Vahe Gregorian: For all the glamour around Chiefs, to Andy Reid it's all about the cinder blocks

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Walking to the Scanlon Hall dormitory at Missouri Western as Chiefs rookies and quarterbacks reported to training camp on Tuesday, I paused to take a picture of coach Andy Reid’s parking space when I suddenly sensed his aura.

Well, that and a Chiefs security guard was laughing since I seemed oblivious to Reid starting to pull in behind me in his black Dodge Ram.

When Reid stepped out of the pickup truck, we had what might be called a season’s greetings handshake and shared a little laugh about it. Since I’d already slowed him down enough, though, this was no time for what Larry David would call the “stop and chat.”

While it was tempting to accept Reid’s invitation to walk with him up the would-be red carpet of concrete toward dozens of media members, it seemed best not to spoil all the “camp starts!” B-roll in the making.

Plus, Reid already was ahead of me, apparently coursing with the stuff an old football coach of mine used to call “P and G: pepper and go.”

Nevermind that Reid is 66 years old now and entering his 26th camp as an NFL head coach. He was eager to get to what sometimes seems to be his favorite phase of the job: the grind of camp and the moorings of a new season.

In this case, it’s with a chance to create some profound history: The Chiefs can become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls and first to win three straight NFL titles since the 1965-1967 Green Bay Packers.

Wherever any season goes, Reid remains adamantly convinced, hinges on this proving ground into the NFL opener against Baltimore on Sept. 5 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

Even as the NFL trend since the turn of the century has been fewer teams going away for an immersive camp (21 of then-31 teams did so in 2000; just eight of 32 are now), Reid’s old-school sensibilities continue to make this format irresistible to him.

And who’s to argue with the fourth-winningest coach in NFL history, especially since he’s guided four of his last five teams to the Super Bowl after the franchise went a half-century without one.

What might be considered a throwback approach is about something more than mere habit for Reid. It’s a philosophical bedrock.

Counterintuitive as it might seem at a distance.

Even after the Chiefs boasted one of the best defenses in the NFL last season, and even though their offense hardly is about just the fancy stuff, the notion of the humble slog contrasts with the finesse of Reid’s play-scheming, the flash of the Patrick Mahomes era … and a certain glamour about the team geometrically multiplied by the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift phenomenon.

But you don’t get the glitz without the grit.

This time is about building precision and cohesion, to be sure. But it’s also about cultivating the essential identity of what Reid seeks in a team: sheer toughness and resilience that the Chiefs have been able to draw on when they need it most.

In other words, the traits that enabled them to rally from double digits in all three postseason games en route to winning Super Bowl LIV.

And the mindset that enabled them to summon something deep inside after the Christmas Day fiasco against the Raiders and soon up against arguably the most treacherous playoff path in NFL history before navigating their third Super Bowl victory in five seasons.

To Mahomes, the through-line from these grueling days at camp to those moments is self-evident.

“I think that’s why we’ve been able to have all these kind of late- finishing, comeback type of wins,” he said. “Because Coach Reid tests us every single day.”

While Mahomes meant on the field, Reid reckons a more comprehensive crucible deepens the wellspring.

That’s why he embraces modest living conditions in which every room is basically the same whether for coaches, superstars or fringe players. It’s a perfectly fine dorm, to be clear, but it doesn’t come with the luxuries and amenities most established players are used to.

Mahomes, for instance, is in the middle of a four-year window in which he’ll be guaranteed more than $200 million … and only now felt like it was time he could bring a TV with him so he could play EA Sports College Football 25 and watch the Paris Olympics.

When I suggested Reid might prefer this simpler setting even if a five-star hotel were available on the premises, he grinned at the thought but didn’t exactly reject the point.

As Reid pointed out the school recently renovated the dorms, ESPN’s Adam Teicher interjected: “against your wishes, right?”

Without objection, Reid smiled and nodded and referred to the annual in-dorm meeting he has with reporters during camp: “You guys get a taste of it. The cinder blocks are still cinder blocks, no matter how you cut it.”

To Reid, though, the cinder blocks might as well be pillars.

When I asked him about the benefits of spartan living conditions — which seem harmonious with what he inflicts on the practice field — Reid spoke to the essence of the point.

“Listen, there is a certain toughness this game requires …” he said, later adding, “We’ve got that part of it going, and it’s important that you develop that.

“If you are fatigued, then you are going to be fatigued mentally. If you are fatigued physically, that’s going to affect you mentally. And if you are fatigued, period, then you can’t think and you can’t play. At least not to the best of your ability.

“So the objective here is let’s get ourselves in shape, make sure we are in football shape … both mentally and physically, so that we can perform at our best.”

Reid knows something else can be nurtured with the shared hardship and mingling of dorm life and meals taken mostly in a cafeteria: a culture and brotherhood, as Mahomes put it, that understands that “this is what it takes in order for us to go out there and be great.”

When I asked Mahomes specifically what would be lost if they didn’t stay in a dorm, here’s what he said:

“I think it’s just the relationships. I mean, when you’re all in this together, every single step of the way, you have to build friendships or you’re going to hate each other. You build friendships, you go to a lot of different places where you’re either eating on campus together or you’re eating at different places around the city.

“Then, you go to practice, and you work hard, and then you can talk about it right after. It’s not like you’re going on your way back home or whatever that is. I have a lot of conversations with guys like (defenders) Justin Reid (and) Nick Bolton, and we talk about what can make each other better.”

You could call it coincidence: Maybe the last few years (except for 2020, when the pandemic kept the Chiefs from St. Joe) would have played out the same even without this time in St. Joe as the foundation.

But at this point, there’s every reason to believe this dynamic — infused by Mahomes in many ways — is vital to Reid’s formula.

No wonder Reid still is so keen to get started.