Chiefs' Reid to return in 2025
Kelce also expects to play a few more seasons.
NEW ORLEANS – Last year in Las Vegas, there were rumblings all week that Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was considering retirement.
Of course, that proved to be unfounded.
This year, any such talk was put to bed early when owner Clark Hunt said Monday night, “I know for a fact he’ll be back next season.”
“Yes, I’ll be back,” Reid confirmed the next day while insisting it has nothing to do with trying to become the winningest coach in league history.
“That’s not part of it,” Reid said. “I just enjoy teaching. I don’t get caught up much in the stats or the records. I enjoy being around the guys. I enjoy football, the game. You can’t put in the hours we do and not enjoy it. I love the game.”
What about Kelce?
The Super Bowl will be the final game of tight end Travis Kelce’s 12th season and he said this week retiring isn’t on his mind.
“Where will I be in three years? Hopefully still playing football,” he said. “I love doing this. I love coming into work every day. I feel like I still got a lot of good football left in me. We’ll see what happens. I know I’ve been setting myself up for other opportunities in my life.
“That’s always been the goal, knowing that football only lasts for so long. You’ve got to find a way to get into another career, another profession. I’ve been doing that in my offseasons. But for the most part, I’m planning on being a Kansas City Chief and playing football.”
Kelce also had high praise for Reid, who was hired two months before he was selected in the third round of the 2013 draft. Kelce said his brother Jason, who played for Reid with the Eagles, got in touch quickly.
“I got a heads-up from my brother,” Travis said. “My brother was with him in Philly for a couple years. The biggest thing is, my brother was like, ‘Take advantage of the opportunity. He’s an unbelievable coach, he’s a players’ coach, but at the same time he’s gonna hold you accountable.’ I think the first year to two years I was with Coach Reid, I was like, ‘Man this guy’s not messing around.’
“There wasn’t too much of the personality that I see now. Now he’s like a father figure to me, like one of my uncles growing up that I respect so much because of who he is. I owe everything to that man in my career, where it’s gone. Where I was (in college) at Cincinnati and where I am now, I have nothing but respect for Coach Reid and how he’s helped me get to where I am in my life.”
Bad memories for Mahomes
On Wednesday this week, quarterback Patrick Mahomes was asked to name a game he’s played that keeps him up at night.
He answered quickly: “The Super Bowl versus Tampa. That’s pretty easy.”
The Chiefs lost 31-9 four years ago and Mahomes was running for his life most of the game, mostly due to the absence of left tackle Eric Fisher and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz. Fisher was injured in the AFC Championship Game, while Schwartz played only six games that season because of a back injury.
The tackles that day were Mike Remmers on the left side and Andrew Wylie on the right.
Mahomes was sacked three times and hit another nine, as the Chiefs totaled 350 yards on 69 plays (5.1 average). He completed 26 of 49 passes for 270 yards with no touchdowns, two interceptions and a 52.3 passer rating.
It goes to show that in a quarterback-driven league, there is still a lot that has to be right elsewhere for there to be success.
As Reid said of Eagles general manager Howie Roseman this week, “He believes in the offensive, defensive line. You start there and if they’re not functioning right your team’s not functioning right. That’s the way he’s built that team and you can see that in their strengths there.”
Full circle for Hunt
Forgive Kareem Hunt if he often feels like pinching himself.
A third-round pick by the Chiefs in 2017, the running back was released during the 2018 season after video surfaced of him pushing and kicking a woman in the hallways of a Cleveland hotel.
He was signed by the Cleveland Browns and then suspended for the first eight games of the 2019 season. He was with the Browns through the 2023 season and then became an unrestricted free agent in March, 2024.
But the phone didn’t ring until Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco suffered a broken leg and was placed on injured reserve Sept. 18. Hunt was signed to the practice squad that day and then to the active roster six days later.
“I’m grateful to have a second chance (with the Chiefs),” Hunt said this week. “Redemption means something to me. I’ve got to make the most of it now.”
He certainly has after wondering if any team would be interested.
“I would be lying if I said those thoughts didn’t go through my head a little bit,” he said. “But I just always had faith and I was like, somebody is going to need a running back here soon. I just had to keep grinding. Not being able to go to training camp, already I was behind the ball. I just kept working hard.
“I was working out like I was going to get an opportunity to come in and play somewhere. This is my second year in a row not having a training camp or OTAs or anything like that. I feel like I get behind the ball early, and then it takes me a few weeks to get going. It’s hard.”
With Pacheco back playing, Hunt has been productive and could be an X-factor in Sunday’s game.
During the regular season, he rushed for 728 yards and seven touchdowns in 13 games and in two playoff games added 108 yards and another two scores.
DHop also hits paydirt
Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins sent thanks to the Tennessee Titans for being where he is now with a chance to earn a Super Bowl ring.
After being released by the Arizona Cardinals in May of 2023, Hopkins signed with the Titans and that’s where he was in October as frustration was growing.
Hopkins told the media Monday night he took himself out of an Oct. 20 game against the Buffalo Bills because of that frustration.
“We lost to the Bills and there was a lot of stuff in the media saying I got benched,” Hopkins said. “You know I’m not the type to go on social media and speak my truth or speak what happened, because I feel like everything always kind of passes. I didn’t get benched. But that was the first time in my career where I was like, ‘Man, I don’t belong out here on this field right now.’ We weren’t winning. No plays were being called for me. Not that I’m a player that ever needs the ball, but on the field, I want to be included in something.”
Hopkins said the next day he went to then-general manager Ran Carthon’s office and explained, “I was like, ‘Man, I’m almost losing love for this game being in this situation.’ I could talk to Ran like that, because he understands me. He said, ‘Man, I see it in your eyes. I see it that this isn’t a place where you might want to be.’ We had that tough conversation, and the next day I got traded to the Chiefs.”