[mdchiefsfan]

"We're 8--0," he replied, "but we work like we're 2--6."

Last year, in the Chiefs' crash-and-burn 2--14 season, between 10 and 15 players would populate the building on the off day—watching tape, working out, taking a steam. On this Tuesday there were about 35. Never has a one- or two- or three-win NFL team started its next season 9--0. "This doesn't feel like an NFL team," said safety Eric Berry. "It feels like a college team. We want to put in the extra time on our own to do whatever it takes. That's the atmosphere Andy's created."

Second-string quarterback Chase Daniel was in the building for seven hours last Tuesday, dissecting video from four Buffalo games with the starter, Smith. Said Daniel, "Andy'll ask me, 'How are the guys doing? What do you think of running this play out of this formation? How do you like this call right here?' I'm the backup quarterback, and he always wants to know my opinion."

ONE SCENE from before the Chiefs' 9--0 start illustrates why Clark Hunt bought into Andy Reid.

Last January, two days after Reid was fired by the Eagles, a four-man contingent led by Hunt was on a plane to Philadelphia. Hunt wondered, as did everyone else on board, whether Reid had burned out. He had coached 14 years in football-frenzied Philly. He had witnessed two sons become addicted to drugs—one of them, 29-year-old Garrett, having died of an overdose while working with the strength and conditioning department in Eagles camp just five months earlier. It seemed only natural to think, This man needs to breathe; he needs six months on a beach.

When the group arrived at Philadelphia International Airport, Hunt asked to spend some time alone with Reid in a conference room. Reid told Hunt that in the last few years he had grown to hate the personnel side of the job. There had been a power struggle in the Eagles' front office among owner Jeff Lurie, president Joe Banner, former personnel czar Tom Heckert and current GM Howie Roseman. Reid had had enough.

"Look, I'm a football coach," he said. "All I want to do is coach."

Hunt planned for a four-hour interview with Reid. It lasted eight. This is what thrilled the Chiefs' owner most: Reid had already watched offensive and defensive video of every Kansas City snap from the 2012 season.

Think about that. Hunt had called Reid on Monday afternoon, around 3 p.m., and here it was, about 10 a.m. on Wednesday, and Reid had seen and taken notes on 1,988 plays from the Chiefs' nightmare campaign. "He knew our personnel very, very well," says Hunt. "The amount [of work] he had done was really impressive. I saw in him an energy, an excitement. He had a twinkle in his eye, as if this were his first head-coaching interview."

Reid wouldn't be interviewed for this story; to keep the focus on the team, he has refused all one-on-ones in the first two months of the season (even when his former Eagles quarterback, Donovan McNabb, now with Fox Sports, came calling). But asked about the "he needs time off" notion during the off-season, Reid told Sports Illustrated, "I love what I do. Garrett loved what I did. It doesn't feel like work. I didn't want to sit home and not coach. What was I going to do? There was nothing I wanted to do as much as coach football. The thing with Garrett—it was not very sudden; this was a long, long process. Unfortunately, [drug addiction] is so rampant in America, and people who have gone through it realize that you don't just, as in my case, lose a son; you lose a great friend. The other side of this is working to move on like a man and handle what life throws at you."