The meeting that brought Andy Reid to Kansas City and changed the Chiefs’ fortunes
 

Pretty interesting long-form article by Mellinger about the decision between Andy and Clark back in 2013. We knew a lot of this, but it's cool to think back about how pivotal the decision has been for the franchise. Probably not a lot to discuss, but I thought it was interesting.

The meeting that brought Andy Reid to Kansas City and changed the Chiefs’ fortunes

https://www.kansascity.com/sports/nf...224241440.html

The week that changed the Kansas City Chiefs forever began with a Hail Mary phone call to Andy Reid’s cell phone six years ago this month. He’d just been fired as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and was walking out of his going-away party when he saw a number he didn’t recognize.

Clark Hunt, the Chiefs’ billionaire chairman in need of a coach after firing Romeo Crennel, expected to leave a message.

“I didn’t expect you to answer,” Hunt told Reid, according to someone familiar with the conversation.

“This is the first call I’ve answered,” Reid replied.

The two had little relationship beyond seeing each other at an annual meeting between coaches and owners. But they did have a long-distance mutual admiration. Reid has always loved history and football, and few families are more entwined with the history of football than the Hunts. As the chairman of the family business, Clark had long craved stability for the Chiefs.

The pairing made sense, with a few contingencies.

Hunt needed to know if Reid wanted to work again. Reid had just gone through an unthinkably difficult year — his son Garrett died of an accidental overdose, and 14 seasons with the Eagles ended with a 4-12 record in 2012.

Reid needed to know if Hunt had a plan. The Chiefs had experienced their own tragedy wrapped in the worst year of their franchise history — a 2-14 season low-lighted by starting linebacker Jovan Belcher’s murder-suicide.

They met on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013, in a conference room at the Philadelphia airport. Within a few hours, a plane from the Cardinals landed to take Reid to an interview in Arizona. He never boarded. He also had an interview scheduled with the Chargers. He canceled it.

They ordered Chickie & Pete’s — an Eagles partner, and the host of his radio show with the Eagles — but Reid didn’t eat a bite. This was business. Before he left he made a decision that would change the league and set forth the path of one of the sport’s longest head-coaching careers.

In the following years, the Chiefs went from dysfunction to stability, from 2-14 to the AFC’s No. 1 seed with Reid. The coach went from fired to wanted, from a situation that had become unrepairable to a place so excited for his credibility that a news helicopter followed his first drive to the stadium.

Reid has bolstered a Hall of Fame case, and now holds the franchise’s best chance of reaching a Super Bowl in at least 15 years. All of it started in that conference room six years ago, a relationship forged over crab fries, the coach who had his pick of jobs choosing the Chiefs for reasons that ran from personal to professional.

Eight teams hired new coaches that cycle. The Chiefs moved first, and best. Reid is the only coach hired that offseason still with his team, and only the Patriots have won more games. Chiefs executives considered themselves lucky that Reid was available, the perfect man at the perfect time.

“Just how thorough Clark was,” Reid said this week when asked what he remembered about that meeting. “He wants to win a championship. That’s what he wants to do. He gave you every indicator that’s what he wanted. As a coach, that’s all you can ask for. Then he went into details from there.”

(more at the link)

That meeting in CP terms seem to take weeks. I was all YIPPEE when it happened though, can't say i'm not still loving it despite Reids problems. The guy is very lovable as our coach.

He’s won 1 playoff game in 5 years here, and he’s made $35million. He better win tomorrow or his tenure has been a failure, full stop. That’ll make it 6 years 42M 1 playoff win. That is a terrible ROI.


Win tomorrow Fat Andy or don’t even head to the locker room after.

Why are you concerned with how much he makes? It doesn't count against the salary cap. Are you Clark's financial adviser or heir?

Reid has earned his money, pretty sure Clark is happy as a pig in shit with Andy and it would take Torches and Pitchforks out at Arrowhead to change coaches at this point.

Only 1 team can win the Ship every year. Think of where we've been and where we are now. Crazy to think that it was only a few years ago.

That being said - I agree with others on Reid's obvious flaws. But srsly, it could be sooooo much worse.

I know he's historically had issues in the postseason, but...

6 years before Andy: 29-67 (30%)
6 years with Andy: 65-31 (68%)

I had just about stopped watching games before he arrived, and he's completely changed that. Hopefully he'll get the playoff monkey off of his back soon, but I'm not going to gripe about having 4 months of good football to watch each year.

What an exciting time it was.

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We’re very fortunate. Without Reid, there’s no Mahomes. It really feels like destiny.

Meanwhile, JakeF is in another thread saying Andy Reid is a great OC but a mediocre HC

LMAO

The ball bounces funny.

At least half of our playoff losses have been due to freak plays that occur once every 100 years.

I, for one, am not going to blame Wally for Mariota throwing a tipped pass to himself for a TD. Or, Luck recovering a fumble for a TD. Or, holding calls (that don't affect the play and are almost never called in that situation) on successful 2 point conversions.

FAX

Goddamn, you are a miserable prick.

I'm confused. Are these backward?

Heh...oops. Yeah. I'll fix it. Thanks.

Please Fat Andy. Don’t faceplanet this playoff season.

You are consistent in your takes. Bad. All Bad. All the time.

Actually, he had a winning record in the playoffs prior to coming to KC. His big bugaboo was the NFC Championship game - he was 1-4 in the championship game.

If we could combine the offensive prowess of Reid/Mahomes with a Jim Johnson level defense we'd be unbeatable.

I was gonna point that out, but figured it was some weird statistic measurement i had never heard of.

RIP Jim Johnson

of course if Johnson didn't leave Andy would probably still be in Philly. Need to do our best to get rid of Sob Buttons.

Even with his flaws, you can’t help but love the guy.

That's pretty hard to do in today's NFL, there's only so much scratch to go around. That being said, there's a lot tied up on the defensive side of the ball that can be better used, so there's always hope.

And then came this. 6 years ago today.

The Kansas City Chiefs is with Cliff Whisler.
January 11, 2013 at 4:08 PM ·
Chiefs Name Bob Sutton as Defensive Coordinator -

He was just fine for the first 4 years. He doesn't know what to do without Poe, Houston, and Berry. Time for him to go away. But it wasn't a bad hire at the time.

I still don't really think he's BAD, per se, but he's gotten very stale. Like the situation with McCarthey or even Reid in Philadelphia, it is just time for a mutual parting of ways.

This was a good read. We made a good pitch to the best coach available. We drafted the superstar QB. Let's reap some rewards from those actions

Some of that maybe. I think he's one of those guys that needs an all-pro at every level to succeed, kind of like Gunther.

I've always been more of a "it's the players, not the coaching" person anyway but in this case, that certainly seems to be true. When Poe, Houston, and Berry were all in top shape, Sutton was lights out. They started to break down and so did his scheme. You can't build defenses like that, because the stars just don't align all that often.

Eight teams hired new coaches that cycle. The Chiefs moved first, and best. Reid is the only coach hired that offseason still with his team, and only the Patriots have won more games. Chiefs executives considered themselves lucky that Reid was available, the perfect man at the perfect time.

Pretty damn good run so far and it's only going to get better with Mahomes.

Yep. Dude had an all pro pass rusher, an all pro ILB, an all pro NT and an all pro at safety. That will mask a lot of scheme and talent issues for sure.

Right now, Reid is looking a lot like Marty and that's not a good thing honestly. The Chiefs have had tons of regular season success, now it's time for the postseason.

Fortunately. Andy has something now that neither Marty nor him have EVER had - Patrick Mahomes.

And just to be clear, I'm not busting on Reid. I love Andy Reid. Everybody knows I'm not fond of Marty.

Here's where Reid is different - he knew we needed Mahomes and he went out and got him. Marty would have replaced Alex Smith with another retread, he didn't value the QB position the same way Reid does.

I think a part of the problem is he expects the guys he has now to do what those guys did in their prime. It's asking a hell of a lot for players with inferior talent to do that.

Jarring, perhaps. But rarely false.

Yep. It's very difficult to expect players to completely change to fit a scheme. It's also very difficult to completely overhaul a scheme to fit certain players. There has to be some give and take.

With Bob, it seems to be his way or no way. It's the little things, like having a designated left and right CB. Why not just put your best guy on their best guy? Sometimes it's okay to do things different.

Anyway, the Raiders game was an improvement, let's hope it continues.

If he loses tomorrow, you won’t find a shred of love for him here on CP. and I suspect you’ll be ripping him too, like you did in the Balt game thread (which you were spot-on, by the way)

What other choice does he have?

Yup. Tomorrow is a monumental day for Andy.

This is not year 1, 2 or 3. It’s year 6. We’ve achieved our goals of making the playoffs and winning the division. Now it’s time to win playoff games.

If Andy can’t win even one playoff game with HFA and the best QB on the planet, then that should cast serious doubt on if he’ll ever be able to take us to the Super Bowl.

Make adjustments? Simplify the defense? When Ward is telling the public he hasn't played until week 16 because he was learning the complicated playbook there's a problem.

I certainly won't be happy if we lose, but I'll wait to see if Sutton sticks around before getting too crazy. If Sutton is gone, that tells me Andy at least knows what needs to be done (even if he's slow to do it).

Impossible to know if that would have fixed anything.

I'd take a chance on the unknown over this horrific defense we have now.

The time to do that was last offseason, unfortunately.

Can you imagine who Clark's second candidate was after Andy? That would have been terrible. Somewhere in an alternate plane that scenario exists and it probably brought the apocalypse down on Arrowhead.

The way Hunt was conducting himself at the time, I'm guessing his list had guys like Cowher on it. He was wanting something similar to the Marty years. He took a chance on Pioli and it go him burned badly.

Check out this article from right after Romeo was fired and the Chiefs began their HC search... talk about dodging a bullet:

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/8...cott-pioli-now

Yeah, I was pumped about it at the time. It is kind of funny that the Sutton thing had popped up on my FB memories for today. :D


This is why I don't get anyone ever saying that Clark has not tried, or spent the money, or doesn't care. Heck, even Pioli at the time was considered the best and most expensive available.

For some reason I remember us trying to go after Kirk Firentz

I think Andy has already put his foot down and that is why we saw the changes on D with Scandrik not playing the last two games, etc.

Maybe it is just me, but I think we saw some of the results against Oakland, and yeah I know they suck. But giving up 3 was a huge improvement.

Man, the football takes here have gone downhill like an avalanche.

Like 19/20 are dumb AF. Have to do a lot of digging anymore to learn anything. LMAO

He was rumored to be Fat Scott's first choice.

Thank God hiring Andy meant the shit canning of Fat Scott.

Maybe you would prefer an Adam Gase or Kliff Kingsbury?

Clark absolutely did the right thing by acting quickly and getting Reid in here.

This shouldnt even be an argument.

Its hilarious to me that Pioli had to go help hire the guy who would turn around and fire him.

ROFL

Fat Scott was just present to pick up the candy wrappers in the room after the marathon 9 hour meeting to interview/hire Andy.

If his team loses due to his flaws again you bet your ass I'm going to rip him without mercy.

Typing "full stop" is for blue checkmark Twitter bundle of stickss

That was more or less pioli's interview for Reid. Like a try out and he was cut

This is the stupidest thing I've read in a long time....

Cheeseburger wrappers.

Man you guys forget Herm Edwards....and Todd Haley....and Romeo Crennel so quick.

Reid isn't perfect but he's a HELLUVA lot better than what we had for years.

Herm. ROFL. Gonna fix that defense, not touch the offense. /CP


Herm being part of the Marty coaching bush had chiefs nation in an orgasmic tailspin.

Those guys also had reeruns for GMs. Andy had a stud. That’s a huge diff. Andy wouldn’t win with the garbage Pioli acquired. Maybe Andy has a big parry in that, maybe none (truth prob somewhere in between). But damn did Dorsey rebuild this roster. And if Veach is solely responsible for Mahomes - or even majority so - that’s another massive difference

His legacy will be determined tomorrow.

The "garbage" they acquired included Eric Berry, Justin Houston, and Dontari Poe, all of whom contributed to having a top scoring defense for 4 years in a row.

Alex Smith the great neutralizer.

It goes both ways. Dorsey acquired him. In fact, the current defense is largely in the state it's in because of John Dorsey and his inability to augment/replace guys Scott Pioli drafted.

So? They had top draft picks (Houston an exception and one of Piolis good moves, which were rare).


Dorsey doesn’t compare to those shmucks. And you know that.

The truth actually lies in the middle. And you know that.

I’m honestly curious at to what fortunes Fat Andy has changed for the Chiefs? 1-4 in the playoffs with #2 and #3 all time historical playoff losses.


How has he changed our fortune?

He hasn't gone 2-14.

You have to remember that to the vast majority of fans, being "good" is good enough.

Andy Reid basically took the Chiefs from 10 years of losing 65% of their games to winning 65% of their games. That's the kind of thing that gets Marty Schottenheimer WORSHIPED to this day. It's not good enough for some of us, but then again, we're not "average" fans.

I’m confused - the “truth” is halfway btw Pioli and Dorsey? I cannot agree.

The truth is Dorsey wasn't the best ever and Pioli wasn't the worst ever. You can say he had high picks, Dorsey had the #1 overall and walked away with a mediocre tackle. Both of them had hits and misses.

Feed troughs

I love all the food jokes. Scott Pioli was picking picking up burger wrappers for "Fat" Andy and such. It's like people actually read the article or something.

Fair point.

He gave Andy a sponge bath after the feasting:

No.

His legacy will be determined when either he or Patrick Mahomes is no longer with the franchise. If one of those guys leave and he still hasn't delivered a championship then he deserves all the criticism you could possibly throw at him.

Guilty. Don't get me wrong - I want to win a Super Bowl obviously. But I also realize that the NFL season is 5 months long, and I'd like to at least be somewhat entertained for 4 of them. If we can make the 5th one fun too, that'll be even better.

Well, I'm actually more like that now than I was before. I'd love to see them win it all but I just like watching this team play.

Mahomes is a salve that cures many ills. :)

Agreed.

My favorite thing about Pioli was all the trash talking he did about the Chiefs being 2-14 and in his time at the helm he created a team that went 2-14. LMAO

His masterpiece. What a chode.

I thought Pioli wasn’t allowed in the room when they were interviewing Reid. I thought he pulling security on the vehicles.

Hard to believe that it was 10 years ago on January 13th when the Chiefs hired Fat Scott.