KANSAS CITY, Mo. — During the Chiefs’ 2021-22 postseason run, I asked coach Andy Reid about what the ongoing impact of recently winning his first Super Bowl might be.
Since I unconsciously dangled the word “hungry” somewhere in the question, he turned on the hanging pitch.
“If you like chocolate cake and you eat a piece, and then you have one dangling in front of your face, you’re probably going to want to eat that, too,” said a smiling Reid, ever-inclined to invoke food references. “Not much is going to stop you. I mean, that’s how you feel about the Super Bowl. That is the chocolate cake with the ultimate frosting, and you’re going to try to go get it if you can.”
Alas, the Chiefs weren’t able to haul in what would have been a third straight Super Bowl berth despite taking a 21-3 lead over the Bengals in the 2022 AFC Championship Game.
Since the Chiefs in February won their second Super Bowl in four seasons, though, Reid’s answer about reaching for the chocolate cake remains about the most colorful way to look at the point about motivation and fending off potential challenges — such as complacency — that logically could be lurking.
Yet the real key as Reid sees it, especially at this time of year, is far more mundane than the end reward.
Given the ability to adapt that has made him the fifth-winningest coach in NFL history (two wins away from surpassing Tom Landry for fourth), Reid isn’t strictly a creature of habit. But he’s absolutely all about — even driven by — the day-to-day of building and fusing parts together and teaching.
Yep … the process.
“I think that’s what’s most important: No shortcuts,” Reid said Monday as the Chiefs entered what’s known as Phase 1 of their offseason workout program. “Nothing that’s really good comes easy.
“We know that. … So you’ve got to make sure that you go through the process and do the hard work and build a foundation. All those things become super important. As they are every year.
“So the main thing is you don’t cheat that. Don’t cheat the process. … Don’t skip the work.”
Fundamental and even essential as that might be, Reid knows it might sound dull. Heck, he once described the broader process as “like a washing machine going around and around and around.”
Ho-hum or not, though, that’s at the core of how the Chiefs keep coming around the top of the NFL through the synergy and cohesion among Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, general manager Brett Veach and chairman and CEO Clark Hunt.
Never mind that the roster still is being formed and many questions remain to be answered less than two weeks from the 2023 NFL draft here in Kansas City. And that there are any number of reasons the Chiefs might not be able to repeat.
A vital part of their journey will hinge on how willing and able they are to again stiff-arm away any contentment and seize the opportunity to make real history.
Winning two in this window undoubtedly has been special, especially for a city that had gone 50 years without one. But now the Chiefs, Reid and Mahomes are at the on-ramp toward joining a tier of elites in NFL lore.
Only six franchises in NFL history have won more than the three Super Bowls the Chiefs now have (including Super Bowl IV).
Only four coaches have won more than two.
Only four quarterbacks have won more than two.
So why would anyone sag or let up or feel satisfied now?
“To me, it makes you even more motivated …” said Mahomes, who no doubt is driven to be the best there ever was. “Once you’re able to do it multiple times, you see that it’s attainable to go out there and get more.”
So after celebrating for what he called “about a week or two” following the 38-35 victory over the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, Mahomes said he turned forward pretty quickly.
Into workout mode with personal trainer Bobby Stroupe. And working on everything from footwork to mental approach. And now into Year Two of what might be called Camp Mahomes, working out with Chiefs receivers in Texas and setting a tone of his own for a team that takes its cues from his considerable will.
“The way he’s wired, his hunger to be great ... there’s a longevity part of that,” Reid said the week after the Super Bowl. “The more you do it over and over, that really determines how great you are. And that’s just how it goes. And he has a great feel for that.
“He knows that there’s a time in there — very similar to what I told you about what drives me, what drives a team, what should drive a team is that day-to-day process. So go through (it) … (and) make yourself greater than you already are.”
The idea is to get what you emphasize, of course, even up against the human nature it is to either let down or get cocky after achieving so much.
“I think when you win a Super Bowl, a lot of guys get paid,” then-Chief Tyrann Mathieu said as the Chiefs sought to repeat in 2021. “A lot of guys, you know, grow egos.”
In December, Frank Clark suggested complacency had lingered after the Super Bowl even as he was making the point that it had been purged in the latest campaign.
If that enemy within was a factor the last few years, though, it was hard to discern.
After all, the team made it back to the Super Bowl only to get clobbered by Tampa Bay. Then came the blown lead and loss to Cincinnati in the AFC title game, a scenario in which Clark’s point may well have applied, before the Chiefs were back on top last season.
As for the season ahead?
All we know now is that “the process” has been engaged. And handled with the usual passion and care of this regime and team, that’s at least a fine first step toward another helping of chocolate cake.
