Andy Reid and the Chiefs Had a Big Secret
August 25, 2025
Before I get into trouble, I need to make something perfectly clear here. I was just as alarmed as everyone else with the news that on May 4, 2024 a lunatic shot a bullet into the office of Andy Reid, the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.
The projectile missed him by 15 feet, and I am thankful for that. My distaste for the former Eagles coach does not extend beyond his work on the field and in press conferences. It may surprise you to know I have nothing personal against the man.
I feel a need to address this situation now only because a bunch of wiseasses suggested via email that I was the shooter, who has not yet been apprehended.
Not guilty.
If I ever were to shoot a gun, the person in most danger would be me.
At the same time, many fans see me – accurately – as the biggest critic of the future Hall of Famer. Since I have indeed been ripping the guy for over 20 years now, I have come to embrace the characterization.
In fact, after feeling relief that Reid was OK, I couldn’t help but shake my head once again at the paranoia displayed by the Chiefs (and maybe by the coach himself).) Somehow, Reid and his minions in KC managed to keep this major story out of the press for 15 months.
Let me repeat what I just wrote, with different words:
A bullet was detonated in the direction of the reigning Super Bowl champion coach, and – in a world where a celebrity pimple gets worldwide coverage via social media – not one word ever leaked out.
So concerned were Reid and the Chiefs, they installed bulletproof glass in all the windows in the coach’s office more than a year ago.
And still, not a word.
The Kansas City Police Department said the crime is still under investigation, with no arrests imminent. In a statement, the Chiefs said they had made a “conscious decision” not to divulge the news after consulting with “investigation, communication and safety experts.”
No one has addressed yet why that strategy changed last week. To call the secrecy unorthodox would be an understatement. Normally, the most logical course is to go public, for no other reason than to find someone who might know something.
Mark Donovan, the Chiefs president and an executive who followed Reid from Philadelphia to Kansas City, offered the usual corporate mumbo-jumbo when he addressed the issue at the team’s annual kickoff luncheon.
“We called down to our experts quickly, at all levels, regionally and nationally, and we sat down and assessed the situation,” he said. “What’s the next step? From a PR standpoint, from a communications standpoint, we made our decisions and moved on.”
Huh? Who worries about PR at a time like this? The only “communications standpoint” that would matter, it seems, is that the public band together to find the creep. How could fans do that if they had no idea anything had happened for 15 months?
No one has explained yet how the Kansas City Star finally shattered the secrecy by reporting the incident last week, but the newspaper is an unusual source at a time when most NFL-related information is funneled through network reporters like ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Did the NFL know about this and support the silence?
Did the Chiefs influence the KCPD to keep the incident off the police blotter?
Why was it so important to the Chiefs to stay silent?
I offer these questions only because no one else is asking them. Nowadays, sports reporters are far more comfortable giving updates on injuries and offering words of support to all of their sources than seeking the harder-to-get news.
To say this story begs many questions is a journalistic no-brainer. But that doesn’t mean anyone is going to bother to do the heavy lifting here – certainly not at the expense of inspiring the ire of the powerful Chiefs organization.
There was only one aspect of this story that was not surprising at all. The apparent target of the attack, Andy Reid, has offered no comment.
Some things never change.
Did you hear that loud noise around 3:30 p.m. on August 23? It was probably the window of opportunity slamming shut for the Phillies during an era of success void of the ultimate prize, a championship.
It was then that the news broke that Zack Wheeler, the best Phillies pitcher of the decade, if not the past generation, will miss the rest of the season because he needs thoracic outlet surgery on his right shoulder.
This gut-shot came a week or so after Wheeler needed a minor procedure to repair a blood clot in the same shoulder – the one that has been launching 97 mph fastballs past helpless big-league batters for the past 12 years. (At 35 this season, he struck out 195 hitters in 150 innings.)
The next time Wheeler throws a baseball, sometime next year, he will be 36, coming off two surgeries. It is illogical to expect that he will still be the dominant force he has been for the Phillies since 2020.
Sad to say, but Wheeler’s best days are behind him now. Only a blind optimist would think otherwise.
Unfortunately, the Harper-Wheeler-Schwarber Phillies who have flirted for years with a championship parade may be in their final months themselves.
Harper will be 33 in October, Schwarber is 32 and will be a free agent after this season. J.T. Realmuto is 34, Nick Castellanos 33 and Trea Turner 32.
The only laugh I had after the awful Wheeler news was the media speculation that now Aaron Nola, 32, will have to fill the ace’s void. Yes, this is the same Aaron Nola who has been giving up four runs a game (five this season) ever since he signed a ridiculous seven-year, $172-million contract in 2023.
Who can replace Wheeler?
No one, that’s who.
And if this Wheeler nightmare truly does end the latest chapter in terrific Phillies baseball, you already know who I blame for the lack of confetti.
The Teflon manager, Rob Thomson.
The whole stupid idea that Wheeler needed to be protected by ironclad pitch counts even in the playoffs will be the biggest reason for the failure of these great rosters.
At the risk of annoying Phils fans, I will remind you one last time – I hope – that the manager pulled his ace from a one-hit shutout against the Mets last year, leading to a playoff loss from which the team never recovered.
Thomson made the move to protect Wheeler from injury.
How is that working out for him now?
The only good that can possibly come out of Wheeler’s two surgeries is that Thomson will be sent packing after this season. We can only hope.
Of course, this decision would require management to acknowledge the obvious – that Thomson didn’t manage with the urgency required of a title contender.
It wouldn’t hurt if the bootlicking local media jumped in here, too, and held the manager accountable for his fatal miscalculations.
More likely, the status quo will remain for another lost cause next season. The Phillies will keep doing the same things – adhering to strict pitch counts, taking homer-happy swings, devising absurd stat-driven strategic moves – and expect a different result.
Meanwhile, the media will keep doing what it does best these days, too – kiss ass.
That’s the definition of insanity, by the way.