By MICHAEL CAPRIO
MIAMI – After 21 long years of searching for a Vince Lombardi Trophy to fill the one blemish on his illustrious resume, Andy Reid finally captured the lost piece to the puzzle with the Kansas City Chiefs recent Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
It wasn’t looking promising at Hard Rock Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday as the Chiefs entered the fourth quarter trailing by ten 10 points. The pressure started to mount on Reid: Was he going to lose the big game again like he did in 2004?
After QB Patrick Mahomes threw a late fourth quarter interception as they were driving to cut into the lead, it looked as if Reid was snake-bitten when it came to winning the big one. Then the script started to turn, as the team began to rally back in an unprecedented comeback from behind victory led by Mahomes, who looked miserable through the first three quarters.
“I think it pushed his status to that of a Hall of Fame coach,” said lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan Mark Cook,23 of Hopatcong. “While his time in Philly was long, he showed a history of success but never finishing. It’s nice to see he’s learned from his past mistakes.”
Two Decades of Success
Reid coached for 14 seasons as the Eagles head coach, and reached the Super Bowl in 2004 only to lose to the New England Patriots. Reid was the most successful head coach to never win a Super Bowl prior to this past weekend. His 207 career regular season wins and his 14 playoff wins are the most by a head coach to never win a Super Bowl. Reid has been such a successful coach in the NFL that he has coached for 21 straight seasons for only two different teams.
Reid is one of the most well-respected coaches around the league, and despite some shortcomings in Philly, fans still showed him love and respect for him for finally getting his long lost Lombardi Trophy.
“I can only vouch as an Eagle fan but only the toughest people with the biggest hearts can coach that team, lead them to conference championships year after year, lose, and still be one of the best strategic coaches in the game,” said Eagle fan Rebecca Perry, 21 of Riverside. “For a guy who’s been in the game for so long he deserved this win, who knows maybe it was the teams holding him back in Philly.”
The Eagles organization showed their respect to Reid by congratulating him in a tweet. Fans also took to social media to show their support for coach Reid after getting the monkey off his back. Eagles fans who can be known for being classless at times, showed great respect to the coach who led their team for 14 years. It also helps Eagles fans now that they finally got their first Super Bowl championship in 2018.
Time’s yours, Andy. pic.twitter.com/aEiv5qiZNp
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 3, 2020
Reid is now sixth in All Time Wins for an NFL Head Coach, and this Lombardi trophy solidifies his Hall of Fame resume. This isn’t the end of the line yet for coach Reid. With a young quarterback in Patrick Mahomes who has had the best start in NFL history to his career, becoming the first quarterback to win MVP and Super Bowl MVP in his first two seasons on the field.
With the most important piece in the NFL locked up in Mahomes, the team is filled with young talent. This young talent has the Chiefs talking about a potential dynasty in the making, that could make Reid a top coach in NFL history.
“You get one, you want to go get another one. But we’ve got to backpedal for about a minute and enjoy this one and then we’ll get busy on the next one.”said Reid in an press conference following the big win.
The Kansas City Chiefs open at 6-1 favorites to repeat next season.
Really nice story of Andy Reid and his first ever Super Bowl win as a head coach. I liked that the story focused entirely on Reid and stressed the importance of him winning after such a long time as a head coach. It stays on the central topic throughout the story.
I liked how the story gave good background on Reid’s career and had good quotes from Eagles fans. One thing that could be added are quotes from Chiefs fans, even if you had to get the quotes from other publications it would be nice to have the opinion from two sets of fans.