Andy Reid – a former BYU football player and coach – is celebrating a birthday today. The head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs turned 59.
Andy Reid spent three years under LaVell Edwards as an offensive lineman for BYU football, lacing up cleats from 1978-1980.
The next year, in 1981 Reid traded pads for a clipboard, becoming an assistant in the massive and impressive LaVell Edwards coaching tree.
According to a 2005 story from the Deseret News, Reid never considered coaching until Edwards asked him about it.
“Have you thought about being a coach? You’d be a good one,” Edwards told Reid.
Fast forward nearly 40 years, and Reid is one of the more successful coaches in the NFL.
After finishing up with BYU football, Reid spent nearly a decade as an offensive line coach in the college ranks. In 1992, he was hired as an assistant coach by the Green Bay Packers and worked closely with Mike Holmgren (another member of the Edwards coaching tree).
Reid was next hired by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999. The Eagles went 5-11 in his first year, then improved drastically.
Philly won at least 11 games in each of the next five seasons, capped off with a 13-3 record and Super Bowl 39 appearance.
Things eventually soured in Philadelphia though. Reid was fired after the 2012 season in which the Eagles went 4-12.
About one week later, he was the head coach of Kansas City.
In four seasons with the Chiefs, Reid is 43-21, with three playoff appearances.
Overall, Reid is 173-114 in his career. His ‘troubles’ have come in the postseason, where he’s just 11-12.
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While Reid was one of many coaches to come from the tutelage of the BYU football legend, Reid himself has an impressive coaching tree. Reid has worked with nine different assistants that have gone on to become head coaches, including four that are still active (John Harbaugh, Ron Rivera, Todd Bowles, Doug Pederson, Sean McDermott).
Happy Birthday, Coach.