When Andy Reid isn’t leading the Kansas City Chiefs to Super Bowl glory, he is busy being a father and husband in his close-knit family, who have been impacted by a personal tragedy in the past. Reid has been married to his wife, Tamara, for 42 years after they wed in August 1981, and they have built a life together after meeting while studying at Brigham Young University.
But the difficulties in raising a large family have not evaded Andy and Tammy after they had five children together, moving from one state to another on his career to becoming one of the NFL’s top coaches.
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And in August 2012, their eldest child, Garrett, tragically passed away at the age of 29 following an accidental heroin overdose. It was reported by CBS News at the time that Garrett was found unresponsive in his dorm room at Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, before he was later pronounced dead.
At the time, Garrett was turning his life around as a recovering drug addict and had been working for the Philadelphia Eagles as a strength and conditioning assistant coach. The Reid family released a statement confirming his death with an emotional tribute to their son.
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“On behalf of Tammy and our family, I would like to thank everybody for their tremendous support, love, kind words and prayers during this time of great sadness. Words cannot express our sense of loss,” Andy said in an August 2012 statement, per CBS News.
“We loved Garrett so much. He was a wonderful son and brother. He made us laugh, he was a pleasure to be around, he always had a smile on his face, and we will miss him dearly. We will never forget him, and we will remember him with love.”
Who are Andy Reid’s other four children?
Britt Reid, 38, is the couple’s second child and he was born when they were “super poor”, according to Tammy. Unfortunately, just like his older brother, Britt struggled with drug addiction and faced issues with the law.
As The New York Times reported, he was sentenced to three years in prison in 2022 “for one felony count of driving while intoxicated with serious bodily injury” after “severely injuring a 5-year-old girl in a crash after he drank alcohol on the job.” In April 2023, KCTV5 reported that Britt was in prison at Tipton Correctional Center.
