JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It took Andy Reid a little more than two decades to win a Super Bowl as a head coach, but Sunday night his Kansas City Chiefs rallied to beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-20, ending the team’s 50-year Super Bowl drought.
It also silenced all of Reid's critics.
Christian Cooper, who is a former Jacksonville University Dolphins player and a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan was all in the for the Chiefs. Cooper says he was cheering for the Chiefs because he feels Reid deserved to win it all.
Cooper met Reid while a freshman at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School near Philadelphia. His father worked at the Philadelphia Eagles organization during Reid’s 14-year tenure. Cooper shared photos of when he met Reid at an all-star football game back in 2003. Cooper and Reid’s son Britt played on the same team with him.
“At the end of the game, I said 'Hey, can I get a picture with you?' So, he took a picture of me and we went from there and we've been cool ever since," Cooper said.
Reid would go on to become Cooper’s mentor. Before the Eagles fired Reid in 2012, the coach had plans for the former JU defensive back.
“He wanted me to come work for the Eagles organization," Cooper said. "He told me he’d mold me and help me get a coaching position. That he would take me under his wing."
But he lost contact with coach Reid after he graduated from JU and Reid became the head coach of the Chiefs. Still, Cooper could not be happier for one of the best NFL coaches of all time.
“You cheer for good people," he said. "Good people deserve the best and everything they've been through nothing detoured him.”