Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid celebrates after Super Bowl 58 against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. The Chiefs won 25-22 in overtime.
Brynn Anderson, Associated Press
There’s a reason why Andy Reid is considered one of the greatest coaches in NFL history.
Even amid adversity, Reid’s strategic expertise won out in Sunday’s Super Bowl action, and he claimed his third championship in the past five years with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Before the game, almost no one predicted that it would end with just the second overtime period in Super Bowl history. But Reid, the BYU alum, refused to be caught by surprise.
Per Lindsay Jones of The Ringer, the Chiefs had spent their two weeks of pregame preparation outlining a course of action for that exact situation.
Kansas City didn’t care that another former Cougar, current San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, correctly called tails on the overtime coin toss and chose to take the ball right away. Had the Chiefs won the toss, they would have elected to defer anyway for the chance to win the game on their own on the ensuing possession.
“We talked through this for two weeks,” Kansas City defensive lineman Chris Jones told The Ringer. “How we was going to give the ball to the opponent; if they scored, we was going for two at the end of the game. We rehearsed it.”
The contest marked the first instance of the NFL’s updated playoff overtime rules, which ensure at least one possession for each team outside of regulation.
In the past, the rules mirrored those of the regular season, in which the game can be won immediately with an opening-drive touchdown.
Reid had discussed the updated rules with his team all the way back in training camp, according to The Ringer. The Chiefs even held overtime rules presentations and strategy meetings each week during the postseason and twice leading up to the Super Bowl.
The 49ers did no such preparation. Some of their players weren’t even aware of the different playoff rules.
“You know what? I didn’t even realize the playoff rules were different in overtime,” San Francisco fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “I assume you just want the ball to score a touchdown and win. I guess that’s not the case. I don’t totally know the strategy there. We hadn’t talked about it, no.”
Despite his strategic advantage in the biggest game of his life, Reid chose to remain modest when asked about his decision making, even defending 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan in the process.
“There’s two way you can go with it,” Reid said. “You can either kick it off or you can receive it. I’m not sure there’s a right answer necessarily. Ours ended up being the right one. That easily could have gone the other way. That’s what we felt was the right thing to do.
“I’m never going to question Kyle (Shanahan) because he’s brilliant. That was just something that we chose through out studies. We felt that was important.”