Adam Teicher - Kingdom: How Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and the Kansas City Chiefs Returned to Super Bowl Glory

To my wife, Barbara, always my inspiration. To our daughter, Hannah, who is well on her way to conquering the world. To my mom and dad, who died way too early but will never be forgotten.

Contents

Foreword by Dick Vermeil

As one of the coaches who tried to get the Kansas City Chiefs to win a Super Bowl in between 1970 and 2020, nobody was happier to see them win it than I was. I know all the work that was put in by so many people for so many years to try to make it happen. No city deserved it more than Kansas City. I felt best for the Chiefs fans. Every team says it has the best fans. Every coach says that, every general manager says that, and every owner says that. But its tough to beat the people in Kansas City. Those fans are so loyal and theyre not quite as bitter when you lose. Theres a little higher degree of compassion within the personality profile of Midwestern people. I also coached the Philadelphia Eagles and I love the Philadelphia fans, but the fans in Kansas City didnt get quite as mad when the team loses.

One of the first people I thought of when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl was Lamar Hunt. He founded the franchise and the old American Football League and, of course, passed away in 2006. He would have responded more humbly than any other owner in the history of winning a championship. I dont think there would be anybody happier for the right reasons, starting with the fans but also including the people in the organization and the people who used to play or work for the organization.

I have a number of disappointments and things I dont feel I did well enough in the course of my career. We all do. But not being able to hand Lamar Hunt the Lamar Hunt Trophy as we moved on into the Super Bowl was the biggest disappointment in regard to my career. So many great things happened, but the icing on the cake would have been handing him that trophy with his name on it. I was very fortunate to develop a personal relationship with Lamar and I know that he appreciated my five years there very much. He was very open about it. I dont know how many coaches can really say that about someone they worked for in the National Football League. I can imagine how much he would appreciate the job that Andy Reid and his staff did.

I never felt Lamar questioned or second-guessed my approach to coaching. In fact, he told me many times he appreciated my leadership style, which made me feel good about it. There was a lot of support from him, and now I have two beautiful letters from Clark Hunt, his son and the Chiefs chairman since Lamars death, saying the same thing. So Lamar obviously passed along his personal feelings within his family. Im so happy for Clark that he hired Andy when he did, and that hes been as successful as he has with the Chiefs.

The Chiefs had some teams that were good enough to win the Super Bowl in between Super Bowl IV and Super Bowl LIV. Some of the teams that Marty Schottenheimer had in the 1990s were definitely good enough to win a Super Bowl. But unlike in Major League Baseball or the NBA, the playoffs are the best of one. One game eliminates you. There were a few times where his teams were good enough to get there and win it. They lost a lot of close games. They just couldnt get it done at the right time. I coached the Chiefs for five years. Our 2003 team, the only one of my teams to make the playoffs, wasnt quite good enough on defense to win a Super Bowl. We won the AFC West and got a first-round playoff bye, but we werent strong enough on defense to beat the Indianapolis Colts.

The best thing the Chiefs ever did was hire Andy in 2013. I talked to him when Clark contacted him about coaching the Chiefs. He asked me, What do you think?

I said, Take the job.

We were friends, and I had coached here for five years so I knew about the team and the organization. I told him it was a great place to work, that the Hunts were a great family to represent, that it was a great city to represent, and that it was a great city to live in. I think he was going to take the job anyway, but what I told him probably didnt hurt.

You cant buy Andys experience. Hes a humble guy and has a tremendous work ethic. The scheme he puts his quarterback in is extremely mature. Hes been able to increase the horsepower in it every year since hes been with the Chiefs. He makes it better by eliminating this and adding that. He had all of these great players like Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill and now he has a quarterback who has no limitation on what he can ask him to do. Those twoReid and Patrick Mahomesare a great match for one another.

I cant remember when I first met Andy, but Ive always followed closely the coaches who replaced me with the Eagles and tried to be very supportive because I know how tough that job is. I do remember coaching against him, and it was always a challenge. My teams played against his three times and I never won. During my Super Bowl-winning season with the St. Louis Rams in 1999, we went up to Philadelphia for the last game of the regular season, and his team scored 38 points against us. Then we lost to him twice when I was with the Chiefs. We had a good team in 2005 and had a 246 lead against them late in the first half. Then his quarterback, Donovan McNabb, threw three touchdown passes, and they came back to beat us. Andys team is never out of a game. You saw that in 2019 when they were down 24 points in their first playoff game, 10 points in their second playoff game, and then 10 points in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, and they won each time. On his gameplan cardI know this because Ive sat in on his offensive gameplan and quarterback meetingstheres something there for every situation. And then you can throw in Andys years of experience of when and how to use it. That part of it is important, too, and hes exceptional with that.

The thing about Andy as a coach that strikes you is how he keeps his emotions on an even plane. To be able to go through all the highs and lows that hes gone through all these years and still retain the same passion is remarkable. Coaching in the NFL is very difficult. Thats why I got out of it for 15 years after I left the Eagles. I can tell you better than anybody the toll it takes on you. Andy handles that better or as well as any coach Ive ever seen. I really admire him for that. Another thing that sets him apart is that hes got great intellectual humility. Hes not afraid to say, I dont know what I dont know and then ask somebody on his staff for help with that. Then, of course, Andy is the first one to give that coach the credit.

The Chiefs were good enough in 2018 to win a Super Bowl. They probably should have won it that year. Then you look at the things that happened in 2019. The New England Patriots were not the same team as the year before. The Baltimore Ravens may have been the best team in the NFL, but they got knocked out of the playoffs before the Chiefs had to play them. The Chiefs big offseason moveswhere they signed safety Tyrann Mathieu and traded for defensive end Frank Clarkworked out well. All of those things dont happen every year. So you had a feeling this might be their season. I started to wonder a little bit in the middle of the season when they hit a rough patch, but they came out of it just fine, and you had the feeling when the regular season ended that it was going to be their year.

I came to a Chiefs game late in the season. They played the Denver Broncos at Arrowhead Stadium so I came in a couple of days early. Andy invited me to talk to the team. I went to a team meeting, an offensive meeting, the quarterback meeting, and practice. So I got a pretty good behind-the-scenes look at the operation. No ones doing it any better than Andy does it.