Perhaps I’ve taken some things far too personally over the years. That’s gotten me into a spot of trouble on occasion. That also may be what’s going on here with the Kansas City Chiefs head coach, Andy Reid. I feel a deep kinship with this man, this coach, this person, and it goes way back. Since Andy Reid’s recent stint in the hospital has me reflective, let’s trace the affinity.
While I’d say I’m close to the same age as coach Reid, I guess six years difference is not that close, but close enough. He was born and raised in Southern California and I was born in Austin, Texas, but my parents moved to Southern California when i was three years old and I grew up about 35 miles away from where Reid grew up in Pasadena, California.
While coach Reid was a USC fan, I was a UCLA guy all the way. Back then, it was mostly due to the fact that my older brother loved USC and since UCLA was their main cross-town rival, it became carved in stone that I would root for them.
Of course, you can imagine that I didn’t even know who Andy Reid was at that time of my life. That didn’t come about until he became a coach for the Packers and worked with Brett Favre… if it was ever possible to “work with” a guy like him. The parallels came about for me as I realized how Reid got to where he was at.
The most obvious stop along Andy Reid’s career path was his getting a degree in coaching, which he got at Brigham Young University in Provo Utah. While I had started out getting a coaching degree, I ended up with a BS in Elementary education because I felt that everything I could accomplish as a “coach” could be done by teaching our younger students. I had started out with the idea that I would be come a basketball coach and that was mostly because of my love for John Wooden while growing up in Southern Cal.
My BS degree was from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff Arizona, elevation 7,000 feet. It’s a special place brimming with the aroma of pines galore and I’ve dreamed my whole life of retiring there… that is, until I had grandkids who live here in the Kansas City Area. Why bring that up? Because Andy Reid coached at Northern Arizona University in 1986, and by the way, he coached Frank Pollack while there (current Cincinnati OL coach who also played in the NFL a number of years).
Probably the greatest connection I feel with Andy Reid is that church/religious connection, as he was raised in the L.D.S faith. While the church I grew up in was not the L.D.S faith, it was very similar and called, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, R.L.D.S. — now the Community of Christ — who believed in certain common principles. One of those common principals is: forgiveness.
BTW, I don’t belong to that church anymore.
Coach Andy Reid has blazed a trail of forgiving players who once had little hope of extending their careers in the NFL. Guys like, Michael Vick, Terrell Owens, Alex Smith, Tyreek Hill, Chris Jones, Phillip Gaines, Marcus Peters, and now, Josh Gordon. All for different reasons of course.
While I wish this on no-one, Reid has also dealt with a family member who had addiction in their life… and I have as well. My older brother had gone into the hospital, after 27 years of alcoholism, and what he thought was pancreatitis at first turned into something else, his lungs shut down and they had to put him on a respirator. He was in a self-induced comma for three days. We called the family in — who came from all over the country — because we thought that would be the end of my brother. A distinct memory I have of talking to the doctor was of him saying: “With alcoholism, every organ is damaged.”
Then I came face to face with the most difficult moment of my life: when my brother recovered and I said to him,
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“If you don’t go into recovery right now…
I will never see you again,
never talk to you again.
The next time I see you will be at your funeral.”
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I’ve had many people tell me that this must have taken a great deal of faith to say, but the opposite is true. I really thought that was the end, and that I would never see my brother again. Of that I was 100% convinced… but, I still had to take that chance. And……….. it worked, but be forewarned, that was the fourth time I’d confronted him. However, this time, he immediately called a recovery number and started therapy. That was in 1997 and now, he is my best friend ever.
So, in 2012, when coach Reid’s son, Garrett Reid, died in his room at the Eagles training camp from an accidental overdose of heroin, I was devastated for him. Garrett was assisting their strength and conditioning coaches, and was an important part of the Eagles family as well.
That was the last season Andy Reid was the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, finishing 4-and-12. You can easily project that the loss of his oldest son affected him for more than a week, a month, or even a season. At the end of that year, the Eagles chose not to extend Reid, and on January 4th of 2013, he signed with the Chiefs and started life anew in K.C..
In K.C. he brought another son with him, Britt Reid, who at first served as a Defensive Quality Control coach. Britt was drinking and driving and drove his truck into a car injuring a small girl last February right before Super Bowl LV. This may be important to remember as we keep an eye on how this season plays out for Andy Reid and his family. I know from personal experience — appreciative of religious leanings — that when you care as deeply as someone like Andy Reid does for his own, to lose a son, and then have another son face prison time and know that he has caused the pain and suffering, and possible loss of life of, a 5-year old like Ariel Young, it is not something a person can just, “get over,” by simply going back to work and focusing on their job.
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You can participate in the Ariel Young Go Fund Me here.
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My heart goes out to Ariel Young and her family, and that is surely more intensely felt on my part because of teaching children for 39 years. That pain… and that caring… doesn’t just magically disappear for someone like Andy Reid ether.
When Andy Reid went into the hospital after the game on Sunday — because of dehydration — I thought about his mortality — and my own of course — and realized, once again, that none of this Fandom, is forever. In a statement from the Kansas City Chiefs:
“Head Coach Andy Reid felt ill at the conclusion of the game. He was evaluated by our medical staff in the locker room, & as a precaution, was transported to The University of Kansas Health System for further evaluation. Coach is doing well, currently resting & in stable condition.”
On Monday the 27th, Reid was released from the hospital and was said to be “chomping at the bit” to return to One Arrowhead Way this week.
Yes, I have felt a real fondness for Andrew Walter Reid and there’s no denying his commitment to the game of football. However, we all, as Chiefs fans, need to prepare for the time when he is no longer the Chiefs head honcho. We also need to prepare for the time when Travis Kelce is no longer a player for the Chiefs and the same is true about Tyreek Hill. We have gotten spoiled with their superior play and we must all accept that at some point in time, it will all come to an end. No matter how closely we associate ourselves to a player… or a head coach.
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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