ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Walking to the Scanlon Hall dormitory at Missouri Western as Chiefs rookies and quarterbacks reported to training camp on Tuesday, I paused to take a picture of coach Andy Reid’s parking space when I suddenly sensed his aura.
Well, that and a Chiefs security guard was laughing since I seemed oblivious to Reid starting to pull in behind me in his black Dodge Ram.
When Reid stepped out of the pickup truck, we had what might be called a season’s greetings handshake and shared a little laugh about it. Since I’d already slowed him down enough, though, this was no time for what Larry David would call the “stop and chat.”
While it was tempting to accept Reid’s invitation to walk with him up the would-be red carpet of concrete toward dozens of media members, it seemed best not to spoil all the “camp starts!” B-roll in the making.
Plus, Reid already was ahead of me, apparently coursing with the stuff an old football coach of mine used to call “P and G: pepper and go.”
Nevermind that Reid is 66 years old now and entering his 26th camp as an NFL head coach. He was eager to get to what sometimes seems to be his favorite phase of the job: the grind of camp and the moorings of a new season.
In this case, it’s with a chance to create some profound history: The Chiefs can become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls and first to win three straight NFL titles since the 1965-1967 Green Bay Packers.
Wherever any season goes, Reid remains adamantly convinced, hinges on this proving ground into the NFL opener against Baltimore on Sept. 5 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Even as the NFL trend since the turn of the century has been fewer teams going away for an immersive camp (21 of then-31 teams did so in 2000; just eight of 32 are now), Reid’s old-school sensibilities continue to make this format irresistible to him.
And who’s to argue with the fourth-winningest coach in NFL history, especially since he’s guided four of his last five teams to the Super Bowl after the franchise went a half-century without one.
What might be considered a throwback approach is about something more than mere habit for Reid. It’s a philosophical bedrock.
Counterintuitive as it might seem at a distance.
Even after the Chiefs boasted one of the best defenses in the NFL last season, and even though their offense hardly is about just the fancy stuff, the notion of the humble slog contrasts with the finesse of Reid’s play-scheming, the flash of the Patrick Mahomes era … and a certain glamour about the team geometrically multiplied by the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift phenomenon.
But you don’t get the glitz without the grit.
This time is about building precision and cohesion, to be sure. But it’s also about cultivating the essential identity of what Reid seeks in a team: sheer toughness and resilience that the Chiefs have been able to draw on when they need it most.
