Former Glendale college football player Andy Reid gets another shot in Super Bowl
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There’s a line of communication that’s been firmly entrenched for more than 40 years between Andy Reid and John Cicuto.
It’s a friendship centered around two individuals who share a common link — being a head football coach.
It all began in 1976, when Reid came to Glendale Community College to play football under then-head coach Jim Sartoris. Cicuto served as an assistant at Glendale and helped mentor Reid.
Reid is now the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, who won the American Football Conference championship and will meet the National Football Conference representative San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV at 3:30 p.m. PDT Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.
It will be Kansas City’s third appearance in the Super Bowl and first since capturing Super Bowl IV in 1969 against the Minnesota Vikings in Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.
Cicuto, who would go on to serve as head coach at Glendale from 1989-2007, and Reid, a former guard with the Vaqueros , often communicate following most Kansas City games, as well as when Reid was head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999-2012.
“I love him,” said Cicuto, who served as athletic director at Glendale from 2007-18. “I’ll usually send him a text message after a game and he’s very quick to respond, usually an hour or so after a game in which he’s got to talk to his team and do different interviews. He’ll ask me what I thought about the game.
“It’s the easiest way to communicate. Our relationship keeps developing and we’re such good friends. That’s the most important thing to me and it will be great to see him on the sidelines coaching in another Super Bowl.”
Reid, who has been with Kansas City since 2013, arrived at Glendale college in 1976 after graduating from L.A. John Marshall High and stayed through the 1977 campaign.
In two seasons with the Vaqueros, Reid played guard and tackle and was bestowed all-conference second-team recognition in 1977.
“He did so many things well and he did them the right way,” Cicuto said. “I saw him grow as a player at GCC and then when he transferred to Brigham Young University.
“He’s always been a very humble guy and I’ve seen him grow as a coach since his days at Philadelphia. When we communicate now, I’ll tell him that the defense played well and he’ll respond with a reference to the GCC days.”
Along with his ties with Cicuto and others at Glendale college, Reid also showed his appreciation to the institution by donating funds to construct a new scoreboard on the football field in 2005.
Reid, a member of the Glendale Community College Athletic Hall of Fame, will make his second appearance as a head coach in the Super Bowl. Reid and Philadelphia suffered a 24-21 loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX in 2004.
Kansas City (14-4) advanced to the Super Bowl after defeating the Houston Texans, 51-31, in the divisional round before posting a 35-24 win against the Tennessee Titans in the AFC title game. Led by standout quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City rallied from a 24-0 deficit against Houston and a 17-7 margin versus Tennessee.
“It’s gotten a little scary at times early in those games,” Cicuto said. “But there was plenty of time to come back and the Chiefs just held their ground. Patrick Mahomes is such an amazing quarterback, too. Fun to watch.”
Reid is 221-128-1 (.608 winning percentage) as an NFL head coach and he is the seventh coach in NFL history to take two different franchises to the Super Bowl and he’s led his teams to 15 postseason appearances. He was an assistant coach for the Green Bay Packers when they won Super Bowl XXI against New England in 1996.
Reid, 61, said he’d like to add a Super Bowl title to his résumé, and thus complete his coaching legacy
“Well, I’m older, right?” Reid told NBCSports.com. “I’ve probably seen more than I saw before. It’s been 15 years since the last Super Bowl I’ve been a coach in. I don’t know if ‘relaxed’ is the right thing, but I’ve kind of walked in this path before, so I know what to expect for the most part.”
Mahomes, who has completed 319 of 484 passes for 4,031 yards and 26 touchdowns (eight in the playoffs) in 14 games this season, said he wants to help Reid complete his mission.
“I would probably be happier for him, for sure,” Mahomes recently told NBCSports.com. “I’ll be pretty happy, too, for myself.”
“It would be amazing. The work that he has put in every single day, everywhere he’s been he’s had success, so we want to get him that Super Bowl, but we understand it’s a process. First off we’ve got to come in, have a great practice today, play great this weekend, and then try to give ourselves a chance to try to get in that game and try to get ourselves that trophy.”
Cicuto said he plans to text Reid following Sunday’s game.
“Win or lose,” Cicuto said.
