We are now only one week from the NFL season kicking off with a Thursday Night Football matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions.
It could really be any matchup and I would be tuning in. I’m not sure I’ve ever been this excited for professional football to return, and this story from the legendary Chiefs head coach that has gone viral gets me pumped up even more.
Everyone loves behind-the-scenes looks into the NFL, with shows like Netflix’s Quarterback and HBO’s Hard Knocks giving inside access to the processes of NFL players and teams. Millions of people love to watch football on Sundays, and many of those individuals also like to find out more about what makes professional players and coaches tick.
Three-time Super Bowl winning coach Andy Reid was being interviewed on the podcast Green Light with Chris Long and revealed a somewhat shocking story about how he and his coaching staff come up with plays.
During the conversation, Long asked the Kansas City Chiefs head coach:
“You look everywhere though. High school, college. I mean, at least I’ve heard rumors that you’ve got guys that go down to the bottom of the ranks to find new concepts and things you might want to go with. Have you ever actually taken something from high school?”
It was almost as if Andy Reid had been waiting for this question his entire life. His face lit up and he excitedly responded:
“Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I took one from a janitor one time at Green Bay…We had a janitor. It was a mom and pop group that cleaned our facility forever, and then they worked game day.
And, you know, this guy kept telling me, he was the owner of the company, the father of the family, and he goes ‘I’ve got this play for you.’ He kept telling me this over and over.”
Shoutout to the janitor who had the cajones to approach someone who is often considered an offensive mastermind with a play of his own. You have to be pretty confident in the play to pester Andy Reid about it, and as it turns out, it wasn’t all that bad. Reid continued:
“Finally I said ‘Here’s a card, draw up the play.’ And he drew up the play and I go ‘Dang, that’s pretty good.’ We called the play just before halftime and it scored.
He starts hitting his wife and going ‘That’s my play! That’s my play!’ And she was going ‘Yeah right, sure it is.’
But, you know, we’ll take it from anywhere.”
Just goes to show you that you never know when you are going to “get your shot.” I’d like to think that Andy Reid just goes around now and asks every janitor he comes in contact with if they have any plays. Maybe that’s how the Chiefs keep their offensive play-calling so fresh and clean…
Take a look at the clip from the interview:
