Kansas City radio host ties death of Andy Reid’s son to Chiefs' handling of Tyreek Hill situation
A sports radio host was discussing the Kansas City Chiefs’ handling of Tyreek Hill’s child abuse allegations when he took a repugnant shot at Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, drawing wide criticism.
Kevin Kietzman of Sportsradio 810 WHB in Kansas City compared Reid’s discipline of players to the discipline of his sons. Reid is well-known to have lost his son, Garrett, in 2012 to a heroin overdose.
The audio clip in question can be found below, with a transcription from Awful Announcing:
Here's Kevin Kietzman dragging Andy Reid's name through the muck. Truly disgusting audio. Cut him from 810 NOW, ban him for LIFE from American radio. pic.twitter.com/nYPVM2ua6K
— 50 Sent (@ClayWendler) June 24, 2019
“The thing is, they probably think they can fix him, but they thought they could fix him before, and they failed. Andy Reid does not have a great record of fixing players. He doesn’t. Discipline is not his thing. It did not work out particularly well in his family life, and that needs to be added to this, as we’re talking about the Chiefs. He wasn’t real great at that either. He’s had a lot of things go bad on him, family and players.
“He is not good at fixing people, he is not good at discipline. That is not his strength. His strength is designing football plays. To be honest, Andy Reid’s greatest strength is designing football offenses and plays. That’s his greatest strength. Players like him, sure, and he’s a leader. I’m not saying he’s not a leader. His greatest strength is designing football plays. And that’s gotten him a long way, but that doesn’t mean he’s qualified to discipline players, or help them, or change them, or make them better.”
There are several problems with Kietzman’s monologue, chiefly among them how Reid’s dead son remotely ties into the Chiefs’ handling of a player who pleaded guilty to domestic assault and is meeting with NFL investigators this week over a child abuse case.
The Chiefs chose to draft Hill knowing his history with violence, and there’s an easy argument to make that they should have cut bait with him long before this latest incident. But it’s hard to see what that has to do with how Reid disciplines his children.
Kietzman has since come out to say that Garrett’s death was never on his mind. But it’s hard to hear “it did not work out particularly well in his family life” and not connect the dots to Reid’s son’s death.
Holy hat what’s going on here? I never mentioned one word about the tragic death of Andy Reid’s son and quickly corrected a caller who did. I was talking about the owner’s record of “fixing” players, the team’s record and Andy’s record. I was referencing the drug (1/3)
— kevin kietzman (@kkwhb) June 25, 2019
addiction and convictions for dealing drugs. When they served time and Reid hired them to work for his football teams, it was no longer a private matter. But blaming a parent for the death of their child in these circumstances is unthinkable and reprehensible. Period. It (2/3)
— kevin kietzman (@kkwhb) June 25, 2019
was NEVER mentioned or discussed and NEVER entered my mind. It makes me sad that somehow that’s what some of you thought I was saying. That would be despicable. (3/3)
— kevin kietzman (@kkwhb) June 25, 2019
Addiction is a harrowing problem, and Reid should not be expected to “discipline” his adult child out of that — or any — disease. Kietzman was irresponsible for insensitively dragging Garrett into the conversation about Reid’s coaching ability, and he has not shown that he understands the gravity of his words.
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