Below is the blog that I wrote literally a year from today as Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs were heading to their first ever Super Bowl Victory. A year later, they are returning to the big game and wanted to highlight Andy’s amazing coaching journey and legacy he has left behind with other head and asssistant coaches to date. He also also one of the most liked coaches not only by his players, but literally everyone in the NFL and on Feb. 6th will be going up against the GOAT, Tom Brady, who will be appearing in his 10th Superbowl game, this time as a player for Tampa but set yet another record as will be the first time the home team will be playing in their home stadium in the Superbowl.
Enjoy the read.
GO CHIEFS !!!
Having been a Notre Dame Football Fan since I was a kid, and Rudy being one my favorite sports movies, the quote “Win one for the gipper” quote has been one that I have spun off in one way or another for many years by coaches (yours truly included).
The quote’s origin goes back to the 1920’s when former Notre Dame player who became coach Knute Rockne asked his team in a pregame talk to go and win the game for the teams best player, George Gipp, who fell ill and with little time left asked Knute ….
Rock .. sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they’ve got and just win one for the Gipper.
Ronald Reagan played the part of Gipp in the 1940 film Knute Rockne: All American and was given the nickname as a result, he even used the quote when he was running (and won) for US President.
The quote has been used in pregame coaches in way or another by coaches still to this day as a pregame motivation speech for teams and yet another spin-off now from players of the Kansas City Chiefs who have already won the Lamar Hunt Trophy they had aspired to win on home field last year (lost to the Patriots) to win one for Big Red, the nickname for their head coach Andy Reid.
Ironically, I had the same nickname when playing many sports growing up, was given to me initially by my first football coach and the players gave to me as played for various hockey, other football, rugby teams in particular so I found it was ironic but totally appropriate that the Chiefs have given their head coach the same nickname.
I too am pulling for Andy to remove the monkey off his back, he has now been a head coach in the NFL for 20 seasons after started out as an assistant in college then working under Mike Holmgren in Green Bay as an assistant coach in various roles where I first became a fan of his.
Now after those 20 seasons being a head coach on two different teams, his coaching tree and legacy in itself is an amazing accomplishment aside from numerous winnings seasons, NFC or AFC Championships or making it to the Superbowl his first time 15 seasons back.
Aside from all the other characteristics why he is a great coach including his sense of humour, connection with players, mentoring, development of young players (numerous quarterbacks have thrived under him who struggled on other teams like Alex Smith) his coaching tree now looks like other great coaches including his former mentor Mike Holmgren, Bill Walsh and others.
The video below is a roundtable that he did with 6 former assistant coaches who at the time were head coaches in the NHL
The 6 Coaches include;
John Harbaugh – Head Coach of the Baltimore Ravens
2019 rookie QB Lamar Jackson was getting MVP consideration in his first year leading Baltimore to
John also lead the Ravens to their second Super Bowl Win in 2013.
Sean McDermott – Head Coach of the Buffalo Bills:
Sean was hired as head coach of the Bills in January 2017
2017 – 1st Season – 9 – 7 – Lost to Jacksonville in the AFC Wild Card Game
2018 – 2nd Season – 6-10 – Did not make the playoffs
2019 – 3rd Season – 10 – 6 – Lost to Houston Texans in the AFC Wild Card Game
Although he did not lead the Bills to playoffs in his second season before he became the head coach they had missed the playoffs for 15 consecutive years and under his leadership has made the playoffs two of the first three years as a coach.
Many NHL insiders have shared that the Bills are back under his watch and will be a playoff contender for the next few years as a result
Todd Bowles – Head Coach of the New York Jets (2015-2018 seasons)
Todd replaced Rex Ryan as head coach of the Jets in January 2015 and is the only one of 6 aforementioned coaches not to lead his team to the Playoffs BUT came close in his first and last seasons he coached over 4 seasons but as a result contract was not renewed.
As the old cliche goes, close but no cigar.
Matt Nagy – Head Coach of the Chicago Bears:
In Matts first season as the head coach of Chicago last season (2018) he lead DA Bears back to the playoffs with a 12-4 record and was voted coach of the year as a result.
Prior to him becoming head coach the Bears has missed the playoffs for 7 seasons.
Doug Pederson – Head Coach of the Philadelphia Eagles
Doug was first a player for Andy, then became an assistant coach ironically under Andy when he was the head coach of the very same team before he was fired and soon after became head coach of Kansas City.
Doug lead Philadelphia to their first-ever Superbowl victory in 2018 in the Cinderella season that saw Carson Wentz have an amazing rookie season to lead the team to the playoffs, only to tear his MCL ligament and then backup Nick Boles took over and lead them to the Superbowl victory and was voted the games MVP.
Ironically similar injury woes happened in 2019 when Carson Doug and Carson lead the Eagles to the playoffs but he suffered a back injury forcing him to miss playoff games so again Nick Boles had to stepup as the “backup” quarterback to take over the reigns as he had in 2018 but were unable to have the same magical run and lost in the division game vs. the Saints.
Ron Rivera– Now head coach of Washington Redskins (formerly Carolina Panthers until Dec 2019)
Ron was named linebackers coach by Andy Reid the year he became head coach of the Eagles in 1999 and they went to the NFC Championship 3 consecutive years (losing all three) and then he became defensive coordinator for the Chicago Bears in 2004, on to San Diego for same role in 2007 and in 2001 became the head coach of Carolina and had their best season in 2015 with quarterback Cam Newton going 15-1 and was voted coach of the year.
All but Ron (he was fired at the end of regular season in 2019) still hold their head coaching roles but as the revolving carousel has shown in all professional sports, as Andy Reid found out with all the success he had as a coach, coaches get fired and rehired all the time.
If you watched the roundtable video above, or have followed any recent press, not only do his his current players LOVE Andy Reid as their coach, here is a tweet from Donovan McNabb who was the Eagles Quarterback during the great run the Eagles had earlier in Andy’s career making it to 4 NFC championship games and winning one to advance to the Superbowl in 2005.
Donovan and many his other players and various coaches he has mentored I suspect are all pulling for him to lift the Lombardi trophy on Feb. 2nd, 2019.
All of his current players including Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and others have all committed to GO WIN ONE FOR BIG RED.
As I have shared with many grassroots coaches, Andy is just one of many great coaches that parked his ego at the door years ago and the perfect testimonial why he is such a great coach is his infamous post-game call out he normally does in the dressing room but did the AFC Championship Post Game celebration
HOW Bout those CHIEEEFFFSSS !
For Andy, it’s not about personal success, its all about the team, his assistant coaches, support staff, the players, the fans which is the main reason why he is such a great coach.
As he shared at the end of the interview, it’s not done.
Only time will tell if Andy will raise the Lombardi Trophy he has come so close to doing over his coaching career, but one thing I do know, his players will leave everything they have on the field so they can WIN ONE FOR BIG RED.
