KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s been 15 years since Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid prodded a team to a Super Bowl berth, and now he’s got two weeks to prepare.
Obviously, that leaves some time to celebrate a 35-24 win Sunday against the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship Game.
How did Reid get down Sunday night?
“I ate a cheeseburger and went to bed,” he said with a smile during Monday’s press conference.
Reid then woke up to begin breaking down game film of the San Francisco 49ers, who the Chiefs will face in Super Bowl LIV on Feb. 2 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.
“(I’m) very excited to have the Lamar Hunt Trophy back in Kansas City, where it belongs,” Reid said of winning the AFC title to lay claim to the trophy named for the franchise’s late owner.
As exciting as it was, the attention has turned to the 49ers and a potential legacy-defining game for Reid, who ranks seventh in NFL history with 207 career head coaching victories.
San Francisco has a fast, physical defensive line — one that includes former Chiefs first-round pick Dee Ford, who was traded to the 49ers during the offseason.
“That’s a good defensive line, but I have confidence they’ll (the Chiefs offensive line) rise up to that challenge,” Reid said. “They've been competing like crazy the last few weeks."
Inserting Stefen Wisniewski into the starting lineup at left guard for the final two games of the regular season seems to have shored up the Chiefs’ protection in recent weeks.
Reid credited Wisniewski’s physicality and intelligence, a trait he said was commonplace for Kansas City’s offensive line, for making it work.
“Academically, we may have one of the smartest groups,” Reid said. “We’ve got a doctor — c’mon!”
Right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif from McGill University in Canada is, of course, a certified medical doctor.
Besides, the Chiefs’ defensive line is playing pretty well too, led by Ford’s replacement defensive end Frank Clark.
“He’s a great teammate,” Reid said of Clark. “I knew this before because of playing against him, but he is relentless. I mean, absolutely relentless. It’s 100 mph at practice. It’s 100 mph during the game. I mean, he goes, and that’s contagious. That’s something that infects the other guys, and in a positive way.”
