation, the crew had trucked in king-size beds from an area Hire-a-Heart. Jawaan Taylor, a 330-pound offensive lineman, informed me that he discovered the setup tolerable sufficient. “But you’ve got to make sure you put that mattress pad on.” Reid, whose quarters had been on the primary ground, doesn’t care a lot about sleep and will get solely about three hours an evening, if that. “It’s not something I like to brag on,” he informed me. The index playing cards he all the time retains with him spent the nights inside straightforward attain as a result of he by no means is aware of when he’ll consider a brand new play and wish to draw it up. I puzzled if performs ever come to him in his desires. “I don’t sleep enough to dream,” he mentioned.
Apply that July morning started at 9:15. After the gamers stretched and went by some preliminary drills, Reid, who’s 65, took his place about 10 yards behind the place his offense was operating performs in opposition to the crew’s protection. Palms on hips, he was tilted ahead in intense focus. He recorded the results of each play on a sheet of paper. At any time when the offense superior, he lumbered ahead with the gamers, taking brief steps whereas his arms and higher physique appeared to not transfer in any respect. Reid is a big man. The tales about him usually are usually about his prodigious consuming. Whereas making an attempt to land his first N.F.L. head-coaching job, in 1999 with the Eagles, the crew’s proprietor, Jeffrey Lurie, took him to a steakhouse for dinner. When the server requested him if he most well-liked the rib-eye, the New York strip or the filet mignon, Reid ordered all three.
