In search of normalcy, Chiefs leaving for London later in the week

The Chiefs have been planning for their trip to London for a year, and Chiefs coach Andy Reid has done his due diligence.

That’s why, when faced with the choice of leaving early in the week or later in the week, he chose the latter option.

“I looked at the win-loss — it’s about 50-50 on who goes Thursday, who goes Sunday,” said Reid, whose Chiefs, 2-5, face the Detroit Lions, 1-6, at 8:30 a.m. Sunday at Wembley Stadium. “I mean, it’s pretty even, or at least it was when I checked it.”

So in hopes of keeping his team on as normal of a schedule as possible, Reid has decided the Chiefs will practice Wednesday and Thursday in Kansas City before departing for London on Thursday evening.

“Not that I don’t like England, but I just let the guys practice here, sleep in their own beds, (have that) familiarity,” Reid said. “We’ll get ourselves over there, and we’ve got it pretty well-mapped out. (We) got to present it to them during the OTAs, hit them again with it a little bit later a few weeks ago, and then we go over (there).”

One reason teams might opt to go earlier in the week — and the Lions departed Monday night — is to help get the players’ bodies accustomed to a different time zone, as London is six hours ahead of Kansas City time.

But when asked about the possibility of jet lag affecting his team with such a short turnaround, Reid said players can get their sleep on the plane and still stay on a fairly normal sleep schedule, since they’re leaving in the evening Thursday.

“Yeah, we’re leaving around 7 o’clock, get some sleep on the plane,” Reid said. “I’ve had a chance to go to Japan and play over there, and, you know, you get off that plane with a few hours difference going there, too, and you want to just get out and get moving. You want to get your body back the way you want it. Nine hours you have to rest on that plane, and then we’ll get things going for Friday once we get there.”

Needless to say, Reid said the Chiefs will not be participating in any tours or anything of that nature once they get there.

“It’s not a vacation. That’s not what this is,” Reid said. “They can go do that another time. We’re going over to play a good Lions football team. I want to make sure we have maximum preparation right here and understand why we’re going there.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2015 at 9:15 PM with the headline "In search of normalcy, Chiefs leaving for London later in the week."