An unlikely climb
No single formula exists to predict success or longevity in NFL coaching, but family pedigree and a fast track into the profession don’t hurt.
Reid had neither, making his ascension among the NFL’s all-time greats all the more remarkable and unlikely.
“There aren’t enough superlatives,” said Brad Childress, who became the Minnesota Vikings’ head coach in 2006 after having been Reid’s offensive coordinator in Philadelphia and worked for Reid again in Kansas City from 2013 to 2017. “He wasn’t born on third base.”
Childress and Reid met in 1986 as assistant coaches at Northern Arizona University, where Reid drove around Flagstaff in a Volkswagen van from the 1960s with a stick shift and weathered brown paint. From there, Reid coached the offensive line at Texas-El Paso and Missouri until 1992. He had been coaching for nine years before he broke into the NFL.
A former high school teacher, Holmgren liked to hire fellow teachers as coaches, convinced they could better communicate complex concepts. Reid wasn’t a teacher, but to Holmgren his note-taking and listening were hallmarks of a great student with an open mind.
Speaking with reporters in late January, Reid said he had “taken a lot” from his former boss; then he echoed him.
“I like to teach,” Reid said. “I think if you’re going to be a coach, you have to be a teacher first. There is a lot that goes into that. It’s not just knowing your stuff, but how it’s presented.”
After Reid’s stint as a graduate assistant ended at BYU, Holmgren helped him get his first full-time coaching job at San Francisco State and made a promise that if he ever became an NFL head coach, he would try to hire him.
When Green Bay hired Holmgren in 1992, he made good on that promise — with a twist. Holmgren wanted Reid to assist with the offensive line but also to go outside of his area of expertise and coach tight ends, too.
Holmgren’s idea was to broaden Reid’s understanding of the passing game.
“He was mad at me, but he accepted the challenge, and I really do think you don’t see many — I believe it — you don’t see many line coaches, which is what essentially he was, that call the game,” Holmgren said. “They’re great in the running game, but the idea of incorporating the total offensive picture in the passing game, you don’t see many of those guys.”
Gruden was an offensive quality control assistant in Green Bay, where the coaches competed to get to the team’s offices the earliest. Gruden, who commuted by bicycle for a time, claims his pre-3 a.m. arrivals still hold the record. Once they were in the office, they competed once again to sneak plays into that week’s game plan.
“I don’t know if he’ll tell you this, but I think one of the things that really turns [Reid] on and fires him up is when he comes up with a crazy play that no one’s ever seen or practiced against and he runs it and it works,” Gruden said. “I really think he loves and relishes being on the cutting edge of offensive football. I think he’s nuts that way, and I would be like that, but not to the extreme levels he is.”
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