It will be a third Super Bowl appearance for the Kansas City Chiefs under Andy Reid's tenure on Sunday, and the head coach will be hoping that his special tactic will pay off against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Reid faces his former side in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday, and will be hoping to get one over his previous employers to lift his second Championship as head coach. Reid coached the Eagles between 1999-2012, but made a major change to his matchday preparations when joining the Chiefs in 2013.
The Chiefs may be Super Bowl and AFC Championship regulars nowadays, but it didn't start off that was when Reid was hired a decade ago. And according to former linebacker Derrick Johnson, one key tactical change has continued to transform the locker room.
It's the ninth time in ten seasons that the Chiefs have reached the play-offs, and it's the third time since 2019 they've featured in the Super Bowl. The team spirit within the Chiefs has persisted ever since Reid came in, and Johnson explained to ESPN the reason why.
After a difficult start to his first season in 2013, Reid established regular meetings of a 'player’s leadership committee' where one player would represent each position, and share any group concerns. This was done so that players could complain about anything on their minds, whether it be on the field or off it.
The aim was to make sure that these issues never continued during matchdays, leaving no excuses for poor performance. "Whenever we started that meeting, the first thing he would say is, ‘All right, what gripes do you have?’” Johnson said.
The former Chiefs star confirmed that Reid was never afraid to change things, and would cater to everyone's needs wherever possible. "It was that quick," Johnson added.
"Most of the things we brought to him, he trusted just like that. He doesn’t want us to have any excuses for not getting it right on Sunday,"
And it's clearly worked, as the Chiefs have been one of the best teams in the NFL over the past decade, and could secure their second Super Bowl title within that time. You'd hope that there were no concerns within the Chiefs camp this deep into the NFL season, but it's also vital that if there is, it gets sorted ahead of Sunday.
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