Recently, in January and February—by all accounts, the absolute dead of winter in the Kansas City area—people have been able to stay warm and engaged with deep playoff runs from the Kansas City Chiefs. It has been a staple of the 2020s until perplexing concepts and unforeseen circumstances derailed the team’s playoff hopes in 2025. So what better content could there be for Chiefs fans to consume in the absence of playoff football than something that is, well, quite perplexing and certainly unforeseen?
Enter the “Andy Reid had a hand in Bill Belichick not being a First Ballot Hall of Famer” conspiracy theory. Yes, you read that right. Last week, the biggest news in the football world was the six-time Super Bowl-winning former coach of the New England Patriots not being elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on his first ballot as a candidate. There were, of course, whispers that former Colts executive Bill Polian led somewhat of a coup during the voting, but still—this was lunacy. Well, leave it to Reddit to dig up some evidence from the past that could potentially tie Andy Reid to Belichick’s monumental snub.
The entire post (credit to Reddit user No_Rec1979) can be found here. I’m going to take a few snippets to summarize and react below.
“Back in 2019, in Patrick’s second year as starter, the Chiefs went to Foxboro in Week 14 for a critical regular-season game against Brady and company. Up until that point, the Pats had been Andy’s kryptonite. In fact, they had beaten the Chiefs in overtime in the AFC Championship Game the year before on their way to their sixth and final Lombardi. It was a tough game, but KC managed to beat the Pats 23–16 and never looked back, going on to win the Super Bowl that year. The Pats, meanwhile, ended up wilting after yet another cheating scandal, losing in the Wild Card round that year and then trading Brady in the offseason. So that game was definitely a turning point in Chiefs history, but something else happened just before that game that has never happened, ever (to my knowledge), before or since.”
We all likely can recall this. Not only was the game extremely ridden with anxiety to begin with, first and foremost because the Chiefs were coming off a 2018 AFC Championship overtime loss to the Patriots that felt like it was stolen from Kansas City in a lot of ways. It was a CBS matinee game with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo on the call. One of the biggest talking points before the game was a Chiefs equipment snafu. Kansas City apparently sent their equipment to the wrong stadium on this fateful day. Yes, their equipment somehow ended up at the Meadowlands, and I’m sure Andy Reid and company just laughed it off, right? Silly us! What could that have meant for the Chiefs had they not been able to retrieve their equipment before kickoff? Well, they would have had to forfeit.
A Reddit conspiracy claims Andy Reid helped derail the Patriots’ dynasty, and maybe even Bill Belichick’s Hall of Fame chances.
Seems like a mistake that’s a little too whimsical for a ship that’s run as tightly as the Chiefs, right? Certainly uncharacteristic for a franchise that has since proven that the details of their operation were, and still are, world-class. Well, that’s where the puzzle pieces start to fall together to forge this conspiracy theory into a full-blown, legitimate potential reality. Now, that’s a blurred line, but things will get clearer.
“A lot of the other AFC East teams suspected the Patriots of tampering with the other team’s equipment before Pats home games. Obviously, the home team is not allowed to touch that equipment while storing it overnight, but the Pats weren’t exactly famous fornottampering with equipment. So how interesting is it that the only time any team has ever “accidentally” screwed up their gear shipment was right before a critical, season-altering game against a bitter rival with a reputation for tampering with the other team’s gear? I mean, how confident can we be that that’s a coincidence?”
We can’t! We absolutely cannot be confident that this was a coincidence, especially when you consider the Chiefs’ equipment ended up at the Jets’—a divisional foe of the Patriots—facility. Is the only competent thing the Jets have done in the last decade ending the Tom Brady/Bill Belichick chapter of the Patriots by tipping off the Chiefs to equipment tomfoolery? Perhaps.
This may be a bit of a tougher recollection for Chiefs fans, as the glare from three Lombardis has impacted our general NFL periphery for quite some time, but 2019 was the year that the Patriots were caught in the act spying on their opponents’ sidelines once again. Who caught them? The Bengals. When did the Bengals play the Patriots that year? The week after the Chiefs beat them at Foxboro in a game they nearly had to forfeit because of an equipment “error.”
“I know this is a bit complicated, so just to clarify, here’s a timeline…
In Week 13, the Chiefs play a home game against the Raiders seven days before a critical showdown with the Pats.
The Chiefs’ security team handles credentials for that game and would have been in a position to notice any illegal filming.
In Week 14, the Chiefs have a crazy, unprecedented equipment snafu just before the most important regular-season game of the year, if not of their history.
That same day, Bengals security catches the Pats filming their sideline seven days before those teams meet in a critical showdown.
The scandal comes out, and the Pats are never the same, losing back-to-back games against the Dolphins and Titans.
In the offseason, the Brady Pats are dismantled.
So can I say for sure that Andy Reid destroyed the NFL’s version of the Evil Empire—and won his first Super Bowl—by quietly ratting out Belichick? No. But that’s what I believe.”
I mean, come on. It all adds up!
This is too good not to be true, right? Andy Reid, perpetually viewed as a great, warm man, the quintessential “big papa” of the Chiefs organization, and a universally lauded “good dude” in NFL circles, but also the silent superhero that deflated the Pats’ chances at spying their way to another Super Bowl run. If this is all true, and Andy is the actual reason that the Patriots’ (often forgotten) shady ways were finally the death of them, then I motion that Andy Reid be inducted into the Hall of Fame at once. Forget the eligibility requirements—he ended an evil empire. He saved the world from something unimaginable: more Bostonian insufferability.
Now, if there were only a way for Reid to put a halt to the coma-inducing Super Bowl that we’re all about to have to drag ourselves through on Sunday. Hopefully the commercials are good.
