Britt Reid, the Kansas City Chiefs’ outside linebacker coach and the head coach’s son, Andy Reid, told officers he drank “two or three drinks” before getting involved in a car accident on Thursday night that left a child alive – threatening injuries, according to a search warrant filed in Jackson County, Missouri, in court.
The accident occurred just days before the Super Bowl in Tampa, Florida, on Sunday, when the Chiefs, the NFL champions, played against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Chiefs flew to Tampa on Saturday, but Britt Reid, 35, did not make the trip.
According to the search warrant, a policeman was able to smell “a moderate odor of alcoholic beverages” in Reid after the accident. The search warrant says the police tried to collect Reid’s blood and test it for alcohol and other controlled substances.
On Friday, in a statement, the team confirmed that Reid was involved in an accident, but did not provide details. “We are in the process of collecting information and will have no further comments at this time,” said the statement.
In response to an investigation into a possible accident involving Britt Reid, a police department spokesman in Kansas City, Missouri, said an accident occurred on Interstate 435, not far from the Chiefs’ training center.
The spokesman gave no further details or identified who was involved in the accident, citing a Missouri law that prohibits police from disclosing the names of people who have not been charged with a crime. But the details of the police incident report, such as the make and model of the cars involved and the description of what happened, corresponded to the search warrant, which names Reid.
According to police, a vehicle ran out of gas on a highway entrance ramp less than a kilometer from Arrowhead Stadium. The driver stopped with the blinker and asked his cousins for help. When they arrived, the cousins parked in front of the damaged car and left the lights on, as the damaged car’s battery was running low.
Reid entered the access ramp in a Ram truck and hit the left front of the stranded car, according to the police incident report. The driver was sitting in the car and was not injured.
Reid’s truck hit the back of his cousins’ car. The driver and an adult in the front passenger seat were not injured. But a 4-year-old and a 5-year-old boy, sitting on his back, were injured and were taken to hospital, the 5-year-old with serious injuries.
The 5-year-old boy was still in critical condition on Monday morning, according to a police spokesman.
After the Super Bowl, which the Chiefs lost 31 to 9, Andy Reid addressed his son’s accident for the first time.
“My heart is with all those who were involved in the accident, in particular the family with the girl who is fighting for her life,” said Andy Reid, adding that his “heart bleeds”.
Britt Reid had non-fatal injuries, the police said, but complained of stomach pains and was also taken to a hospital after the accident.
Reid has been a coach for the Chiefs since his father was hired as head coach eight years ago and has spent the past two seasons as a coach for outside linebackers. Before joining the Chiefs’ technical team, he spent three seasons at Temple University as a graduate assistant working on the attack.
He also interned with his father at the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009.
Britt Reid has had legal problems before. In 2007, Reid, then 22, pleaded guilty to charges of possession of a gun and drugs arising from a traffic violence dispute. He brandished a gun to another driver in the Philadelphia suburb the same day his brother Garrett was arrested after a drug-related traffic accident. Andy Reid took a five-week leave from the Eagles after his children were arrested.
Britt Reid also pleaded guilty to simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime and possession of drugs in the case. While on bail before the case was decided, he was arrested after driving in a shopping cart in a parking lot and finally pleaded guilty to drunk driving.
In 2012, Garrett Reid was found dead from an accidental overdose in his dorm at the Eagles’ training site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was 29 years old.