Chiefs’ Andy Reid enjoying success while also starting to prepare for next year
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid knows very well that all the orchestration and organization that goes into each phase of the football year, regardless of a pending championship celebration for the ages.
Offseason, workouts, training camp, preseason, regular season, postseason: they each have their own set of challenges. Reid didn’t forget about that once he finally got to hold the Lombardi Trophy in elation. That’s why he went back to work early Tuesday morning — having taken time to indulge in barbecue the night prior.
Yes, the Chiefs accomplished a dream a long time coming, but Reid knows there’s a balancing act between parades and preparation for next season. It has already started for Reid.
“There’s challenges ahead,” Reid said in a Tuesday afternoon news conference. “The fact that once you are there, you want to go again. Then how do you go about that when expectations are extremely high, and at the same time enjoying what you’ve accomplished. There’s a fine balance there, so we talked about that.”
After he returned from Miami, Reid, his daughter, his wife and his sister-in-law enjoyed a dinner fit for a champion at the restaurant Q39, where Reid savored some burnt ends and took loads of photos with members of the Chiefs Kingdom.
Reid, a 21-year head coach in the NFL, began turning his attention to the future the next morning. After all, the magical season extended longer than any other in Reid’s tenure.
The first task? Reid gives coaches and players an offseason calendar each year. He and senior assistant to the head coach Porter Ellett got to work on that early in the morning. After that, Reid didn’t have time to watch the Super Bowl game tape before he had exit interviews with each of the players, who also had exit physicals on Tuesday before Wednesday’s victory parade.
“Once you’ve been there and experienced it, you want to go back,” Reid said. “I was lucky enough when I was younger, coaching at Green Bay, that I went to a couple of these. It’s great when you win, but there’s an urgency that you feel to get back. You’ve got to step back and then relax for a minute, then it’s time to go. You’ll be everybody’s best game.”
Reid served as an assistant coach for the Packers under Mike Holmgren when the team lost in the NFC Championship Game in 1995, won the Super Bowl in 1996 and then went back to the Super Bowl and lost to the Denver Broncos in 1997.
Reid knows first-hand that you can’t take success for granted. He also appreciates being part of a celebration that will mean a lot to many people in and around the Kansas City area.
He saw how the region embraced the Royals’ World Series championship in 2015, and he also watched a similar celebration in Philadelphia in 2008.
“(General manager) Brett Veach and I joke about this all the time,” Reid said. “We go to Philadelphia. Boom. Phillies win it. We come here. Royals win it. I’m going doggone, let’s go! But what a celebration. It was phenomenal. I can’t wait...
“I know it’s going to be cold and all that, but your juices are going. Everybody in the city, I mean you’re talking over a million people. Schools are closed. Businesses are closed. Let’s go man. Let’s enjoy it. It took us 50 years to get here. Let’s go! Have a good time. Keep the city intact. Let’s not ruin what we got, but let’s enjoy the heck out of it.”
