‘Not having a snowball fight’: Why Chiefs coach Andy Reid shrugs off weather issues

Among his considerable attributes, Andy Reid is an innovator with a remarkable gift for connecting with players and coaches. Plenty of other traits have made him among the winningest coaches in NFL history.

But one quality in particular binds it all together: Reid has zero patience with, even contempt for, distractions.

No wonder that as the Chiefs coach on Tuesday glanced out the window into the gusty snowscape outside, he essentially refused to acknowledge the pesky elements.

As if to will them into being a non-factor.

Or at least set that tone and standard.

In terms of the day itself, sure. But also in the context of what normal people might consider the frightful scenario of below-zero temperature forecast for the Chiefs’ AFC Wild Card game against the visiting Dolphins on Saturday night.

If the forecast of minus-2 degrees at kickoff holds up, it will mark the coldest start in Chiefs history — two degrees below the 1983 game against Denver.

With the windchill, it’s projected to be minus-18 — a slight tier warmer than the minus-30 registered in that Broncos game.

And … so what?

Clad in shorts, as usual, Reid dismissed the notion there even was any challenge to balancing whether to practice inside in better conditions or outside to help acclimate.

While the Chiefs didn’t go outside Tuesday, Reid said that there’s “a good chance we’re out tomorrow. If we can go out, we’ll go out.”

For that matter, he added, the real consideration wasn’t so much the harsh weather as his preference for practicing on grass outdoors over the artificial surface indoors.

As for any suggestion the Chiefs (11-6) might prosper by the conditions against a team from Miami (11-6), one that has lost its 10 last games played in at-kickoff temperatures of 40 degrees or below, Reid bluntly stated the point.

“I don’t know how to quantify that,” he said. “So I just say, ‘Get ready for the game. Let’s do that.’”

Smiling and waving his hand dismissively toward the outdoors, he added, “I don’t really care what goes on out here. We’re not having a snowball fight.”

Call it denial. Call it mind over matter. But call it crucial to set this tone. As ever in his first news conference of a game week, Reid’s opening remarks on Tuesday included his mantra of “look forward to the challenge of playing the Dolphins.”

This week, he could have mentioned not just the opponent’s name but the arctic conditions for which he’s girding the Chiefs — and for which Miami is preparing in its own right.

Because whatever this game might come down to will stem from mindset, and that’s going to hinge heavily on the mentality to not allow temperatures to dictate temperaments.

“If it gets in your head,” defensive lineman Charles Omenihu said, “you lost.”

So the former 49er tells himself “been there, done that” for a playoff game at Green Bay in 2022 that, in fact, was a balmy 15 degrees at kickoff and hit zero with windchill. And he’ll also try to fend it off in his mind by making few visible concessions to the conditions.

Don’t expect to see him suddenly wearing long sleeves, for instance.

“I just don’t change how I do things,” he said. “I’m a creature of habit, so I can’t (just) because it’s cold now. If I didn’t wear long sleeves all year in the other cold games, why would I do it now?”

Considering how every Chiefs player prepares differently, though, there’s no one way to adapt to the moment that defensive back Trent McDuffie lamented as Kansas City weather waking up after a great December.

“You kind of just get through it,” he said, later adding, “They give us really comfortable long sleeves that are very warm. And tights. Throw the ski masks on, throw the handwarmers in and you just bear down.”

Then there’s fellow defensive lineman Chris Jones, who more or less shrugged and said, “It’s cold all the time here, so that shouldn’t play a factor.”

That’s a long way from Jones’ stance as a rookie out of Mississippi State. After the 2016 Raiders home game that began at 21 degrees, Jones lent new meaning to his “Stone Cold” nickname when he said his “hands froze together, my toes didn’t want to move, my pinky toe, I forgot it existed.”

Just like some try to do with this weather: forget it exists.

Others make a decision to embrace it. And no one more so than Patrick Mahomes, who went as far as to call himself “a snow-game guy” when he was mic’d up against Denver in 2019.

“I don’t know why. But I kind of like it,” he said, sitting on the Chiefs’ bench during the 23-3 victory. “Everything’s super-slow, and I’m just like out there, just like standing straight there in the pocket.”

In the interview room on Tuesday, Mahomes smiled at the prospect of the grueling conditions on Saturday.

“I mean, yeah, what could be better?” Mahomes said, later adding, “I’d rather be playing a football game than chasing my kids around the backyard. So I’ll have a little bit of the adrenaline rush, and I’m excited for it.”

Never mind that he has no choice, both in the sense of being mentally ready for Saturday and how Reid treats it along the way.

“If there’s an opportunity to go outside, he’s going to have you outside,” Mahomes said. “He’ll have the doors open in the (indoor facility) just to let the cold air in.”

With a method to the madness.

“I’ve realized that practice in the cold is a lot harder than playing in the cold, just with the heaters and stuff on the sideline (during games),” Mahomes said. “So you kind of just adapt to it.”

As a child growing up in Texas, Mahomes said he never played in anything like these conditions. But he appreciated watching games in snow and ice and miserable cold.

Those have all the makings, he now feels, of knowing “you’re really playing football.”

And in the end, maybe that’s what this most comes down to — and exactly what Reid wants to coax out.

“The adrenaline rush kind of gives you that warmness that you’re seeking, and you have heaters on the sideline,” he said. “People make it a big deal. But at the end of the day, you just go out there and play football.

“And if you love it, you’ll be able to go out there and play your best football at the best time of year.”