Andy Reid gets last laugh against Eagles in Super Bowl LVII

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — For close to a quarter-century, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has been among the best in the NFL, but we might be adding the word ‘history’ to that distinction before long.

After all, his 38-35 win over the Philadelphia Eagles marked his second Super Bowl win in four attempts, something not seen in your average, run-of-the-mill NFL head coach. To add a bit of irony – and sweetness for Reid – the victory in Super Bowl LVII came against the very team who kicked him to the curb following the 2012 season.

Looking back, that move is starting to look dumber and dumber, isn’t it?

See, the Eagles needed a re-build after sliding to 4-12 during Reid’s last season in the City of Brotherly Love. Gone were the days of quarterback Donovan McNabb and wide receiver Terrell Owens lifting the Eagles over the top to reach Super Bowl XXXIX, and that after losing three consecutive NFC Championship Games under Reid.

Now, one might have thought it prudent to allow Reid to rebuild the Eagles past the experimental phases of quarterbacks like Michael Vick and Vince Young, even despite losing that one-and-only Super Bowl to the New England Patriots.

Nope.

Instead, Reid went on to prove immediately that he still had plenty left in the tank with the Chiefs in 2013. That year, Kansas City went 11-5 with Alex Smith as the starting quarterback – remember Patrick Mahomes didn’t show up until 2017, so it was a few years before ‘Superman’ arrived to lift Reid and his Chiefs to heights not seen since Hank Stram was head coach and Len Dawson was lining up under center.

Sure, the Eagles ended up poaching one of Reid’s assistant coaches in Doug Pederson en route to that franchise’s only Super Bowl win, avenging that aforementioned Super Bowl loss to the Patriots a little more than a decade later in Super Bowl LII – Philadelphia had previous ties to Pederson as a player and assistant coach under guess who.

But even that didn’t last long, the Eagles tossing Pederson to the curb just three years after of having won a championship, and now he is developing a young quarterback named Trevor Lawrence with the Jacksonville Jaguars – this might be something interesting to watch from this point forward.

You realize Reid has never had a losing season in KC?

In fact, he had only three losing seasons with the Eagles, two of those coming in his first and last seasons in Philadelphia.

Now, this is not to say that had Reid stayed in Philadelphia things would have gone different for the Eagles – but it sure doesn’t look like times would have been tougher, does it? As of right now, Reid has 117 wins with the Chiefs, which is just 13 fewer than he had in Philly, but in four fewer seasons. It is entirely possible that he matches or passes that mark as early as next season, if he continues coaching.

Most important, Reid now has two Super Bowl rings, but those reside in western Missouri, as opposed to southeastern Pennsylvania.

Make no mistake: Reid’s Kansas City Chiefs were the superior team in Super Bowl LVII, and they would have been so against any team they might have faced in this year’s championship affair. You think it was lost on Reid that the 2022 Eagles faced all of six teams that were above .500 at kickoff last season, and one of those teams coming in with a backup quarterback?

No, the Eagles knew early on that Mahomes was a stout upgrade over the third and fourth-string passers Philly hopped over in the NFC Championship Game to reach Arizona.

But if they didn’t, they sure know it now – and they also know the guy wearing the headset guiding a quarterback in Mahomes who is now thinking dynasty.