Whether Andy Reid beats his former team and wins his second Super Bowl with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, he belongs in Canton, and not only because just four coaches in NFL history have won more games.
For two NFL franchises, first the Eagles and now the Chiefs, he has been More Than A Coach, more than a jolly, round, mustachioed figure who jokes about his love for cheeseburgers, more than a Profile in Courage for masking the pain of having one son perish at 29 from an accidental heroin overdose and another currently in prison for a DUI that critically injured a 5-year-old girl.
You can ask any of his players, past and present, why Andy Reid is More Than A Coach, but just make sure you ask Fox Sports Analyst Michael Vick.
“When I met Andy,” Vick told The Post, “I didn’t have anything. I won’t say anything, I just had my family. I had my family and a sense of hope that I can do it all over again, and I only told two people this post-incarceration — I told two people that I just needed another opportunity, a second chance. I told my wife and I told Andy. When he brought me in I told him I just needed one shot at it. And he gave me that shot.”
It was less than three months after Vick had left the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., in May 2009 after serving 19 months for financing a dogfighting conspiracy when Reid gave him a second chance at an NFL career that most — including the Falcons, for whom he had played six seasons — did not feel he deserved … and a second chance at life.
Andy Reid embraces Eagles quarterback Michael Vick after the game in 2018. AP
“Coach knew everything that was going on in my life: from bankruptcy, to who my lawyers were, who I was dealing with,” Vick recalled. “He just always never let any stones unturned with me. He always wanted me to check in with him, and let him know where I was at in life, and just wanted to guide me in the right direction.”
Reid’s quarterbacks, Donovan McNabb and Kevin Kolb, embraced Vick. The City of Brotherly Love embraced Vick.
“He went over all the parameters, all the expectations, my responsibility,” Vick said. “Not just as a player, but as a leader in the locker room. It was more so, ‘We got a young locker room and young guys who are gonna be looking up to you and watching your every move. Just be cognizant of that all the time.’ I didn’t understand that role or that concept when I was in Atlanta. He instantly made me one of the guys, and it made me comfortable.”
Andy Reid and Michael Vick with the Eagles in 2009. Getty Images
More Than A Coach.
“He believes in people, and he gives you opportunity regardless of where you come from, what you look like,” Vick said. “He’s always been that way. He’s just a guy who was always open, always candid, cared about us as players, cared about us as men. And as long as you give him the proper respect, he’ll give you the respect you deserve and that’s all you can ask for in a man. Fell in love with him the first time I met him.”
And so Vick, given a one-year deal with an option, began the uphill climb to get back up off the canvas and rehabilitate his image and prove that he was more than a Wildcat quarterback at age 29.
“I think he brought me in to play at some point,” Vick said. “Or, if not to play, to be competition to those that were in the quarterback room, respectfully, and that’s what I wanted to bring. He gave me a chance, paid me good money — money I thought that I wouldn’t get.”
And after Reid traded McNabb to the Redskins in April 2010, Kolb suffered a concussion in the regular-season opener and Reid named Vick his Week 2 starter.
“He called me to his office once a week, even when I wasn’t playing,” Vick said. “One thing about him, you want to be around Andy cause he’s gonna make you laugh, continuously.”
Just prior to the 2011 season, Vick was rewarded with a six-year, $100 million contract, with $40 million guaranteed.
Andy Reid watches Michael Vick throw during their time together in Philadelphia. AP
“We all face adversity in life,” Vick said, “and to have somebody be there for you to help you get through it, that’s what’s most important. I was there for Coach at times and Coach was always there for me in that short period of time together. Coach always tells me he wishes he had me when I was young. I wish he did too. I love watching him and [Mahomes].”
Vick was there on Aug. 5, 2012 when Andy Reid learned one fateful Sunday morning that Garrett Reid, who had been assisting the Eagles strength coaches, was tragically found in his Lehigh University dormitory room.
“We tried to let Coach handle it the best way he could,” Vick said. “I just wanted Coach to be OK with everything he was going through. It had been a rough year for me, I had lost two family members that year also, so we were all kinda going through the same thing. Andy knew about what I was going through and then it happened with him. I watched him be a strong man, and continue to try to lead us as men the best way he could.”
The Eagles went 4-12 in 2012 and Reid’s 14-year Eagles career ended. Vick was 20-20 with the Eagles and lost in the 2010 NFC wild-card game to Aaron Rodgers. By 2014, he was a Jet.
Andy Reid embraces Michael Vick. AP
“My career with the Eagles should have been better,” Vick said. “I could have stayed focused a little more and definitely worked a little harder, especially when we were having our rough years. It was a great run, it was a great ride, and when Andy left I was just sad. When Coach left, I was different. I was a little bitter. I hated the way Coach was kinda treated a little bit.”
When Reid finally won that elusive first Super Bowl championship over the 49ers, before losing the next year to Tom Brady and the Bucs, Vick remembers telling him: “Nobody can never say that you’re not a champion.” Nobody should have anyway. “To get that second ring, that’s gonna be even better than the first,” Vick said.
Mahomes gives Reid that chance. And vice versa.
“I used to be so excited on Tuesday night when my game plan used to be faxed to the house,” Vick said. “And just looking at it, I know what he was thinking, I know why this play is here. … I could look at the game plan and see three touchdowns.”
Michael Vick at the 2023 Pro Bowl Getty Images
Every text he sends to his old coach will read “I love you,” and he will tell him that on every call as well. Britt Reid was sentenced to three years in prison on Nov. 1. He was training camp coordinator intern the summer his father gave Vick a new lease on football … and life.
“Yes, my heart bleeds for Andy always,” Vick said. “I know that’s a difficult situation to go through as a parent. Coach pours into the people that’s around him, he pours into Patrick, he pours into [Travis] Kelce, he pours into every single man on that roster, every single person in that building. … He leans on them for support just like they lean on him. He’s in the Super Bowl, and so he’s pouring into his kids on the field, and his players, they belong to him. You ask him that, he’ll tell you — ‘These are my guys.’ ”
And he is theirs.
“If you have a son or daughter, and you’re looking for a role model, you’re looking for a great mentor, read Andy’s bio and look into Andy Reid’s background if you’re gonna want a coach like Andy,” Vick said.
“He’s not just a coach. He’s a coach in life. In sports and life. And we can’t ask for too much more than that.”
More Than A Coach.