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Steve Mariucci told the best story about meeting Andy Reid in their 'tighty-whities' in 1992
HOUSTON — The 1992 Green Bay Packers assembled one of the greatest coaching staffs in the modern NFL, but it was not an overnight success. Unless you’re talking about the night Steve Mariucci and Andy Reid met.
Packers head coach Mike Holmgren hired Mariucci and Reid that year to join his staff, and they were assembling an incredible crew of coaching prowess. It included Jon Gruden, Ray Rhodes, Dick Jauron, Greg Blache, Sherman Lewis and other future coordinators and head coaches.
Mariucci was asked Thursday about how he and the current Kansas City Chiefs head coach met, and the question was met with an immediate laugh. It was clear that Mooch, now an NFL Network analyst, was sitting on a gem of a story.
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Both coaches were brought back to Green Bay to sign their contracts, and Mariucci caught a late flight into town.
“We didn’t know each other,” Mariucci said. “I read they had hired Andy Reid. I didn’t know him. We had to come back [to Green Bay] to sign our contracts. They would put everyone up at the Midway Motor Lodge. It’s a heck of a place. Real vacation spot.”
It was quite the eye-opener of small-town America for him.
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“I remember we showed up at the airport and our cars — this is Green Bay, Wisconsin now — they were like loaner cars or dealer cars or something,” Mariucci said. “The keys were in them and they were running and both heated up. Just sitting there in the parking lot. I was like … wow.”
Mariucci and his wife got to the hotel late and went to bed. That didn’t last long.
“It’s one o’clock in the morning and the fire alarm goes off,” Mariucci said. “I said, ‘This is a fake. Someone pulled it to wake us up.’ BEEP-BEEP-BEEP, it’s going off and it’s like, ‘Geez! OK, OK, I’ll get up,’ after like two minutes of listening to that thing.”
And this is where the infamous meeting happened of two future head coaches who would go on to win a combined 259 games in the NFL. If Mooch thought the running rental cars was an eye-opener …
“So I get up in my tighty-whities and I open the door to the room, and I look out the door,” Mariucci said. “I am looking for smoke. I am looking for people jumping out windows. I don’t know what’s going on. I look down the hall and there’s this big redhead coming out the door right down [the hall].”
Historic, right? Mariucci figured out who Big Red was.
“Andy Reid?”
“Mariucci?”
“Yeah, how ya’ doin?!”
And now you, like all of us listening to the story, cannot get that visual out of your head.
“So we walked down the hallway in our underwear during a fire alarm. [I said,] ‘Hey, my wife’s here, you want to meet her?’”
“‘Oh, let’s go put a robe on first,’ [Reid said.]”
Good idea. Now we just need the photo of this historic moment.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
