Andy Reid’s coaching tree is legendary, but it seems one of the brightest stars to emerge under him in his time with the Kansas City Chiefs has proven to be neither bright nor a star after getting the axe on Black Monday. Former Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy was unceremoniously fired after several disappointing seasons with the Chicago Bears, where his puzzling ineptitude set the storied franchise back several years. After two monumentally disappointing tries at finding a franchise quarterback, ownership had seen enough.
Though he managed to finish his Bears career with a winning record (34-32), he had worn out his welcome in Chicago, and fans clamored for change through all the ups and downs of the past several seasons. Reid certainly seemed empathetic to Nagy’s situation when he spoke about it at his Monday press conference.
Reid has fired on Black Monday himself before, and he told reporters that he believes it to be nothing but a minor setback for any coach in that position. He feels it is best to focus on being grateful for the chance to be a head coach in the NFL and that perspective is key.
“They’ve had the opportunity to be one out of 32 people in the whole world and that doesn’t happen very often in your life, where you’re that small of a minority there,” Reid said. “It’s been an honor to coach against some of these guys, to work with some of them and they’re going to have bright careers going down the road. There’s always little humps in this thing that you go through that you got to go through the valley to get to the peak and it happens. It’s a crazy business that way, but they’re all good guys. I know all of them and they’re great guys and they can basically do what they want to do from here.”
Some head coaching hires work, others don’t, and some never make sense from the start. Reid dealt with his share of fallout from his own time in Philadelphia, and speaks from experience relative to situations like the one Nagy and others around the NFL are facing. While he maintains that the future is bright for his former pupil, a reunion is unlikely, and Nagy isn’t likely to be groomed for another job as a head coach any time soon.
