Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, Michael Vick, his son Britt and now Matt Araiza: Andy Reid is quick to offer second chances… but with his Chiefs looking for a threepeat, has leniency always been the best policy?

Andy Reid is known for offer players second chances, such as Michael Vick

It may have been the afterglow of the Chiefs’ third NFL title in five years, but Kansas City coach Andy Reid was quick to dismiss the shocking sideline eruption directed at him by Travis Kelce during their Super Bowl LVIII victory.

Kelce had been subbed out for a single play in the first half when Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco surrendered a costly fumble, which was recovered by the San Francisco 49ers. Visibly enraged, Kelce confronted the coach known as ‘Big Red’ and inadvertently collided with the 65-year-old, sending him stumbling backwards.

‘There’s nobody I get better than I get him,’ the famously forgiving Reid said of Kelce after winning his second Super Bowl in as many seasons. ‘He’s a competitive kid. He loves to play. He makes me feel young. But my balance is terrible.’

For a sport populated by disciplinarian coaches, Kelce’s outburst was a clear code violation – something that warranted an actual punishment rather than Reid’s self-deprecating humor. Instead, Reid was happy to brush it aside, as he’s done with so many other perceived transgressions.

Just this week, Reid added embattled former San Diego State punter Matt Araiza two months after the ex-Buffalo Bills draft pick was dropped from a sexual assault lawsuit that briefly derailed his NFL career. Araiza was never charged with a crime and is no longer being sued over the alleged 2021 rape of a 17-year-old girl, but his addition in Kansas City is already being scrutinized by fans and reporters alike.

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid holds the Vince Lombardi Trophy on February 11

Andy Reid was quick to dismiss the shocking sideline eruption directed at him by Travis Kelce

Just this week, Reid added embattled former San Diego State punter Matt Araiza (pictured)

Adding Araiza isn’t a major financial risk. The punter signed a reported minimum deal, which is around $750,000, and the contract is unguaranteed, meaning the Chiefs can cut him without consequence.

But there are reputational risks for an NFL coach who has been derided for adding players and staff accused of everything from domestic violence to dog fighting.

Kelce is, perhaps, the best example of Reid’s compassion.

By overlooking Kelce’s failed marijuana test in 2010, which resulted in his suspension at the University of Cincinnati, Reid and the Chiefs got a third-round steal in the former Bearcats tight end.

Three Super Bowl wins later, Kelce ranks fourth among NFL tight ends in career receptions with 907, fourth in receiving yards with 11,328, and sixth with 74 touchdown catches.

But Kelce’s Hall-of-Fame level of play was hardly preordained. When he arrived in Kansas City before Reid’s first year with the team in 2013, Taylor Swift’s current boyfriend was known as a bit of wild child desperately in need of some structure.

‘When Travis came to us, he was a little bit of a party guy,’ Chiefs general manager Brett Veach told ESPN in January. ‘Andy showed a lot of patience and tolerance.’

And it was that level of understanding that ultimately helped Kelce turn into an All-Pro, according to Veach.

‘Travis wanted attention,’ Veach continued. ‘He wanted a lot of things. He did things differently than everyone else. Coming here, having to do things a certain way and really organizing and prioritizing his life was a challenge. There were a lot of one-on-one meetings with Coach and a lot of, ‘This is how I want things done.’

‘There were a ton of bumps early on, but Coach’s love and faith for Travis never wavered. He got him through a rough time early on.’

Kelce’s career at Cincinnati was derailed by a 2010 marijuana suspension, but Reid didn’t care

Domestic violence, however, is a much more serious allegation, and it’s one that Reid has forgiven from time to time.

Take Tyreek Hill, the former Chiefs receiver who helped the Chiefs win Super Bowl LIV before being traded to the Miami Dolphins in 2022.

Reid and the Chiefs drafted Hill in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft out of West Alabama, where the lightening-fast receiver known as ‘Cheetah’ transferred in 2015 after being kicked off the team at Oklahoma State.

At OSU, Hill pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation involving his then-pregnant girlfriend. But after Hill stayed out of trouble at unheralded West Alabama, Reid and the Chiefs felt comfortable giving him a second chance.

Tyreek Hill was dismissed at Oklahoma State after pleading guilty to strangling his girlfriend
Initially, the decision paid off and Hill would earn All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors while becoming one of quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ favorite targets.

But while he continued to burn opposing secondaries, Hill found himself in trouble again in 2019, when he was investigated for the alleged battery of his three-year-old son, who suffered a broken arm.

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF THE ESPINAL-HILL RECORDING
Crystal Espinal: ‘He is terrified of you. And you say that he respects you, but it’s not respect.’

Tyreek Hill: ‘He respects me.’

Espinal: ‘He is terrified of you.’

Hill: ‘You need to be terrified of me, too, b***h. That’s why you can’t keep a f***ing man.’

Espinal: ‘He started crying and you were like, “Shut up, shut up, stop crying, stop crying.”‘

Hill: ‘Right.’

Espinal: ‘And then he kept crying because he was scared. He’s terrified. You grabbed onto him somehow or he fell? One of the two.’

Hill: ‘I didn’t do nothing.’

Espinal: ‘Then why does he say, “Daddy did it.”? Why?’

Hill: ‘He says Daddy does a lot of things.’

Espinal: ‘A three-year-old is not going to lie about what happened to his arm.’

(Source: KCTV)

The boy was placed in child services and Veach announced that Hill would be suspended from team activities while the investigation was conducted.

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe announced in April of 2019 that he would not be filing charges against Hill, but reversed course days later, re-opening the probe when audio emerged in which Hill purportedly threatened his now-former partner, Crystal Espinal.

However, the second investigation never found any concrete evidence against Hill, who was allowed to return to the team and ultimately signed a three-year, $54 million contract extension with the Chiefs en route to a Super Bowl title.

Hill was eventually traded to the Dolphins in March of 2022, and has since signed four-year, $120 million contract extension.

And Hill wasn’t the only player accused of domestic violence to find his way to the Chiefs.

The team signed star defensive end Frank Clark in 2019 five years after he was kicked off Michigan’s roster when his then-girlfriend accused him of throwing a TV remote at hear head and punching her. He later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

The team added Justin Cox to the practice squad in 2015 after he was accused of domestic violence at Mississippi State, although he never made Kansas City’s 53-man roster.

David Irving, another practice squad invite for the Chiefs in 2015, also faced domestic violence accusations in college at Iowa State.

‘We knew he was a good football player,’ Reid said at the time. ‘He had some issues, obviously. [Then-Chiefs GM] John Dorsey and his crew, I thought, did a nice job getting in there and making sure with him that he would fit in here and that he kind of had things going in the right direction.’

Irving and Cox weren’t high-profile players, of course, but Michael Vick was a different story entirely.

Michael Vick of the Philadelphia Eagles addresses reporters July 19, 2011 on Capitol Hill
Reid was still coaching in Philadelphia when Vick was released from federal prison in 2009 after serving 21 months on dog-fighting charges. And while much of the country was still outraged by the disturbing animal-abuse allegations against Vick, Reid and the Eagles felt comfortable making the former Virginia Tech star a backup to starting quarterback Donovan McNabb.

A year later, Reid promoted Vick atop the depth chart and the Eagles briefly looked like Super Bowl contenders as a result.

Michael Vick’s addition in Philadelphia drew criticism from animal lovers everywhere
And even while Philadelphia’s title aspirations fell short, resulting in Reid’s dismissal in early 2013, Vick stayed out of trouble and has since remained grateful to his former Coach.

‘When I met Andy,’ Vick recently told The New York Post, ‘I didn’t have anything. I won’t say anything, I just had my family. I had my family and a sense of hope that I can do it all over again, and I only told two people this post-incarceration — I told two people that I just needed another opportunity, a second chance. I told my wife and I told Andy. When he brought me in, I told him I just needed one shot at it. And he gave me that shot.

‘Coach knew everything that was going on in my life: from bankruptcy, to who my lawyers were, who I was dealing with,’ Vick recalled. ‘He just always never let any stones unturned with me. He always wanted me to check in with him, and let him know where I was at in life, and just wanted to guide me in the right direction.’

Reid never hesitated to dismiss minor college transgressions, like a shrouded incident that resulted in cornerback Marcus Peters getting kicked off the Washington Huskies in 2014.

The Chiefs picked him 18th overall, regardless, and Reid’s confidence in Peters was ultimately rewarded by the three-time Pro Bowl selection.

‘It was an emotional situation and he didn’t handle it the right way,’ Reid said in 2015, as quoted by USA Today. ‘I think he’s learned from it, just from our experience with him. He was up front with us. He said, ”I goofed,” and that’s half the battle.’

Reid’s son and former assistant coach, Britt (pictured), remains imprisoned for drunk driving
Unquestionably, Reid’s most difficult decisions involved his two sons, Garrett and Britt, both of whom battled drug problems throughout their adult lives.

Both were sentenced to up to 23 months in prison for drug-related offenses in 2007 before ultimately being released and going to work for their father with the Eagles.

Garrett, the elder son, died from a heroin overdose at the team’s training camp in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in August of 2012.

Britt, meanwhile, followed his father to Kansas City, where he became a linebackers coach for the Chiefs until early 2021, when he crashed his truck into a stalled vehicle along a highway offramp days before the team played in Super Bowl LV.

A five-year-old girl was seriously injured in the collision, and after Britt’s blood-alcohol level was found to be over the legal limit, he was sentenced to three years in prison in November of 2022.

Marcus Peters rewarded Andy Reid’s confidence in Kansas City
According to local police, Britt’s truck was speeding at 84 mph in a 65mph zone.

‘My heart goes out to all those who were involved in the accident, in particular the family with the little girl who’s fighting for her life,” Reid said after losing Super Bowl LV in February of 2021. ‘It’s a tough situation. I can’t comment on it any more than what I am here. So the questions that you have, I’m going to have to turn those down at the time. But just from a human standpoint, man, my heart bleeds for everybody involved in that.’

The elder Reid’s culpability in the crash is certainly debatable, but many within the NFL were quick to defend a father giving his troubled son a job.

‘I think he was legitimately trying to give his son an opportunity to coach,’ former Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil told the New York Times in 2022. ‘I think any father would try to help his son succeed and keep him safe.’

‘Andy said that his hope was his boys would get help and overcome their addictions and, as hard and painful as it was having it all public, maybe it would help other families battling with addiction,’ Former Eagles president Joe Banner told The New York Times. ‘So far, it hasn’t turned out that way.’

But others have been more critical, including Pennsylvania judge Steven T. O’Neill, who called the Reids a ‘family in crisis’ in 2007, while likening their home to a ‘drug emporium.’

‘You’ve got to take accountability of what goes on in the house,’ O’Neill said to Reid and his wife Tammy while sentencing Garrett, then 24, and Britt, then 22, to 23 months apiece.

Intensely private, Reid has refused to point fingers. He’s also been quick to cast away those whom he felt lacked sincere remorse.

Reid was quick to cut Pro Bowler Kareem Hunt in 2019 amid domestic violence claims
When Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt was caught physically assaulting a woman on hotel security footage in 2018, Reid was quick to cut him despite the fact that charges were never filed in the case.

Similarly, in 2001, Reid suspended running back Correll Buckhalter in Philadelphia in the absence of any actual charges.

And of course, Araiza was never charged with anything. He hasn’t been suspended by the league, and prosecutors in California determined he was not at the scene of the alleged 2021 rape when it was said to have taken place.

Reid (pictured pulling Jason Kelce’s beard in 2023) called on his former center for a character reference in 2013 when he was considering drafting tight end Travis Kelce
So is this a safe bet by Reid and the Chiefs? And will there be any tangible consequences if they’re wrong about Araiza’s character?

It’s obviously too early to say, but it’s worth remembering that Reid isn’t blindly forgiving players.

As Kelce remembers, before being drafted by Reid in 2013, the first-year Chiefs Coach did not hesitate to grill him in a brief phone call.

‘He says, ”Listen, shut up. Are you gonna mess this up?”’ Kelce told Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd in 2017. ”’Are you gonna screw this up for yourself and this team? Can I count on you?”’

Travis’ brother Jason, who was drafted by Reid in Philadelphia, was even brought into the conversation as a character witness.

‘He’s like, ”Yeah, alright, put your brother on the phone,”’ Travis continued. ‘My brother [Jason Kelce] played in Philly for him for two years, actually got drafted by Andy as well. I just hear my brother saying, ”No coach, I got you.’ I guess he told my brother ”Make sure this kid doesn’t screw this up for me.”’

The results speak for themselves: Not only has Kelce stayed out of trouble in Kansas City, but he’s rewarded Reid’s patience, understanding, and expectations with three Super Bowl wins.

‘That was awesome, and that laid the foundation for the discipline, how he’s gonna coach me,’ Kelce said. ‘How he’s gonna do everything for me. That itself, the mindset in which he got me in off the jump helped me as a professional.’