With Coach Reid’s son no longer on the team, there are plenty of things to take away from the predicament and how the Chiefs handle adversity.
On Feb. 5, two days before Super Bowl LV, there was an accident involving Kansas City’s outside linebacker coach Britt Reid, son of Head Coach Andy Reid, where he reportedly struck a car near Stadium Drive and Interstate 435 which injured a four-year-old and left a five-year-old girl in the hospital, where she was in a coma for 11 days.
Reid admitted to having 2-3 drinks as well as prescribed Adderall before driving and was immediately placed on administrative leave before being let go by Kansas City the following day, and while most media sources were pumping the narrative that HC Reid fired his son it was actually Britt Reid’s contract expiring during his administrative leave that led to his expulsion from the team.
(Note: This isn’t Britt’s first run-in with trouble, in 2007 he plead guilty to gun and drug charges with his late brother Garrett Reid and was sentenced to 8-23 months in prison)
The Chiefs went on to play pretty poorly on defense in the Super Bowl, barely applying any pressure on 43-year old Tom Brady and letting the Bucs essentially run up and down the field on them in a multitude of ways, which would not have been heavily changed by having Britt Reid on the sideline–whether the accident happened or not.
But it did happen, and since then there has been a GoFundMe that has raised over $480,000, a legal investigation and NFL conduct investigation have been launched, and Britt Reid’s future in the NFL has likely been deemed over; also since it happened we have seen that the Chiefs remain a no-nonsense front office and stick to their guns when adversity knocks on the door.
Just like with Kareem Hunt, Marcus Peters, Roy Miller, and Larry Johnson, the Chiefs’ front office learned of the facts and swiftly acted with their gut and their moral compass, which ultimately ended with Kansas City letting them go.
And while most of the names on that list, as well as Britt Reid, have been given second chances in one way or another it’s always been the Chiefs’ main focus to keep true to their morals and make sure the front office has all the possible information before making their decision (ex: waiting for the full audio regarding Tyreek Hill’s child abuse allegations).
We also learned from Kansas City’s actions that Andy Reid truly does put this team first–even over his own family–which says loads about the Head Coach considering Britt is his last living son ever since his other son, Garrett, died in an overdose in 2012.
No matter what happens within the Chiefs organization, the fanbase can count on the front office to do what’s right—both for the players and for the team as a whole—which can sometime sting (for more information just google “Kareem Hunt 2018”), but in the end they have done what the general public would likely consider ‘correct’ to do and because of that they remain a very well-respected organization.
Chiefs fan or not, we can all learn from this. We can learn that drinking and driving is NEVER okay and is illegal for moments like Britt Reid’s. We can learn that one or two drinks can be enough to impair one’s driving, especially when mixed with prescription pills, and there is never any reason to get behind the wheel of a vehicle once you have been drinking.
UPDATE: As of early Tuesday, Feb. 16 Ariel has awakened out of her coma according to an update on her GoFundMe page
(P.S. – Be sure to donate whatever you can to Ariel’s GoFundMe as she continues to fight for her life in the hospital)
