Colts coach Frank Reich proves that it was worth the wait

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Indianapolis Colts Reich Talks To Face The Philadelphia Eagles
Matt Kryger, IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts Training Camp at Grand Park Westfield

"It was a goal, it was an ambition, but it was not a do-it-yourself situation," said Frank Reich about becoming a head coach.(Photo: Matt Kryger / IndyStar)

INDIANAPOLIS – Frank Reich was always going to be good with all the work if the job never came, that dream that seemed to move further away over the years and he continued to hear no. The man spent about ten years, then a few others as backup quarterback, eight others as a pastor, so the prospect was not difficult to find. The game was enough. Being around football would always be enough.

He had done well if he had never coached.

"It was always a goal, but it was never:" I must be where my life is not complete, "says Reich. "It was a goal, it was an ambition, but it was not a do-it-yourself situation."

But fate in this league is a fun thing, and the timing is right: five months after Reich and his wife, Linda, decided not to pay attention to coaching positions during the season, the door would open. finally. Irony. Opportunity. Both. Reich had asked his agent, "No appeal, no text", to invest in the playoffs and in the back quarterback that would eventually kill the powerful patriots and deliver to Philadelphia its first Super Bowl title .

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At first it did not matter, because Reich's phone did not ring at the beginning. Chris Ballard, General Manager of the Indianapolis Colts, narrowed his list to five men he wanted to interview for his coaching job.

Reich's name was not there.

"My Lord, what did I think?" Ballard wondered in the weeks that followed.

Soon, the GM was kicking himself because Reich had saved and saved the organization. He had helped the Colts recover from the public humiliation of the Josh McDaniels debacle, by smoothing out what might have been an embarrassing introductory press conference – "What does it look like to be the team's second choice? moxie and conviction that have instilled hope in a franchise and a base of injured fans. No, Frank Reich was not taken aback, he was not baffled.

Remember: the man once removed the Bills from a 32-point hole in the playoffs. This? This it was nothing.

Andrew Luck loved the ability to choose the brain of his new coach, Frank Reich, a former NFL QB who spent 14 years in the league. (Photo: Matt Kryger / IndyStar)

"I knew at the time," recalls Thurman Thomas, the running back of the Bills Hall of Fame. "It was obvious to me that Frank would become head coach of the National Football League one day. You just saw him.

But not right now. He spent two years as offensive coordinator in Philadelphia in 2016 and in 1717, giving Frank Reich the shock his career always needed, the good head coach, the good quarterback, the good time. He and Linda had booked a getaway to the Turks and Caicos Islands after the Super Bowl, a well-deserved celebration after his first triumph in five trips in the big game and 26 years in the NFL as a player and coach. But they have never succeeded to the south. Instead, they fought the cold weather in Indianapolis, visiting Jim Irsay's estate, Carmel, seven days after the Eagles 'victory, signing papers that made Reich the Colts' backup plan to coach.

So, now, Reich erases everything. There has never been any question How he had the job; it was always what he did with the work.

"There are only 32 of these things," he said this week, on the eve of his return to Philadelphia for the first time as head coach. "And if it's a goal and an aspiration, you have to seize the moment. And (that was an easy decision) because it was Indy – especially because it was Indy. How to train Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton and Jack Doyle?

"Divine intervention," Linda calls.

As Reich mentioned, the work of the Colts was not only attractive because of Luck, Hilton and Doyle – the new offensive toys at his disposal – but because of the comfort of the family in this city and the Irsay family . Indy is where her daughters went to high school, where Linda's sister lives, where Reich began his coaching odyssey more than a decade ago, preparing for 18 hours with a quarterback named Peyton Manning. Reich has earned Manning's respect for both his offensive intelligence and his willingness to work. The texts came every hour. Manning has never stopped. Reich either.

"Hey, take a look at the Buffalo game, play number 40," Reich would write. "It's a look we could see."

"I like that," said Manning years ago. "I love a guy who constantly has football in mind."

But even though Reich has risen through the ranks of coaching – QB coach at Indy, general coach in Arizona, offensive coordinator in San Diego – he has never landed the coaching job he's always looking for. It's in 2016 that his alma mater, the University of Maryland, has been a victim of this crisis. Reich was on campus to interview, seemingly willing to accept the job with strong support from the elders. Instead, the school went with Judge D.J. Durkin's assistant.

"As a Maryland, they should have engaged at the time," said former Reich teammate Chuck Faucette. recently said The Washington Post. "As a former guy who put his heart and soul into the school, that would have been obvious."

(Durkin is now in his sixth week of administrative leave while the school investigates the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair.)

So, Reich waited and went to Philadelphia and won a Super Bowl. As soon as the call came – an hour after Ballard had learned from McDaniels that he was retiring, he phoned Reich to arrange an interview – it seemed that the rebound of his career had always failed. The Colts interviewed three candidates the second time, but Reich's job has always been a failure. He won Ballard immediately. The GM wondered why he had not spoken to this guy the first time.

Eagles coach Doug Pederson, the former Reich boss and his closest confidant in the league, admitted it was "bitter-sweet" to see his friend leave Philadelphia after just two years. Pederson thought that they were just beginning.

Colts general manager Chris Ballard (right) admitted that Frank Reich should have been on his initial list of five Colts head coach candidates. (Photo: Matt Kryger / IndyStar)

With the Eagles, the two men took the lead in preparing the young quarterback as they drafted second-best in the state of North Dakota. In December of year 2, Carson Wentz was the lead candidate for MVP. "He really helped shape Carson," Pederson said about Reich this week. After Wentz ripped his ACL at the end of last season, most of the players left the Eagles. Pederson and Reich did not do it. They formed Nick Foles's backup companion in Super Bowl MVP and Philadelphia legend.

It was one of the most beautiful and rewarding works of Reich's career.

Suddenly, he was the Colts' leadership candidate. Nine months later, he relaunched this stagnant franchise – even though Luck's finally healed shoulder did not hurt. He will see Pederson and Wentz make their debut in 2018 and so many players he coached in Philadelphia on Sunday.

As for his first team in Indianapolis, the players have adopted the secret self-confidence of Reich. The moxie he showed at his introductory press conference was postponed on the practice field and until Sunday. He has implemented much of what has worked in Philadelphia here: attack collaboration, an aggressive and balanced plan, the belief that players, not coaches, win games.

"He really won his moment," said Erik Swoope. "He did not eclipse it. You can say every day that it is not overwhelmed.

He has been waiting for this opportunity long enough and knows as well as anyone that this could be his only chance. Frank Reich does not plan to waste it.

Call Star Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.