San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Reid’s sense of humor key to Chiefs’ success
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Andy Reid once entered a news conference dressed as Santa Claus, imploring the media, “Make it fast; this is hot.”
He’s said to do a killer imitation of Patrick Mahomes’ voice, emphasizing that it’s “froggish,” that we can only hope one day he’ll share publicly.
Those might seem like exceptions. But nuanced and even restrained as the demeanor of the Chiefs’ coach typically is, his subtle wit and wisdom is on display constantly. And it’s a substantial element of how he connects so well with so many.
“It’s part of the energy that he brings every single day (that) gets guys through it,” said Mahomes, by “it” meaning the grind of it all.
Never mind if some of the humor induces more eye-rolls than laughter.
“It’s almost like the dad jokes,” Mahomes said, smiling. “And you’re just like, ‘Come on, man.’ ”
There’s a lot more range and depth to it than that, in fact, and we’ll come back to that. But it’s noteworthy that Reid embraced a recent question about his use of the device.
“They don’t want a stand-up comedian up there, either, but there’s a time and a place to do it,” he said. “If you have a sense of humor, then it’s not bad to use it as long as you don’t go crazy with it … that’s not what we’re trying to do.”
The key point to Reid is that it’s delivered within the scope of being true to his own nature and, as he likes to tell his players, letting your personality show.
And, as it happens, various experts will point to those notions as reflective of a thriving work environment.
Does this sound like any team you might know?
“In workplaces that encourage people to be themselves — that are less hierarchical and more innovative — people tend to be more open with their humor,” Michael Kerr, president of Humor at Work, and author of the Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses are Laughing all the Way to the Bank, told Forbes Magazine in 2013. “Even people who aren’t always comfortable sharing their humor tend to do so in more relaxed environments where the use of humor becomes second nature with everyone’s style.”
That same Forbes article, headlined “10 Reasons Why Humor Is A Key To Success At Work,” alluded to a number of elements that seem applicable to the Chiefs under Reid.
Crucial in that formula, of course, is that it be positive humor and generally without edginess.
Enter Reid, whose repertoire begins with a generous volume of the self-deprecating, often in reference to his weight.
For instance, asked the other day if winning the Super Bowl last season had lifted a weight from him, Reid first joked that he’d put on a “late-season bulge.”
That was just one of the most recent reprises of the way he put it to the Kansas City Star’s Sam Mellinger shortly after he was hired in 2013. Soon after they were speaking about the voluminous notebook that never leaves Reid’s side, the conversation turned to Reid paddleboarding or some such. Half-jokingly, Sam asked if he takes the notebook out on the water. Reid quickly said no way and called himself something along the lines of “a dream meal for sharks.”
But Reid also spreads the focus of the humor around with much the same diversification he engineers
into his offense, from quick hitters to what might be called observational humor.
Among the nicknames he has for “everybody on the team,” according to Mahomes, Reid will call Sammy Watkins “Starship 14” in an apparent nod to Watkins’ free spirit. And a play designed for Anthony Sherman earlier this season was called “Smoked Sausage” in reference to a sobriquet for Sherman.
When the remarkable Porter Ellett was Reid’s senior assistant, Reid referred to him as his “lefthand man” — with respect to the right arm he lost in an accident when Ellett was 4 years old. To be clear, Reid is an ardent admirer of Ellett, who has a considerable sense of humor himself and now has been promoted to offensive quality control coach.
It’s not entirely clear where this all came from. Perhaps Reid was born with a certain whimsical flair. Or perhaps he was influenced by his father, Walter, a set designer and frequent prankster who on occasion brought home
props that he relished using play with his children.
Or maybe the spirit was honed at the Tonight Show, where Reid did catering work on occasion on behalf of the Nicola Twins Market.
That was where as a teenager he once denied John Wayne’s request for a fourth meatball. It was “sweet and sour,” incidentally, a concept Reid often uses for jokes about things that might be both good and bad.
Or maybe he got some ideas from Mark Twain: When he was an assistant coach at the University of Missouri from 1989-91, Reid loved to go to Hannibal for recruiting.
And it includes being able to be on the other end of it. Before he left Mizzou to begin his NFL career with the Green Bay Packers, Reid apparently got as good as he gave.
When he’d start to enter a meeting room, he might find the doorknob slimed with trainingroom gel. Or he could pull open a projection screen to find an offcolor
at
poster affixed.
But he got them back, too. Once, when the remote control for his projection screen was smeared in goo, then-Mizzou lineman Matt Burgess recalled in 2018, Reid grabbed a rickety old chair and smashed it over a table.
A roomful of very scared players was relieved when Reid laughed.
And when Burgess and teammates Mike Bedosky and Tim Alvarado went to Reid’s house in costumes one Halloween, Reid still fondly remembers telling them it was against NCAA rules to give them candy.
For all that, though, his players knew Reid was sharp, dedicated to his job and them and respected immensely then and now. And they understood the purpose and place of his levity.
“It wasn’t just pointless banter,” former Mizzou lineman Chris Harrison said in 2018. “There was always a practical angle to his humor.”
And a winning angle, in more ways than one.