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It’s just a matter of time before Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid takes his place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He enters the 2026 season with 307 career victories, fourth on the NFL’s all-time list behind Don Shula (347), Bill Belichick (333) and George Halas (324).
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In 27 years as a head coach (13 with the Chiefs following 14 with the Philadelphia Eagles), Reid has had a grand total of four losing seasons. He’s one of only seven coaches to take two different teams to the Super Bowl, and his six Super Bowl appearances are tied for second all-time with Shula, trailing only Belichick (9).
The 68-year-old coach is as popular as he is successful. Despite his high profile, Reid often comes off as being one of us. A good example of that is his very public love of cheeseburgers.
“Bet you a cheeseburger” is a common refrain from Reid, which is why he is a natural spokesperson for a Kraft Singles promotion ahead of National Cheeseburger Day on Sept. 18. Reid is part of Kraft’s season-long campaign in which fans can visit TheSingleGreatestCall.com to win prizes, including a lifetime supply of Kraft Singles and tickets to Super Bowl LXI.
Athlon Sports caught up with Reid ahead of the Chiefs’ season opener on Monday night against the Denver Broncos to talk cheeseburgers and more.
(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.)
CRAIG ELLENPORT:Hey coach, appreciate you taking the time here. Definitely want to talk a little football, but first, why don’t you tell us a little bit about this Kraft Singles promotion involving you and National Cheeseburger Day.
ANDY REID: Yeah, it was awesome. They contacted me about the Kraft Singles and being prepared for National Cheeseburger Day, and I’m going, “Alright, this is like right up my alley.” I love cheeseburgers and I love Kraft Singles. I cook a million hamburgers during the summer for my grandkids and barbecue them up, and they love Kraft Singles, so I’m buying Kraft Singles by the ton, so when they [told me about] this, I’m going, “Well, this is like a marriage made in heaven.” And then on top of that, they’ve got a promotional deal going out where [fans] actually get to guess some things about whether they’re going to go for it or audible with some of my little cheeseburger decisions, and so they’re including the fans with all of this, which I’m going, this is unbelievable.
I mean, it’s a genius move, I thought, and let me be a part of it. So here I sit, and I just think it’s really been well-coordinated. Good people, too. I mean, they’re just a really great organization.
CE: It is a perfect fit with you and cheeseburgers, so it’s a very smart promotion for them. As far as your love of cheeseburgers and your reference to betting a cheeseburger and giving out cheeseburgers — was there a time that you realized, “Hey, this has become a thing?”
AR: Yeah, well, you know, I say it every Saturday, if we’re playing on Sunday, I say it every Saturday night. I go, “Hey, I’ll treat you to a cheeseburger.” I say it to the team. That’s the last thing I say to them before I break them up. And we have a cheeseburger snack, and so I’ve been doing this for so long, and I was a big cheeseburger guy before I ever became a coach as a kid, and so it just seemed like natural. Now, to say, Craig, that I knew that this was going to go this far, no. I didn’t know it would be that kind of a deal, but over the last couple of years, I’ve seen it take place, and guys joke about it, and they’ll always say, especially if I forget, if I forget to say it Saturday night, they’ll remind me, “How about the cheeseburger? How about the cheeseburger?” So it’s become kind of a thing there.
CE: But you were in Philly for so many years, with the cheesesteak, and you’re in Kansas City now with barbecue. Do the fans give you grief? Are they like, “Enough with the cheeseburgers already, we got this?”
AR: Listen, I think everybody loves cheeseburgers. I’m not telling you I don’t eat the other stuff, too, but the base is the cheeseburger. And National Cheeseburger Day, I mean, that’s kind of a big thing. It’s nationwide, so I’m not the only one eating them.
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CE: No doubt, no doubt. Turning to football, quick thoughts as you head into the season here on the state of the Chiefs?
AR: Yeah, I like this group. We’ve got a good nucleus of young guys that Brett Veach, our general manager, brought in. I’ve loved watching those guys grow. You know, we’ve got to continue to grow throughout the year, but they’re willing to work, and I like their attitude and how they went through training camp, challenged them a little bit during camp, and I thought they rose up to that. I would anticipate us continuing to grow throughout the year.
CE: This is certainly a different situation for you. It’s the first time in 14 years that you’re coming off of a losing season. What was different about this offseason?
AR: Well, we had a lot of time to go back and evaluate and reevaluate, and so not that you want that, but we’ve had so many winning seasons up to that point that the offseasons have been short. This one here, we tried to take advantage of the time that we had and not sit around sulking about what went on. To learn from it, let’s move on and get ourselves better and address the issues that we might have had and go forward. So I think that part’s been a positive. The players, I thought, handled it right. The guys that were here, which is always important.
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If you’re willing to admit that as a coach and as a player that we can get better in some spots and I could have done this or that, then you’re going to make progress going forward, and I felt like our guys took it upon themselves, coaches and players, and that’s helped us through the offseason program and then also through training camp.
CE: All through the offseason, of course, the media focus was on Patrick Mahomes coming back after tearing his ACL. And fans are thinking, “If he starts Week 1, the Chiefs are back in business.” They forget that you guys were struggling last year before he went down at the end of the season.So what are some of the bigger concerns you had to address during the offseason?
AR: Yeah, so first with Pat, he’s done a great job of rehabbing and doing that, but there are other things. Listen, I’m always going to take the responsibility for how we function offensively, defensively, and on special teams, and then you’ve got to navigate around some of the injuries that we had and that hit us in kind of crucial areas and some of the suspensions and so on that we had. So you’ve got to work through that, and we never use that as an excuse, but certain things are real, and you’ve got to work around it, and hopefully you keep growing.
So the positive was we got to play a ton of young guys, and I think they’ll benefit us as we continue to move forward. And then lessons learned. We had nine games where we lost by seven points or less, so it’s one of those types of things, and we’ve got to make sure we narrow that down and get on the other end of that.
CE: Looking around the NFL, you’ve had one of the great careers, and your credentials in offensive guru are unparalleled. There are many great offensive coaches around the league right now.Who has impressed you a great deal? What has impressed you about offensive coaching these days?
AR: Yeah, I love what I see, where the league has gone offensively. The guys are staying aggressive. To pick one, I mean, there’s so many good offensive minds in the league, young guys that I think are just great for the NFL, and these quarterbacks are spectacular right now.
Everybody’s basically got a guy that can help them win and give them an opportunity to win. Again, it’s great for the National Football League, but I’m not picking one person out. I mean, we play half of these guys, so I don’t want to slight anybody, but you know the teams.
I mean, there’s some great offensive minds out there, and they’re cutting it loose, which I love to see. They’re not only running the ball, but the passing game has never been better than it is right now in this league.
CE: It seemed like one offensive trend that got bigger last season was the 1-3 alignment, with three tight ends. What’s your take on that?
AR: Yeah, so we were big on it a few years back. It just depends on how you balance it out with your tight ends. I mean, where’s your strength? Is it with the tight end group? Is it with the receiver group? How do you balance that out? So we’ve always had a mix and a match in that. But yeah, it can be successful. You saw Bill (former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick) do it a number of years ago with three tight ends.
We were doing it even before that. It can be positive as long as you have the guys. You want to make sure you can get the best mismatches that you can get, whether it’s with tight ends or wide receivers or a combination of them.
CE: Last question for you: When you’re not grilling cheeseburgers for your grandchildren, favorite spot for a cheeseburger?
AR: Oh, boy. Craig, I haven’t met too many cheeseburgers I haven’t liked. So like you, we probably grew up on cheeseburgers. And I don’t have, like, a specific spot. I don’t have one place that I like. There are a number of them. And I’ve got them all over the country.
That’s one thing about being a coach. I’ve traveled a lot of different places. And when people know you like cheeseburgers, they’re willing to share them with you. And I’ve had some great ones over time.
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This story was originally published September 14, 2026 at 3:00 AM.