Chiefs Labeled A ‘Football Halfway House For Repeat Offenders’

The Kansas City Chiefs have an unsavory reputation when it comes to giving recalcitrant players “second chances,” as coach Andy Reid likes to characterize it, and Candace Buckner of The Athletic let loose with both barrels as she talked about Reid’s approach and some of his comments about the Chiefs adding kicker Justin Tucker to their practice squad. 

The title of Buckner’s opinion piece was “Stop asking NFL men about forgiveness of alleged criminal acts. They have nothing to say.” 

That clarifies her approach and basic opinion about this phenomenon, and it’s hard not to admire Buckner for what she wrote. She described the kinds of questions coaches like Reid get about signings like Tucker as “mortifying,” especially when they’re asked to address women 

The exact question is almost always phrased as some variation of “what would you say to female fans about signing [Player X],” and it would be generous to describe the typical responses as half-hearted. Cringe-inducing is far more accurate, and to use Buckner’s description, they almost always shrink to the size of “a grain of salt.”

Reid certainly drew her ire, as she rephrased the inquiry as asking Reid “why he keeps giving creeps second chances” in the context of the Tucker sigining. The kicker was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by 16 massage therapists, according to the Baltimore Banner, with the specific alleagations including exposing his genitals ane leaving a wet spot on the sheets after ejaculating after treatments. 

Tucker served a ten-game suspension as a result, and in the eyes of the NFL, Reid and the Chiefs fan base that basically squares everything up. Kansas City signed Tucker because kicker Harrison Butker has made only 11 of 16 field goals this season, which led Buckner to state that Tucker now has a job” in the heartland’s version of a football halfway house.”

The columnist also got personal about Reid, describing him as “Mr. Kool-Aid with a walrus mustache meets fun-loving football genius.” 

It’s an accurate enough description, and Buckner went on to justify the signing by talking about the suspension and taking care of “the business” that came with it, which presumably means some combination of a possible apology along with a boatload of cash settlements. 

Buckner talked about other analogous signings, but the Chiefs were clearly her primary target. Bucker highlighted the hypocrisy of the financial benefits the Chiefs have gotten from the sudden appearance of pop star Taylor Swift as a Kansas City fan, based in large part on her romance and marriage to Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. 

It would be nice if columns like Bucker’s actually changed things, but that’s not going to happen. It is reassuring to know there are people out there writing the right things about this phenomenon, though, rather than falling into the NFL’s version of the party line.