Andy Reid, the most underrated coach of this era, gets an extension
Somewhere along the line everyone decided that the value of each player and coach is based solely on Super Bowl wins. It has gotten so bad, some people really think making it to a Super Bowl and losing is worse than not getting there at all (check out the Tom Brady vs. “4-0!” Joe Montana arguments, though those seem to be dead after Super Bowl LI).
Andy Reid doesn’t have a ring. All Reid does is win a ton of his games and carry his teams further than they should reasonably go. He got to the Super Bowl once with the Philadelphia Eagles, something they had only done once before and haven’t done since. But he hasn’t won it all. Because so much of the conversation around the NFL (and sports in general, really) has been dumbed down to “rings or you stink,” Reid doesn’t get the due he deserves.
The Kansas City Chefs understand Reid is one of the best, and they’re going to keep him around a while. The team announced an extension for Reid on Thursday (and in a shocker, they also announced they’re parting ways with general manager John Dorsey after the season).
It’s a four-year extension for Reid, according to USA Today’s Tom Pelissero.
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“My family and I have been very pleased by the success the franchise has sustained over the last four seasons under Coach Reid,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said in a statement. “He has already established himself as one of the best coaches in the league, and he is well on his way to solidifying a place among the all-time greats. We are proud to have him leading our football team, and I look forward to working with him to bring a championship to Chiefs Kingdom.”
What has Reid done since joining the Chiefs? He took over a team that went 2-14 the year before and had the toughest season in franchise history. He arrived at a time when the Chiefs had the first pick … in one of the worst drafts in recent memory (2013 first pick Eric Fisher has been OK at tackle, but it’s not like there was an Andrew Luck falling in Reid’s lap). He took a team that has the much-maligned Alex Smith at quarterback and won 67.2 percent of his games with four straight winning seasons and three playoff berths. Not bad.
No, he hasn’t won a ring. And if you haven’t already, I’ll pause here and let you tell your best Reid two-minute drill joke … ah, haha, good one. But aside from a chosen few, Reid is as good as they come. Reid is 173-114-1 in his career. That’s a .602 winning percentage. There have been 18 men in the 97-year history of the NFL to coach more than 150 games and win 60 percent of them, and Reid is in that group.
Reid won’t get his due until he wins a Super Bowl, because that’s just how it goes in 2017. But the Chiefs understand he’s one of the best.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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