Andy Reid is one of the most legendary coaches in the history of the NFL. He has been in football since 1981 when he graduated from BYU and joined their coaching team. He has been in the NFL since 1992 when the Green Bay Packers made him assistant offensive line & tight ends coach. He was in Green Bay until 1998 and in 1999 he became the Philadelphia Eagles head coach, a position he held until 2012. Now, he is the Kansas City Chiefs coach and that is where he won his only Super Bowl until now, in 2019. However, he was not alone on this journey. His wife, Tammy Reid, has been there every step of the way and helped her husband get to the place he is right now. Thus, this piece will concern Andy Reid’s wife Tammy Reid.
Andy Reid’s wife Tammy Reid
This couple has actually been together since 1981 when Reid graduated from BYU. In August of that year, the pair got married and they have not looked back since. They met in college, as Andy was trying to establish himself as a viable coaching candidate in the college scene. On the other hand, his wife-to-be was studying physics and was actually working as a teacher in the first few years of their marriage. Obviously, after the kids came and Andy started getting more and more opportunities to be part of coaching staffs, Tammy started to move away from a career.
Tammy Ried was born in November of 1959, making her about a year younger than her life partner. She was born in Utah and that is where she spent most of her childhood, before moving on to Brigham Young University to study Physics. At the same time, Andy Reid was majoring in Physical Education and as all college students had to take part in that at the time, the couple met during a PE class. Even though the small-town Utah background of Tammy and the Los Angeles background of Andy do not mesh in theory, the pair really hit it off and while it took Andy some time, they decided they want to continue their life together.
The story of their first date and the preparation for it is pretty amazing. It was PE and the couple both signed up for tennis classes. Tammy was a great tennis player in high school, but she still wanted to improve, while Andy was simply interested to learn the game. They then agreed to play a round of badminton, where Andy beat Tammy, yet she still wanted him to ask her out. Andy was not much interested, but a proposition she made a couple of weeks after that was what sealed the deal.
They played tennis and Andy won in that as well, but Tammy was not giving up. Thus, she challenged her future husband in a game of racquetball and bragged she was a pro. After some time, he took up the challenge and won again. As the game was done, the couple shared some words and Andy finally decided to ask Tammy out. They went to the movies and it was clearly successful, as they got serious pretty quickly after their first date.
Of course, they waited until they were done with college, but as soon as Andy graduated in 1981, the couple decided to get married. As said before, they both worked, as Andy was a graduate assistant for BYU and then spent the next fourteen years going college to college trying to find a permanent spot where his coaching vision can be respected. Clearly, he had the full support of his wife, which followed him around the country trying to land a permanent job.
After some time, the pair started having kids. They have had five until today, Britt, Spencer, Crosby, Garrett, and Drew Ann. Unfortunately, in 2012, tragedy struck the Reid household, as Garrett died of a heroin overdose. This was during the time Andy was the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and it clearly hit him very hard, as it did his wife. What made things worse is the fact that before Garrett, their eldest son, died, Britt had issues with drugs as well. In 2007, he was arrested due to a drug-related charge. He also had a DUI accident in 2021, which caused the Chiefs not to extend his contract past the 2020 season.
It was a difficult time for both, but Andy and Tammy managed to weather the storm whatever was happening in their life. Now, they are inseparable, as they are doing well in private and personal lives. Andy is leading the Chiefs to a deep postseason run while Tammy is right by his side and she is very involved in each facet of their life together, including a lot of charity work. Here is to hoping that their marriage will be as strong as it was for the past 41 years.
Nonetheless, that’s all the current information we have on Andy Reid’s wife Tammy Reid.