Monday was the 50th anniversary of Andy Reid’s famous Pass, Punt and Kick competition
Fifty years ago, Andy Reid took the field at the Los Angeles Coliseum for a national sports competition, and there is no way he could have known video from that event would still be shown today.
Reid was 13 years old and taking part in the Punt, Pass and Kick competition, which gave kids one chance to try each of those activities. The score was calculated by distance and accuracy.
At that time, there was a regional competition and winners advanced to a district championship. In Los Angeles in 1971, that district event was held at halftime of a Rams game.
The kids were dressed in Rams uniforms provided by the team. There was one problem as Sports Illustrated’s Tim Rohan outlined in a 2019 story.
“(W)hen Reid arrived, organizers had to scramble to find him a jersey — none of the youth sizes came close to fitting. They ended up going into the Rams locker room and grabbing a jersey from Les Josephson, the Rams’ starting running back who was listed at 6’ 1”, 207 pounds.
“Warming up on the field, Reid later told his friend Lee Bruno, he played catch with Sonny Jurgensen, Washington’s starting quarterback. Both Jurgensen and Reid had red hair, which caused one teammate to call out: Hey, Sonny, is that your little brother? In reality, Reid dwarfed the Hall of Famer. Jurgensen was listed at 5’ 11”, 202 pounds.”
If you didn’t know it already, you get the idea: Reid was much bigger than the other kids in the competition.
Here is the video, and take note of his name: Andrew Ried. His name was misspelled on the broadcast and the back of his Rams jersey. Reid shared some other fun insights from that night for NFL Films.
Video of Reid in the competition was played by former Raiders coach Jon Gruden for a spot on ESPN in 2011. Gruden laughed and said Reid was 26 years old, to which Reid quipped: “I changed the birth certificate.”
Here’s the thing: Reid didn’t win his age group that night, as this newspaper article shared by Quirky Research shows.
But 8-year-old Bob Cunningham, who was dwarfed by Reid while standing behind him, did win his age group.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 11:03 AM.
