The Sadness of the Britt Reid Tragedy Overshadows Tampa Bay’s Win

By Ken Reed

A little girl remains in critical condition after Kansas City Chiefs outside linebackers coach, Britt Reid (son of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid) struck two cars with his pickup truck last Thursday. One of the cars had run out of gas and was stopped on the side of an interstate entrance ramp. The driver called cousins for help and they arrived in another vehicle shortly later. Two young girls, ages four and five, were in the back seat of the car that arrived to help. The five- year-old suffered life threatening injuries when Reid’s truck slammed into their car and remains hospitalized. The four-year-old suffered a broken nose and a concussion and is now resting at home.

Britt Reid admitted to police that he’d been drinking and was on the prescription drug Adderall.

Andy Reid, one of the most well-liked coaches in the NFL, wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the case but did say, “Just from a human standpoint, man, my heart bleeds for everybody involved in that.” Police are still investigating the accident and charges haven’t been filed yet.

Britt Reid has a checkered past. In 2007, he faced a 23-month jail sentence for his role in a road rage incident in which he allegedly wielded a handgun. He also pleaded guilty to DUI and drug charges in a separate incident in 2007. While still in jail on the road-rage charges, Reid was hit with another charge: driving under the influence of a controlled substance and drug possession stemming from a separate incident where he drove into a shopping cart in a parking lot while out on bail.

A GoFundMe page has raised more than $400,000 for the family of the little girls.

“Thank you again to everyone donating and sending so many prayers and kind words to the family,” read an update on the GoFundMe page. “[She] remains in the same condition and hasn’t waked up yet.”

Britt isn’t the only child of Andy Reid with a troubled past.

Garrett Reid, who was arrested on the same day as Britt in 2007, died at age 29 from an accidental drug overdose during Philadelphia Eagles training camp at Lehigh University in 2012. Andy Reid was the head coach of the Eagles at the time and Garrett was helping the team’s strength and conditioning staff at the time.

Garrett first entered drug rehab in 2003, according to ESPN. Four years later, he was involved in a high-speed car crash that led to police discovering heroin and more than 200 pills in his car. Authorities said Garrett tried to smuggle drugs into jail while serving his sentence.

When handing out a sentence to one of the Reid boys, a Pennsylvania judge described a “family in crisis” living in a home that was a “drug emporium.”

This latest incident is certainly a sad situation for Andy Reid and his family, but it’s a terrible situation for the poor little girls injured by Britt Reid’s vehicle. The entire episode cast a pall over the Super Bowl game and surrounding festivities. And that pall remains today.

Here’s hoping both girls have a full recovery, so that the most important story coming out of Super Bowl LV is Tom Brady’s 7th Super Bowl win and not another Reid family tragedy involving alcohol and drugs.

— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans