Andy Reid

Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid told reporters not to “make too much” of the sideline spat between him and star tight end Travis Kelce during the second quarter of the team’s 22-9 win over the New York Giants on “Sunday Night Football.”

NBC’s cameras caught the two men yelling at each other, with Reid at one point appearing to intentionally give Kelce’s shoulder a hard bump with his own shoulder. The Chiefs were up 6-0 at the time, but the offense had just failed to capitalize on a Giants turnover.

Going into halftime, as the confrontation with Kelce played on viewers’ screens, NBC’s Melissa Stark asked Reid what his message was to the team after seeing “a lot of frustration and emotion from your key players, star players on the sideline.”

“That’s OK, we need some juice,” said Reid, whose team had entered the game 0-2. “So that’s good.”

During his postgame news conference, Reid was asked what he had been trying to get across to Kelce during the exchange.

“I love Travis’ passion, and so I’m OK with that. We didn’t have enough of it,” Reid said. “That second quarter wasn’t where we needed to be. So within reason, you know, he knows — he knows when to back off the pedal, and knows when to push it too. So that’s part I love about him, the guy’s all in. Just sometimes I have to be the policeman.”

Reid added: “Listen, he’s an emotional guy. He’s Irish.”

Asked if the exchange was him telling Kelce to back off a bit, Reid answered: “Don’t make too much of it. He’s a passionate guy, and I love that part. So I’ve been through a lot of things with him, so that’s all part of it. I love that he loves to play the game. That’s what I love. And it’s an emotional game. So I’ll take it.”

Kelce wasn’t made available to speak to reporters after the game.

It’s not the first time the two men made contact during a sideline dispute. Early in the second quarter of Super Bowl LVIII against the San Francisco 49ers on Feb. 12, 2024, Kelce was seen yelling in his coach’s face, grabbing his arm and bumping into him, which appeared to cause Reid to stumble a bit.

After the Chiefs’ 25-22 overtime win in that game, Reid brushed off the incident, telling CBS that Kelce had hugged him and apologized after the incident.

“There’s nobody that I get better than I get him,” said Reid, who was 65 at the time. “He’s a competitive kid and he loves to play.”

Days later, on the “New Heights” podcast, Kelce expressed regret.

“It’s definitely unacceptable,” he said, “and I immediately wished I could take it back.”

On the same podcast, Kelce said: “Unfortunately, sometimes my passion comes out where it looks like it’s negativity, but I’m grateful that [Reid] knows that it’s all because I wanna win this thing with him more than anything.”

The Chiefs hadn’t started 0-2 since 2014, which was Kelce’s first year as a starter and Reid’s second as the team’s coach. The team has since played in five Super Bowls and won three.

This season is off to a slow start also for Kelce, a 10-time Pro Bowl selection. He has 10 catches in 17 targets for 134 yards and one touchdown. During the Chiefs’ 20-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2, a pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes bounced out of Kelce’s arms at the goal line and resulted in a game-changing interception by the Eagles’ Patrick Mukuba.

Also during the Philadelphia game, Kelce appeared to point to his crotch as part of a crude gesture aimed toward the opposing sideline after making a 23-yard reception. He was later fined $14,491 by the NFL for unsportsmanlike conduct.

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Turns out, the marquee matchup Friday night between the Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs isn’t just a season-opening showdown between two premier quarterbacks and legitimate Super Bowl hopefuls.

It’s also a family feud — minus the bad blood.

Devin Woodhouse, head strength and conditioning coach for the Chargers, is the son-in-law of Chiefs coach Andy Reid, an under-the-radar connection that further hems these AFC West rivals.

“In our first game last year, I was a little anxious playing them,” Woodhouse told The Times. “It felt weird rooting against him at times.”

Reid understands, and he loves the fact that before bringing Woodhouse with him from the University of Michigan, Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh called his Kansas City counterpart and asked him if that would be OK.

“I said, ‘Heck, yeah, I’m honored that he’s got an opportunity to work for you,’” Reid said. “I got the biggest kick out of that, that Jim would even think of that. … What a class act.”

Chargers strength and conditioning coach Devin Woodhouse instructs players during practice at The Bolt in El Segundo on Dec. 13, 2024.

(Los Angeles Chargers)

Woodhouse, modest and focused on his Chargers responsibilities, was initially reluctant to sit down for an interview. But Harbaugh and Reid nudged him to talk, as did his direct boss, Ben Herbert, executive director of player performance.

“I don’t want to dim that light on him,” Herbert said. “I want that light brighter.”

Woodhouse, 34, who grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, met his future wife, Drew Ann Reid, when they were members of the same ward of their church in Provo, Utah. They had mutual friends, an instant connection and were married in 2013.

The couple was further bonded by tragedy. Drew Ann’s older brother, Garrett, who struggled with drug abuse for years, died in 2012. The twin brother of Woodhouse, Chaz, who was confined to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy, died a year later.

“As our relationship was growing, her brother passed away,” Woodhouse said. “We grew even closer together.”

The two now have four children, two boys and two girls, all of whom refer to Reid as “Gramps.” Woodhouse doesn’t call his father-in-law anything but “Coach.”

“I would say he’s a better man than he is a coach, and he’s a pretty dang good coach,” Woodhouse said. “And [mother-in-law] Tammy is the head coach of the head coach, so that’s how good they both are. I just love them, and not just the people they are for my wife, but for my kids and their grandkids.

“One of the things I love most about Coach Reid is how much I feel people love to play for him. It’s a cool thing to witness and I respect it a lot.”

Woodhouse feels the same way about Harbaugh, for whom he and Herbert worked at the University of Michigan.

“Ben Herbert found Dev,” Harbaugh said. “When Herb recommends somebody, I already know it’s going to be good. He doesn’t bring in anybody who doesn’t have a tremendous work ethic. Devin came in, and Herb was right.”

Herbert is meticulous down to the smallest detail. For instance, each dumbbell at the Chargers facility is emblazoned with the club’s lightning-bolt logo. Not only is that wall of weights always precisely arranged, but every lightning bolt is arched in an identical way. To ensure there’s never a speck of dust on the floor, Herbert and his crew use electric leaf blowers each day to clean the massive space.

Helping oversee the physical well-being of so many elite athletes is a challenging assignment, particularly for a franchise that has an unfortunate history of losing key players to injuries — as the Chargers did in August with left tackle Rashawn Slater, who sustained a season-ending knee injury.

Chargers strength and conditioning coach Devin Woodhouse helps quarterback Justin Herbert with his jersey during training camp in El Segundo on July 21, 2025.

(Ty Nowell / Los Angeles Chargers)

The way Harbaugh sees it, no one is better equipped to train an NFL team than Herbert.

“We are the tip of the spear,” said Herbert, who is not related to Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert. “Our job is to impact the mental and physical capability of the players. The physical part is much easier. The mental part — emotional stability, consistency — that’s the separator. And trust is everything.”

Woodhouse has a knack for building and maintaining those trusts.

“He has an ability to build relationships across a melting pot of personalities,” Herbert said. “He’s also versatile across range-of-motion, tissue and joint, strength, power and movement traits. So much so that with my 14-year-old, twice a week I want Coach Woodhouse to work with him.”

Woodhouse has a particularly keen eye when it comes to evaluating the tiniest aspects of a person in motion, helping players make subtle adjustments to the way they run in order to improve their speed.

Chargers strength and conditioning coach Devin Woodhouse works with Chargers wide receiver Ladd McConkey before a game at SoFi Stadium against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 15, 2024.

(Ty Nowell / Los Angeles Chargers)

“Dev’s someone who’s going to support you, but he’s going to tell it like it is,” Chargers receiver Ladd McConkey said. “I’ll be running a route, and Dev’s over there with his phone recording me. Then we’ll look at it in slo-mo and break it down.”

During games, Woodhouse is on the sideline as a “get-back” coach — a term he doesn’t particularly like — making sure players and coaches keep a sufficient distance from the field.

As for his own emotions, he figures he will have them in check, even with his father-in-law on the opposite sideline.

Family is family, true. But football is football.