Peter King spent four decades covering the National Football League for Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports. In that time, he's seen a thing or two, patterns that come and go and circle back again. And it's that perspective that makes his comments at the Kansas City Chiefs' annual kickoff luncheon so notable.
The K.C. Chamber has co-hosted the event with the team since 1962 at the start of each new season. King was honored as this year's Lamar Hunt Award for Professional Football, and in his remarks, he provided some unique insights into just how special the bond between head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes really is.
Specifically, King says that what the Chiefs have enjoyed since 2018, when Mahomes was made the starting QB, is unlike anything he ever witnessed. And that relationship between head coach and quarterback is central to an organization's success, one of the key chapters of his forthcoming book.
The longtime NFL reporter was honored at the Chiefs kickoff luncheon and spoke to what makes their success so rare.
"I've got a book coming out in a month. It's called The Game, and it's about my 40 years covering the NFL, 1984 to 2023," said King. "I have a chapter in there about why the relationship between the coach and the quarterback is far and away the most important relationship in football, and I use Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes as the model. It's the best coach-quarterback relationship I've seen in my 40 years covering the NFL, and the reason is that they have this implicit trust for each other. They can complete each other's sentences."
King also spoke to Reid's longevity in the game, using the bond with Mahomes as fuel for his belief that the longtime head coach might stick around as long as his QB decides to keep playing. After 44 years, Reid is still inspired by the sport and motivated by the job. King believes that will remain the case for some time.
"I thought there would be a time two or three or four years ago that it might be over for Andy and he might sail off into the sunset and do TV or whatever, but I now think that what has to be going through his mind, 'Are you kidding me? I'm not leaving this guy.' So I don't have any idea. I mean, I remember the last year I worked in the '23 season, I asked him in the playoffs right at the end, 'So is this it for you?' And he said, 'Is this it for you?'
"I think he still really, really loves it, and from what I heard, they had a very hard training camp this year. I think Andy wanted to say to his team, 'Six and 11, we're never going to do that again, ever. Ever.'"
Chiefs fans hope that King is right on multiple fronts—about the continued importance of the pair's bond, of Reid's interest in staying head coach, and ultimately in the leadership's determination to emerge from the collapse of the 2025 season.
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