The Chiefs’ wild 2023 season, which concluded in Kansas City with the team becoming the first to win the Super Bowl twice in almost two decades, did cause Andy Reid one regret.

Reid said to Colin Cowherd on Thursday’s episode of “The Herd” that he should have struck out at the standout tight end Travis Kelce after the latter notoriously bumped him in a sideline altercation during the Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime victory against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.

“I didn’t see him coming, or I would have forearm ripped him,” Reid said. “But he got me.”

Reid was, of course, joking. He has repeatedly insisted that his and Kelce’s altercation did no long-term damage to their relationship even as a remorseful Kelce has publicly taken responsibility for the incident. Reid doubled down on that stance Thursday, agreeing with Cowherd’s opinion that the outside reaction to his and Kelce’s dustup was “overblown.”

“I love his passion,” Reid said. “He’s always telling me, ‘Fire me up!’ and so I’m hard on him. He’s like one of my kids. I try to stay on top of him and make sure that he’s right, because he’s the personality of our team. As great a leader as Patrick [Mahomes] is, everybody follows Kelc’. When he’s fired up, everybody follows along in that. Listen, do things get a little crazy? Yeah, they get a little crazy. But that’s why the job’s so great. His job’s great. My job’s great. We’re not getting put in the back of a police car for arguing with each other. That’s not what’s happening.”

Reid is now a three-time Super Bowl champion, solidifying his place in football history as one of the best head coaches, particularly offensive-minded head coaches, in large part because of Mahomes and Kelce. Reid has a reputation for inventing plays from everything and everything, from Pop Warner kids football to a replay of a college football game from the middle of the 20th century.

“If it looks good, we’ll try it,” Reid said. “I’ve got great coaches and creative guys. I’ve got these young guys that have great minds. And so they put things together, they know they’ve got the full form to draw from. ‘Let’s try it. Who says it’s impossible?’ And then Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and these guys on the offensive side, they’ll donate a play here and there, they’ve got great minds. So all in all, everybody gets a little piece of the pie and feels pretty good about it, and we try to go out and execute it at Mach speed.”

Even though Kansas City’s typically potent offence faltered multiple times throughout the 2023 regular season, Reid claimed he never wavered in his optimism that the Chiefs could repeat as Super Bowl champions. Mahomes and Kelce were two of the main reasons for this. Reid even spared a time to mock Cowherd and co-host Jason McIntyre, two pundits who had questioned the Chiefs during the season.

“You’re letting Jason influence you, man,” Reid told Cowherd. “After this conversation, he’s gonna put some red on and jump on the bandwagon. … [When] you’re a quarterback, that sweet zone for you is inside those numbers, and we’ve got one of the best that’s ever done it when it counts with Kelce. Kelce has always had a ‘Sundance’ next to him, right? So with the Butch Cassidy-Sundance analogy here, he’s always had that guy to work with, and that’s so important for working inside those numbers. It’s a happy zone for quarterbacks. And then you’ve got to get two guys that can play outside those numbers. … People were going, ‘Kelce’s over the hill.’ No, we just needed Rashee [Rice] to keep growing, and he was so willing to do that, and Patrick was so willing to work with him and never got frustrated with him or anyone else, and it worked out.

“We all had hope, we just needed to keep growing. And we saw it the year before with our defense, our secondary was a bunch of young guys, and they just kept getting better and better and by the time we got to the playoffs, we were rolling.”

The Chiefs have plenty of well-earned confidence heading into 2024, so much so that several players have already publicly talked about the idea of a three-peat. Reid is not leaning into that discourse, however.

“That’s not where I’m at,” Reid said. “Our guys might think about it, or whoever [else], that’s not how I think. I think about it very simply of, ‘Make sure that you’re ready to go.’ When we get to training camp, nothing’s going to change there. We’re gonna go through a process. It’s not necessarily easy, but it’ll build a foundation. And then let’s work after that to get ourselves ready for the games. … Let’s take [our players’] talents and maximize them, and we’ll work on those things that maybe they’re not quite as good at and try to get them better there, and let’s roll. Let’s see what we can do.”