'Big Reason I'm A Head Football Coach': Eagles' Doug Pederson Pulling Hard For Andy Reid To Finally Win Elusive Super Bowl
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Super Bowl 54 is nine days away in Miami and a lot of Philadelphia Eagles fans will be pulling for the Kansas City Chiefs. That's because of former Birds head coach Andy Reid, who finally made it back to the Super Bowl after a 15-year absence.
There is one Eagle that knows Big Red very well and that's head coach Doug Pederson, who spoke with CBS3 on Friday about his former boss.
"I'm excited for him, I'm pulling for him. Obviously he's a big reason I'm a head football coach in Philadelphia. I'm going to be rooting hard for Coach Reid. This is obviously a long time coming, 15 years since he's been back in this game. I think it just goes to show how hard it is to get back to that championship level each and every year. I'm pulling for him, I'm pulling for the Chiefs. Hopefully, they pull it out," Pederson said.
Reid had a big hand in the Eagles' 2018 Super Bowl victory. First, he told owner Jeffrey Lurie that he should hire Pederson as head coach. Secondly, he drafted several players that played a key part in the championship -- Nick Foles, Brandon Graham, Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, to name a few.
Reid has the seventh-most wins in NFL history, but the six coaches ahead of him have at least two championships.
Big Red has none.
Reid and Pederson will forever be linked together. Pederson started nine games for Reid's Eagles in 1999 before Donovan McNabb took over. When Pederson retired in 2005, he coached high school football in Louisiana for four years.
Then Pederson followed Reid to Kansas City, where he was the Chiefs' offensive coordinator.
Pederson says Reid has had a big influence on his life.
"I've had the opportunity to work for Coach Reid, having played for him both in Green Bay and in Philly. And then to come work for him. That's when I think things really, for me as a coach, began to really start to take off in the standpoint of knowing how to prepare a football team, studying our opponents, play-calling, play-design and being able to really pick Coach Reid's brain from that point on to even today," Pederson said.
A week from Sunday, Reid looks to get rid of the label of the best coach not to win a Super Bowl when the Chiefs play the San Francisco 49ers in Miami.