Super Bowl Shenanigans: Chiefs Coach Andy Reid Impersonator Easily Fools Fans (And Maybe A Sports Show Host)
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Jeff Goulding
PHOENIX, Arizona — Matthew Black drove two days straight from Kansas City to Phoenix through a blizzard in New Mexico for Super Bowl 57, arriving at 1:30 AM Friday.
Later this morning, he was strolling along Radio Row at the Phoenix Convention Center when a representative from the popular Pat McAfee sports show grabbed him and put him on the broadcast gabfest.
The 54-year-old Black, a popular doppelganger of Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid, 64, believed for a moment that the colorful McAfee actually thought he was chatting with the real Chiefs head coach.
“I came here and I had one goal — appear on Pat’s show,” Black told LVSportsBiz.com while he strolled around the sprawling radio row floor. “I’m not a seeker. I don’t try to go on anyone’s show. I go on a show only when they ask me.”
Plenty of people, though, think Black is really Reid. But the Warren, Ohio native said he doesn’t try and fool anyone.
His only revenue from impersonating Reid by wearing the Chiefs windbreaker, hat and Super Bowl ring is money he makes from being on cameo.com. During the football season, Black said he’s in the top 50 on cameo.com.
Black said the annual revenue is a few thousand dollars, but enough that he did create an LLC — Almost Andy Reid LLC.
“Let’s just say it’s not enough to pay for Chiefs season tickets,” said Black, a married father of two kids. “But it paid for a band trip or two for my kids . . . I created the LLC so I pay Uncle Sam. I took it legal.”
When not dressing up as Reid, Black has a real job — a sales marketing gig for a natural products company called Hyalogic. In fact, Black said he plans to spend three days after the Super Bowl on sales work at retail stores like Sprouts in the Phoenix area.
Black said he began moving into Andy Reid mode about five years ago, but stepped it up bigtime during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He carries a glossy, wallet-sized card to hand out to show people he’s just goofing around, but America is so obsessed with celebrity-ness that people are starstruck and often truly think he’s Reid.
“Every day I drive in my car, there’s someone who sees me, slows down and takes a picture,” Black said.
After moving to Kansas City in 1982, Black played the trumpet among a group of a dozen trumpet players performing the national anthem at a Chiefs game. The Reid look-alike later became an opera singer.
With Reid appearing on a popular State Farm TV commercial where he draws mustaches on unsuspecting sleeping people, Black carries a Sharpie — a nice touch that shows Black has fun with his Chiefs coach impersonation.
“If someone is looking sleepy,” Black joked, “I have my black pen so I can get him.”
