Andy Reid keeps his locker room simple, and that starts with a hard line on what players should leave at the door.
During a conversation with former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett on Garrett’s “Coach 2 Coach” podcast, the Chiefs coach talked about the way he handles communication inside the team. Reid has a players committee in place to keep coaches and players connected and to prevent resentment from building up behind the scenes.
He also said he doesn’t believe in burying players under a long list of rules.
“I’m not going to go overboard with all that,” Reid said. “I think guys, if you give a checklist of 100 different things, they’re going to forget the bottom 90, they’ll give you the top 10.
Once you get past that, you’re probably going to forget about it. So I try to hit certain things.
But the base principle is the whole ‘ do unto to others as you would have done to you,’ and if you can just kind of follow that, normally you’re going to be OK.”
Reid tied that approach to a broader standard for how he wants people in the building to treat one another. He is active with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but he does not push his religious views on players.
In fact, he makes a point of telling them to steer clear of four subjects in the locker room: money, religion, women and politics.
“Use common sense. So, give me my space,” Reid said.
“I literally tell them: money, religion, women, politics, unless you’re asked about it, don’t talk about it. Don’t force your opinion on those things on people, because that’s where 99% of the wars have been started in this world is one of those things right there.
So if we just kind of stay away from those, and unless asked, then you’re OK.
“So you’re respecting the other person and his opinion, without having a fight over it. We’re together too long.
We’ve got too many different people in this room. Whether it’s race, whether it’s religion, whatever beliefs.”
That kind of boundary-setting helps explain why the locker room didn’t split when kicker Harrison Butker’s comments at Benedictine College a few years ago stirred up plenty of reaction from fans.
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