NEW ORLEANS – Just in case the notion needed to be laid to rest, Andy Reid and Clark Hunt this week at the Super Bowl buried the notion that the 66-year-old head coach plans to retire anytime soon.
“I don’t have a sense that he’s remotely close to wanting to be done,” Hunt said. “You know, I think he’s always said that he’ll know when, when the time is right, and I’m sure he’ll share with me before he shares it with everyone else. At least I hope so. But I don’t sense that he’s anywhere close to being done.”
Hunt’s remarks echo his comments after the team’s win over Buffalo in the AFC Championship game when he said Reid was “excited about the challenge of coming back next year.”
“We have talked about it, and I think he’s been public about it as well, about coming back,” Hunt said Tuesday. “So feel very confident.”
Reid himself had a short answer when asked about the potential of riding into the sunset with a fourth Super Bowl title in six seasons with a victory on Sunday.
“I’m not there yet,” Reid said. “No.”
The reality is that Reid has never seriously considered retiring in recent years. An offhand joke from the sometimes dry humor coach sparked the speculation at Super Bowl LVII two years ago. Rumormongers have continued to keep the story alive for reasons only they can explain.
More evidence Reid doesn’t plan to retire soon: in April he signed a contract extension running through 2029 that also made him the highest-paid coach in the NFL.
Will that end the clickbait headlines? Probably not but the Chiefs know their coach isn’t going anywhere.
Chiefs Fans “Spoiled” After Drought
It’s not lost on Hunt that today’s Chiefs fans enjoy a much different experience than they suffered through for the previous half-century.
“I would say every Chiefs fan is spoiled, and that includes me, right?” Hunt said. “Because it has been such a special five or six years, and I think we know we’re spoiled because of the journey, that it took to get to this point in the five decades that we went without getting back to the Super Bowl.”
The success of the Chiefs has also fueled its share of backlash against the Chiefs. The most frequently asked question to Chiefs personnel this week centered on the allegation that the team has benefitted from favorable calls by officiating crews. Hunt sees a similarity in that complaint with another dynasty.
“We had the experience with that firsthand as a family with the Chicago Bulls back in the ’90s, the two three-peats,” Hunt explained. “There are a lot of fans, other than in Chicago, thought that Michael was getting some calls that he shouldn’t be getting, but they were always going his way. And I think now you can look back and say, no, the reason the Bulls were great was Michael was the greatest player of all time.”
Does Hunt believe that Mahomes is the Jordan of the NFL?
“I think you’d have a hard time arguing that he’s not right?” Hunt said. “And, you know, not knock on wood, I think he’s got a lot of years left to play in the NFL and continue to enhance his what’s already Pro Football Hall of Fame credentials.
Searching for Patrick Mahomes
Recent successes haven’t caused Hunt to lose sight of the fact that his franchise went more than 60 years without drafting a franchise quarterback. The Chiefs acquired Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson as a free agent, and while they drafted Todd Blackledge No. 7 overall in 1983, they saw Jim Kelly, Tony Eason, Ken O’Brien and Dan Marino go later in the first round. Blackledge went 15-14 as a starter while throwing fewer touchdowns (29) than interceptions (38).
“I think it’s easy to look back now and say, ‘Why in the world didn’t we draft a young quarterback who could become a franchise quarterback?’” Hunt said. “I mean, it’s crazy to think about before Patrick, we maybe had one young franchise quarterback, and Len. Len wasn’t that at the beginning of his career when he came to the Chiefs so I’m not even sure he really qualifies in the same way.”
Hunt credit to Andy Reid, former general manager John Dorsey and current general manager Brett Veach for having the foresight to make a big move to acquire the draft pick when there wasn’t a consensus Mahomes would go in the top 10 of the 20217 NFL Draft.
One NFL scouting report read that Mahomes would “drive his head coach crazy for the first couple of years and there is no getting around that.” Two mock drafts had him going in the second and third rounds while the consensus mock draft projected him at No. 19 overall.
“I think people have forgotten now that not everybody agreed that Patrick was a complete shoo-in as a franchise quarterback,” Hunt said. “You know, a lot of people thought he maybe should have gone the second round as opposed to the 10th overall pick.
Three years before the Chiefs drafted Mahomes, the club held the No. 23 choice in the first round. The Philadelphia Eagles, coincidentally, were on the clock at No. 22 when a trade jumped the Cleveland Browns in front of Kansas City to select Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.
Could the Chiefs have given Johnny Football a chance to be their franchise quarterback?
“He was somebody that we considered, but I would say he was not a high priority,” Hunt said.
New Addition to the Team
What’s the best time to start a new job? How about when your first day of work is at the Super Bowl in New Orleans?
That’s the case of David Higdon, the Chiefs new executive vice president of communications. Higdon filled the space left in the organization when Ted Crews, who formerly held that title, left for the position of special advisor to Bears President/CEO Kevin Warren and also chief administrative officer.
“Ted moved on to the Chicago Bears, we felt like we didn’t want to have an exact replacement for Ted,” Hunt said. “We wanted to maybe elevate the position. The business with every passing decade becomes more complex. A lot of what we’re focused on now is figuring out how to grow the brand internationally. And that’s something that David had some experience with. So we really felt that he was the right guy.”
Higdon most recently served as global head of communications for esports at Riot Games, the publisher of League of Legends, the world’s most popular esport. He has also served as chief communications officer for the LPGA Tour, senior vice president of communication at the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and vice president of integrated marketing communications for NASCAR.
While Crews oversaw all communications initiatives, Higdon will focus primarily on non-football endeavors including the team’s other various business ventures, civic affairs, community outreach, international brand marketing, and legislative affairs. He’s expected to play a significant role in the team’s communication strategy regarding the future of GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
