CHILES, Kan. — In the National Football League, coaches are only as good as the teams they grow. Kansas City Chiefs’ coach Andy Reid recently said his job is similar to that of a farmer. He used that analogy because he said, like a farmer, his work is never done.
“He’s not too far off, there’s always something to do on the farm,” farmer Nick Guetterman said.
Farming life is the only life that the Guetterman family has known, and they’re proud of it. Being down on the farm is a long distance from Arrowhead Stadium, but Ted and Nick Guetterman say football is never far from their minds while they work cattle and crops.
“We were combining on Sunday with the radio on and listening to the Chiefs game while we were combining soybeans,” Ted Guetterman said.
It’s a different kind of field the Guettermans seek out on Sundays. They’re lifelong Chiefs fans, who say they’re flattered by Reid’s recent comparison between their respective life’s callings.
“Yeah, I appreciate his comment that he’s comparing his job to our job. That makes you feel good,” Ted Guetterman said.
One more similarity the Guettermans see is the great turnaround. 2012 was a time of great drought, both here on the farm and at Arrowhead Stadium, where Chiefs failed to yield anything better than the NFL’s worst record.
“It shows how good of a leader Andy is. With all the work he’s doing, with most of the same players going from 2 and 14 to 8 and 0,” Nick Guetterman said.
