An unexpected piece of “speculation” involving the Kansas City Chiefs began circulating social media on January 24 after Pro Football Talk insider Mike Florio joined The Rich Eisen Show.
While discussing the holdup between the Atlanta Falcons and Bill Belichick — who ended up hiring Raheem Morris as their new head coach on January 25 — Florio claimed that there are franchises that are still considering interviewing the future Hall of Fame coach in the coming weeks. “One of them was a team that had a vacancy over the weekend and still might, the other one — at least one — doesn’t have a vacancy currently,” he explained.
Moments later, Florio brought up Kansas City. “Look, no matter how careful I am when I say this, it gets Chiefs fans triggered,” the insider began. “I don’t know whether or not Andy Reid’s gonna retire. I do know there’s reason for the Chiefs to believe that he could.”
Could the #AFCChampionship be Andy Reid’s final game as #ChiefsKingdom head coach? Could… wait for it… Bill Belichick replace him?
🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/ido02jHIs6
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) January 24, 2024
Continuing: “There’s enough that I’ve heard from enough people that I trust completely over the past few weeks to make me think the Chiefs are at least thinking — what will we do if [Reid] does [retire]? And I don’t know that Belichick would be a fit there, but there’s only one Patrick Mahomes, and if I want to catch [Tom] Brady and win a Super Bowl — [which] he did after he left [Belichick] — I’ll partner up with the guy who’s determined to catch Brady with seven total [championships] in a heartbeat.”
Florio admitted that he doesn’t know if Belichick is waiting on the Chiefs job, nor does he know whether or not KC would want him. “It’s speculation,” he concluded. “In the absence of information from camp Belichick, we have to speculate, or we say nothing… So, that’s just something that I continue to keep an eye on.”
NFL Reporter Tracy Wolfson Refutes Bill Belichick Theory, ‘Would Be Very Surprised’ if Andy Reid Retires
Florio’s closing point was that he’s “not saying Andy Reid is gonna retire,” but that “there’s reason to believe the Chiefs are preparing for the possibility that he could.”
As this clip started to make rounds on X, long-time CBS Sports reporter Tracy Wolfson weighed in, shutting down the rumor pretty quickly. “From my conversations with a lot of people close to Andy Reid and 2 years left on his contract I would be very surprised if Reid retired,” she replied.
Almost comically, Wolfson’s post caught fire with nearly 900 likes while the Florio video she commented on only had a little over 60 likes. Clearly, Florio’s take was not very popular in Kansas City.
Chiefs HC Andy Reid Makes It Pretty Clear He’s Not Planning to Retire in 2024
Florio has been suggesting that Reid could retire since early January, but the Chiefs head coach has given every inclination that he’s not going anywhere in 2024.
“I haven’t even thought about that,” Reid told KC media regarding questions of retirement on January 11. “I’m thinking about one thing.” At the time, that one thing was the Miami Dolphins and the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs.
“I figured that would come up when you guys were asking these questions, because I’m old,” Big Red joked during the press conference. Adding: “But not that old.”
It was a pretty definitive statement from Reid, who provided a similar response last year ahead of the Super Bowl victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. He didn’t end up retiring then, and he’s unlikely to retire now.
