Andy Reid Says Chris Berman Inspired a 90-Year-Old Play Call for Chiefs TD

The Play Call That Time Forgot

Andy Reid has built a reputation as one of the NFL's most creative offensive minds, and this week he revealed an unexpected source for his latest bit of play-calling wizardry: ESPN's Chris Berman. According to Reid, Berman flagged a play call from roughly 90 years ago, and the Chiefs dusted it off to score a touchdown. Leave it to Reid to reach back nearly a century into football history and make it work in 2026.

Why Andy Reid Loves Football History

This isn't out of character. Reid is known around the league as a walking football encyclopedia, someone who studies old game film, obscure formations, and vintage playbooks the way other coaches study modern analytics. He's pulled from single-wing concepts, old-school misdirection, and forgotten gadget plays throughout his career with the Eagles and Chiefs. Crediting a media personality like Berman for sparking an idea just adds another fun layer to Reid's reputation as football's ultimate tinkerer.

The Chris Berman Connection

Chris Berman has spent decades as one of the most recognizable voices in sports broadcasting, and his encyclopedic knowledge of football history apparently extends well beyond highlight reels and nicknames. Whether it came up in a casual conversation, an interview, or through Berman's own historical deep-dives, the exchange led Reid to revive a play call that hadn't seen an NFL field in generations — and it worked exactly as drawn up (or, in this case, redrawn from a 1930s playbook).

What Makes This Story Stick

It's a reminder that football's playbook is cyclical. Concepts fade out of fashion, get forgotten, and then resurface decades later when a creative mind like Reid's decides an old idea deserves a second life. The league's best offensive coaches are often its best historians, and this moment is a perfect example of how looking backward can move an offense forward.

What Reader Should Know

For Chiefs fans, this is one more data point in the ongoing story of why Reid remains one of the most respected play-callers in football. For football fans in general, it's a fun nudge to remember that today's cutting-edge scheme might just be tomorrow's forgotten trick play — and vice versa. Expect Reid to keep mining history for the Chiefs' next unexpected wrinkle.