Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid answers questions from media during the press conference at Arrowhead Stadium. (Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)
Remember those breathless reports after Andy Reid was fired as coach of the Eagles that he was 95 percent certain to become coach of the Arizona Cardinals?
Well, here’s the real story. After Kansas City Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt had fired coach Romeo Crennel, he learned that Reid had officially been let go. Hunt wasted no time. He phoned Reid in his office, where he was after a team meeting.
Said Reid, “When the Hunt family calls, you answer. There are certain families in this league that stand out. The Hunt family is just tops. They are phenomenal people.”
Meanwhile, Reid won’t have total control of football decisions, as had been originally reported, but he, of course, will work closely with whoever the Chiefs hire as general manager.
Reid also dismissed the suggestion that he might have sat out the year and still collected his $5 million salary.
“I’m ready to go now,” he said. “This is what I do, so I’m ready to go. I never took that into consideration.”
Hunt acknowledged that was “one of the big questions” he had, as it related to how passionate Reid would be about coaching this year. Hunt said, “I had a sense from speaking to him on the phone that he was pretty fired up and ready to go. He came into the interview with much more energy than I anticipated.”
Pencil in this Draft Pick
The Bills have a decision to make on the future of quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, but even before the decision was made to fire coach Chan Gailey, the organization had gone on record saying they would be looking for a quarterback in the draft.
Now, after the hiring of Doug Marrone as head coach and Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator, it’s very clear who the pick will be as long as some other team doesn’t grab him first. At Syracuse, Marrone and Hackett coached Ryan Nassib (6-3, 227), who became the school’s passing leader with 9,194 yards (passing Donovan McNabb) and has the second-most touchdown passes with 70.
Bills general manager Buddy Nix said, “Nassib, we were looking at him for quite a while. He’s one of the quarterbacks out there that’s going to be drafted and we’ll be interested in.”
By the way, there is a delicious irony regarding the future of Fitzpatrick. His agent, Jimmy Sexton, also represents Marrone.
That Dream Job
After Arizona Cardinals vice president of player personnel Steve Keim was named the team’s general manager recently, Keim told reporters a story about his formative years.
He said, “I told my mother when I was nine years old that I wanted to be an NFL general manager. She sort of snickered and told me, ‘If you only worked on your math and your science as hard as you did on knowing these players, you may end up being successful.'”
As for what motivates him, he related two divergent occasions in club history.
“One is obviously the day that I stood on the field in 2008 when we won the NFC championship and all that confetti was sticking to my sweaty head,” he said. “The other thought that drives me is when I was sitting at our game in Seattle this year and we lost 58-0, and making a pact with myself that that will never happen again.
Break up the Colts
After an 11-win season, Indianapolis vice president of football operations has left for the San Diego Chargers to be their general manager, and there’s a chance offensive coordinator Bruce Arians could become a head coach
Colts quarterback Andrew Luck joked recently that he would say bad things about Arians if he were asked for a recommendation. Asked about Luck’s comments, head coach Chuck Pagano laughingly said, “We talked about that, last time putting the (halt) on him, put the kibosh on him. We won’t get into those right now. We will just use social media. We will get on the Internet. Just like they do around draft time with all the players, all the baggage starts to come out.
“We won’t do it here. We will just wait until later this evening, the next couple of weeks and start putting all that stuff out if it gets serious.”
In all seriousness, Luck said of Arians, “In my mind, he’s coach of the year. I think as a young quarterback, the development, the trust he showed, putting the young guys out on the field was great to play. You could play confident, you could play comfortable because you know he trusts you. He as much as any other guy gave us chances to win. I’ll be forever grateful for this great season with him.”
Winless Postseason
After their loss to Houston, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis’ record dropped to 0-4 in the post-season. That ties him with Jim Mora Sr. for the most playoff losses on one team without a victory. Lewis has coached 164 games in Cincinnati, and if they make the playoffs and lose next year (or don’t make the playoffs), he would pass Mora for the most games with one team without a postseason win (Mora is at 171) and Norm Van Brocklin (173) for most games overall without a playoff victory.
Asked about that, Lewis laughed and said, “I just can’t wait to get off your next list that you put before me. I’m going to look forward to next season so I can get off that list for you. You just keep building the lists and we’ll keep knocking them down. I thought we had this one knocked down, and I was looking forward to knocking down that one for you. You guys always seem to find the negative of things, and I’ll keep trying to look for the positives.”
The Quote
Speaking of “95-percent certainty,” that claim was also floated in recent weeks regarding the chances of Jets quarterback Tim Tebow ending up in Jacksonville. At his coming-out press conference Jan. 10, new Jaguars general manager David Caldwell said of Tebow, “I can’t imagine a scenario where he’d be a Jacksonville Jaguar.”
On not making the playoffs this season, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin called the emptiness indescribable and added, “I can’t even describe how it hurts. I don’t know what to do. I’m walking around here like a crazy man. We shouldn’t be doing this right now.”
