Ten years ago, the Arizona Cardinals were looking for a new head coach after firing Ken Whisenhunt. The team had finished the season 5-11 losing 11 of their final 12 games.
Before they ultimately hired Bruce Arians as their head coach, Andy Reid, now the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, had been fired by the Philadelphia Eagles.
If you recall a decade ago, it was reported locally in Phoenix that the Cardinals would interview Reid. When it didn’t happen, these local reporters were mocked.
However, it was supposed to happen, Reid admitted this week.
Written by ESPN’s Adam Teicher, after Reid was fired, the Cardinals sent a plane to pick him up in Phialdelphia and fly him to Arizona to interview him.
He never got on the plane.
Why?
Kansas City Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt and a large group of front office staff went to the airport and interviewed Reid there.
Hunt knew Reid was supposed to get on a plane, but he didn’t know the plane was already there waiting for him.
“That was a long day,” Reid said, according to the article. “The time flew by. I felt bad about the plane, though. It was waiting and I feel bad about that. But everybody involved knows that’s part of the business.”
Reid was hired by the Chiefs and in 10 seasons, he has taken them to the playoffs nine times, the Super Bowl three times and won one championship.
The Chiefs will take on his former team, the Eagles, in Super Bowl LVII at the Cardinals’ home stadium, State Farm Stadium, Sunday evening.
This creates yet another interesting what if in Cardinals history.
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