By Sean Graney
Medill Reports
LAS VEGAS – Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid officially entered elite NFL company after his team’s come-from-behind overtime victory in Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Reid stepped to the podium at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center for a news conference the day after the Super Bowl and had fun with reporters as he confirmed he will keep coaching.
“Yeah, I am,” Reid said. “To hang with you.”
Now entering his 26th season as an NFL head coach, the 65-year-old Reid pushed back on questions regarding the future and “riding into the sunset” following another Chiefs Super Bowl title, their third in five seasons, and said he still was astonished at what his players were able to accomplish in the game itself.
“I haven’t even thought about it, but I get asked it,” Reid said. “I’m still kind of in awe at the game and what went on there. I’m the old guy now, so I guess I’m going to be asked that. …I really haven’t gone there. I haven’t really thought about it.”
In Sunday’s win over the 49ers, the Chiefs entered the history books by becoming the eighth NFL franchise to win back-to-back Super Bowls.
“It’s history,” Reid said. “How you write it will be how you write it. Whether it’s a dynasty, we don’t determine if it’s a dynasty, but I would tell you that it’s as fine a group as I’ve been around. I’ve been very fortunate to be around some great organizations, good teams, and this group here and the organization are tremendous. If somebody said dynasty and tagged it on to it, I’d be very proud of that.”
The Chiefs have executed at an extraordinary level when their backs are against the wall in big moments, and Sunday was no different. Kansas City overcame a 10-point deficit for the third consecutive Super Bowl and the second time against San Francisco in the big game.
Reid credited his team’s star players with keeping the mentality strong.
“They see it, they know what they have to do and they never doubt themselves, and it helps that this guy over here is on our team,” Reid said, gesturing toward Patrick Mahomes, who was on hand Monday as the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player. “He sets such a positive attitude for everybody in between. Patrick, (Travis) Kelce (and) Chris Jones, I mean, I can name a bunch of them, there’s never any finger-pointing.
“There’s never any doubt. And we went in at halftime down by seven and the guys go … we’re right there, we just need to take care of business,” Reid said. “We shot ourselves in the foot a little bit in the first half offensively, but the defense kept us going. That’s a little bit of a microcosm of the season.”
Super Bowl LVIII marked the first time the newly revamped NFL overtime rules came into effect after a back-and-forth heavyweight battle between the Chiefs and 49ers resulted in a 19-19 tie at the end of the fourth quarter.
Reid gave credit to the Chiefs coaching staff and players for the overtime execution to secure the win but acknowledged Kansas City was well-prepared heading into Sunday. The 49ers won the toss and elected to receive the kickoff, a tactic that backfired after they settled for a field goal on their drive, allowing the Chiefs to win the game with a touchdown drive.
“We had it all mapped out,” Reid said. “We were able to cover it with the guys, so everybody knew. It can go either way. But the one thing it does is it gives you an opportunity to see what you got to do. And they came down, scored three points. You either got to score three or you got to get a touchdown.”
Mahomes’ greatness was exemplified in the moments that mattered most down the stretch, and Reid praised his superstar quarterback and the way he plays the game of football.
“He makes it look easy,” he said. “He’s out there playing like he’s playing in the backyard, like it’s nothing. From a head-coaching standpoint, a guy that works with offensive guys, (that’s) all you can ask for.”
On the doorstep of history, Reid pushed back on any three-peat talks and made it clear he is focused on the nitty-gritty of the NFL offseason and eyeing ways to make the Kansas City Chiefs a better football team.
“A neat thing to do, but you don’t really go there when you’re in this thing,” Reid said. “You go back to your dark room and the film and the draft coming up and the combine, all those things, that’s kind of where you go. You’re not talking three-peat.
Sean Graney is a sports media graduate student at Medill. You can follow him on X @SeannGraney and Instagram @Seann.graney.
