Since Andy Reid took over as the Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach back in 2013, no NFL team has accumulated more wins. That’s also been the case since Patrick Mahomes became the club’s starting quarterback in 2018, although now the franchise also has the postseason success to match its regular-season dominance. This not only puts Mahomes in rarefied air among historical signal-callers, but it also gives Reid more padding for his resume as one of the greatest coaches ever.
As things currently stand, Reid ranks fifth on the NFL’s all-time list for career wins with 247. This coming season, he’s a mortal lock to surpass Tom Landry’s 250 mark and take sole possession of fourth place. Catching all the way up to Bill Belichick in third place with 298 (and counting) is far-fetched, but Reid’s growing playoff resume while Belichick spins his tires in place has even made some ponder whether Reid could go down as the best head coach to do it. During Super Bowl week in February, though, things were less certain.
When Jay Glazer reported about his phone call with Reid prior to Super Bowl LVII, many ran with his quote and speculation grew surrounding Reid’s potential retirement from football. After all, he was set to turn 65 the following month and had reached the pinnacle of the sport already. Luckily for the Chiefs and their fans, Reid cleared things up a bit following the team’s big win by sharing that he didn’t seriously consider retiring.
In an exclusive interview with Paul Domowitch of The 33rd Team this week, the future Hall-of-Famer touched on a variety of topics ranging from Mahomes’s ankle injury in the playoffs, the recent ‘Quarterback’ docuseries on Netflix and much more. He also doubled down on his stance from prior to the Super Bowl:
“No, I wasn’t going there (retirement), but it got out there. I bet you, Paul, I was asked that 50 times down at the Super Bowl if I was going to retire or not. I’m going, ‘Geez. Where is this [coming from?]’ I said, ‘I better take a look in the mirror here, I guess, I must be looking old.'”
He then expanded on his thoughts, also speaking about how Mahomes helps keep him young and maintains his interest in teaching such a talented team:
“You know how Kenny Chesney has that song about his blue chair? I joke about that but when I can’t get out of my blue chair down there at the beach house, I’m going to retire. So I got out of it this year and we’ll just see how it goes every year after this, right? But I feel good, and he (Mahomes) does make it fun. He does make it fun, but there are other things that go into being a head coach that you have to look at, too. But listen, I enjoy doing what I’m doing and I think that’s probably the most important thing. I like teaching and I like the group of kids I’ve got — Pat obviously being one of the big ones. And it’s a great organization. I’ve been very fortunate to work for three great organizations, I’ve been very lucky that way.”
It’s widely known and expected that Reid won’t be the Chiefs’ head coach for the entirety of Mahomes’s career with the team. With that said, as long as his innovative mind is sharp and he feels up for the challenge of going through the grueling gauntlet of an NFL season each year, he should continue to enjoy his job and extend his tenure in Kansas City. Reid will go out on his terms and, despite what some threw out there several months ago, those terms don’t seem to be expiring too soon.
