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“Andy has an unparalleled capability 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 nice receivers, like he’s had up to now, or he can experience with fairly good receivers, which is all he had final yr. I look again on that second half, and I feel it was the best half-hour of his profession.”
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 sport, Reid’s group 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 sport. However by their excessive requirements, they’ve had an up-and-down yr, primarily as a result of their receivers drop too many passes (they lead the league in that doubtful class) and too typically run the incorrect routes. If Reid can get this group of not-so-great move catchers to the Tremendous Bowl, it will be his fourth journey in 5 years and is likely to be a fair higher achievement than that second half final yr.
Each Tremendous Bowl-winning season kicks off throughout the previous summer time. One Sunday final July, Reid rose earlier than daybreak on the school campus the place his group was gathered to arrange for the season, a dorm at Missouri Western State College: Scanlon Corridor, to be precise, a freshman residence with tiny rooms, shared bogs 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 certainly nonetheless snoozing in their very own 11-by-14-foot quarters. In a modest concession to consolation, the group had trucked in king-size beds from a neighborhood Lease-a-Middle. Jawaan Taylor, a 330-pound offensive lineman, informed me that he discovered the setup tolerable sufficient. “However you’ve acquired to be sure to put that mattress pad on.” Reid, whose quarters had been on the primary flooring, doesn’t care a lot about sleep and will get solely about three hours an evening, if that. “It’s not one thing I wish to brag on,” he informed me. The index playing cards he at all times 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 need to draw it up. I questioned if performs ever come to him in his desires. “I don’t sleep sufficient to dream,” he mentioned.
Follow that July morning started at 9:15. After the gamers stretched and went by way of 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 group’s protection. Arms on hips, he was tilted ahead in intense focus. He recorded the results of each play on a sheet of paper. Every time the offense superior, he lumbered ahead with the gamers, taking quick steps whereas his arms and higher physique appeared to not transfer in any respect. Reid is a big man. The tales about him typically 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 group’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.
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