KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Allen Wright’s favorite day of this eventful 2018 season, and perhaps his busiest, was Dec. 13. Wright spent almost the entire day at Arrowhead Stadium, going through a rotation of both simple tasks and complicated ones in a mini-marathon full of obligations and procedures.
As the Chiefs’ longtime equipment director, Wright was prepared for the 18-hour day.
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Before the team’s Thursday night game against the Chargers, Wright went through each of the players’ large equipment bag, which contains their cleats, thigh pads, shoulder pads and helmet. But each bag is customized, as Wright insists they be, for each player’s needs. The items can be as small as certain toiletries or gloves to items as important as an additional padded shirt to be worn underneath a player’s shoulder pads. Wright is the man who packs each bag for road games.
On the sideline, Wright and his four-man staff double-checked everything. The coaches’ headsets are tested. Extra metal cleats, shoestrings and chin straps are all placed behind the bench in case a replacement is necessary, which regularly happens. Wright also carries a small air pump if he needs to adjust the fit of a player’s helmet during warmups.

Two hours before kickoff, Wright left the field and entered the stadium’s pavilion. Inside was the gathering for the Chiefs’ annual alumni event, and the room was full of former players from past generations. Each man who wore the Chiefs’ red-and-gold jersey — including Trent Green, Dante Hall, Tim Grunhard, Priest Holmes and Tony Gonzalez — smiled and hugged Wright as they greeted him. Wright’s conversation with each player was a continuation of their extensive relationship, one they built together on the practice fields and in the locker room before and after games.
“You spend so much time with these guys, you love them,” Wright said. “You cry together, you laugh together, and you’re with these guys (when they’re having) the time of their lives, and, in a lot of cases, the pinnacle of it, so it’s a very special time.”
For a franchise that has employed nine different head coaches, hundreds of assistant coaches and thousands of players, the one person who has worked for 35 consecutive seasons during that stretch is Wright, the team’s longest-tenured employee.
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“He’s a staple,” Grunhard, a former center, said of Wright. “When you go back to an alumni event, you see (in Wright) a friendly face and a person you know — and that’s not usual in the NFL. I stopped playing almost 20 years ago.”
Alumni events in the past few years for Wright have been energizing, nostalgic and humanizing. Seeing an older Carlos Carson or J.J. Birden or Willie Roaf a few times a year makes Wright realize just how long he has been managing the Chiefs’ equipment needs, his tenure being one of the longest in the league.
“I’ve gotten to go through the process of being the kid in the locker room to the guy that was their age and ran the streets with them a little,” Wright said. “Now they look at me almost as a father figure. It’s been fun for me.”
Wright, 53, declined to distinguish who has been his favorite player to work with.
He did, however, share that Gonzalez, who is a finalist to be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame later this year, was one of his top three. The Chiefs celebrated Gonzalez’s illustrious 17-year career, 12 of which were in Kansas City, earlier this season by inducting him into the team’s hall of fame. Gonzalez talked to Wright almost every day during his 193-game run with the Chiefs. Their chats progressed from simple equipment discussions to family, relationships and fatherhood.
A framed No. 88 Gonzalez jersey hangs in Wright’s office. The former star tight end autographed the jersey, thanking Wright for being a part of every catch and touchdown during his time with the Chiefs.
I’m so happy for Tony’s big day! We all know of his Onfield accomplishments but I’m lucky to know another side. As a kid in the Equip room he treated me w/ respect, always asked about my wife & son & took time to be a friend. After all these yrs I can say the same thing today. pic.twitter.com/RtPmWJNmTI
— Allen Wright (@AllenWright4) December 13, 2018
“It goes way more than just handing out shoulder pads,” Gonzalez said of Wright. “One time I tore my AC joint, and the training staff made this doughnut (pad) to go in my shoulder pads. It was huge to keep me protected, and Allen came up with this idea — this mad scientist — to fit the doughnut in there so I could play.
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“He’s been doing that for players for the last 30 years. He’s a hell of a person, and it goes way beyond just what’s going on the field. Allen’s become a very good friend of mine.”
Wright knew it was important to see as much of Gonzalez’s ceremony as he could, despite his game-day responsibilities. The next night, Gonzalez invited Wright to dinner with his family and a few former teammates at Corvino Supper Club, an upscale restaurant in downtown Kansas City. As always, the group had plenty to talk about, from the thrills of this season to the good times of yesteryear.
Wright and Gonzalez relished learning what had transpired since they last saw one another and the lessons they discovered together, as fathers and leaders, along their intertwined paths. Cherishing his bond with Gonzalez, along with hundreds of players, fortified Wright’s belief of his ultimate purpose throughout his career.
“It’s really a people business, which is also the part I enjoy the most,” Wright said. “I would like to tell you that I’m the best equipment manager in the NFL. That’s not true. But I care. If you care, you’re beating the odds.”
Once Wright left the pavilion that Thursday night, he re-entered the chaotic nature of his job. For about five hours during each game, from kickoff until the last player leaves the locker room or gets on the team’s bus, Wright rarely sits or takes a break. He’s on call and inevitably busy doing something.
In the first half against the Chargers, Wright completed a number of objectives, including helping quarterback Patrick Mahomes stay warm in the 36-degree weather by putting him in a large coat when the Chiefs’ offense wasn’t on the field. Wright kept checking on receiver Kelvin Benjamin, who made his Chiefs debut, to see if his new equipment was comfortable.
Within minutes, Wright went from cheering and screaming encouragement at running back Damien Williams after a 32-yard reception to handling his biggest emergency before halftime: fixing safety Eric Berry’s helmet. Berry tackled Chargers tight end Antonio Gates late in the first quarter that forced the Chargers to punt. When Berry returned to the bench, the black tinted visor fell off his helmet. Wright and his staff replaced the broken visor for a clear visor that was installed onto Berry’s helmets before the defense’s next snap. (The offense helped Berry and Wright with a 10-play drive that ended with a touchdown.)
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“Every day is different,” Wright said. “That’s what makes it fun.”
Being able to adjust is one of Wright’s greatest strengths, which he was required to do in a major way that night. The Chiefs held a 14-point lead midway through in the fourth quarter, and Wright began the process of preparing to open the boxes containing 144 hats he ordered from the league to commemorate the Chiefs winning the AFC West title. He contemplated how the hats were going to be distributed between the players, coaches, staff members, owner Clark Hunt and various family members in an organized manner.
The Chargers, however, completed a furious comeback, scoring a game-winning two-point conversion with just four seconds left. Wright wasn’t on the sideline for the play, but he made sure no one on the team came close to seeing the box containing the hats after the game.
Inside the quiet and disappointed locker room, Wright fulfilled his usual postgame duties as fast as he could. He remained mostly silent while collecting and packing the multiple pads discarded from players, and he handled Andy Reid’s coaching equipment. In brief moments, Wright connected with players and tried to uplift them with short messages and pats on the shoulder. He congratulated Berry for returning to the lineup after missing the previous 29 consecutive games with a torn left Achilles’ and then a lingering right heel injury.
“We are there to provide a service, although in my heart, wins and losses are extremely important,” Wright said. “It’s always important not to show that. Even if you’re disappointed in a loss — which we’ve all been in situations like that — I need to be the same person all the time.”
Between games, Wright juggles many missions, which can prevent calamity or anxiousness on the field. The main goal, he tells himself and his staff — which features Kyle Crumbaugh, Cale Kirby, Chris Shropshire and Jay White — is they must strive to have handle every request from a player or coach the minute they enter the Chiefs’ facility.
While coaches cram film sessions, meetings with players and practices tailored for the next opponent in 18-hour days, Wright most often works 80 hours per week during the season with less glamorous assignments. He can order a new blocking sled or more jerseys. The coaches can ask him to be an extra body for a drill during practice, or he may needed to do maintenance on a player’s helmet or shoulder pads, and he always checks every player’s equipment bag before they are loaded onto a truck for road games. In 2015, Wright helped pack 16,000 pounds of equipment into 25 trunks before the Chiefs’ win over the Lions in London.
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And yes, Wright does plenty of laundry. So much laundry.
“It’s seven days a week, it’s Christmas day, it’s Thanksgiving,” Wright said of his grinding workload. “But it’s the only thing I know. You give up 24 weeks, but it’s so worth it. I love it.”
Players grow to enjoy Wright’s presence because he is more personable than the average person, a welcoming face in the midst of a demanding and stressful season. The team’s equipment area, which appears similar to a condensed warehouse, is across from the locker room. The door to Wright’s office is never closed. Instead, he welcomes players into his department as a way of teaching them about the tools that protect their livelihoods.
“He’s the first guy to see the players when they come in,” Reid said of Wright. “If you’re lucky enough to have an Allen Wright in that position, use it. They like to go in there and talk. The relationship gets started that way, and you want that positive environment. He goes to the extreme to fit them up right.”
Many in the industry have considered Wright an innovator. When he became the equipment director in 2011, Wright embraced technology to help protect players as more knowledge about concussions and the impact of CTE deteriorating the mental and physical health of former players became more public. Wright created a rigorous protocol for fitting helmets, stressing the importance of optimizing the fit of every player’s helmet before every week’s game as an effective safety measure.
The Chiefs have been at the forefront of the NFL’s technological advancement because Wright requested that the team be the first to try almost every new program. The team was the first in the league to embed radio frequency identification microchips (RFID) inside helmets to help track data with the purpose of evaluating how well the equipment protects players from concussions. And the Chiefs were one of the first teams this season to include RFID chips in cleats to track how players accelerated and decelerated on the field.
Last season, Wright provided the research and equipment to convince many of the Chiefs — including Mahomes, receiver Chris Conley and fullback Anthony Sherman — to switch to the VICIS Zero1 helmet, which, as laboratory performance testing showed the NFL, was the best helmet to reduce head impact severity. The Chiefs were the first team to use the Zero1 helmet.
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“He had everything waiting for you,” Sherman said of Wright. “He’s the best in the business.”
Wright was the recipient of the 2017 innovation in safety award from the Maxwell Football Club, the oldest football club in America, for his exceptional dedication to player safety. In 2016, New Era named Wright the NFL equipment manager of the year.
#MFC & @VicisPro are proud to announce @Chiefs equipment manager, Allen Wright, as the winner of the 2017 Innovation in #Safety Award! #NFL pic.twitter.com/wUXB5CIsSS
— Maxwell Football (@MaxwellFootball) February 10, 2017
In dealing with players and their ranging personalities, Wright understands every conversation he has equates to their level of trust in him. He must prove himself each time a new player arrives, showing them he cares about their health.
The Chiefs acquired inside linebacker Reggie Ragland via a trade from the Bills on Aug. 28, 2017, just days before the regular season began. With the Bills, Ragland’s blue-and-red shoulder pads were customized because he sustained a shoulder injury during his college career at Alabama. In one of Ragland’s first days with the Chiefs, he was relieved when Wright, upon inspection, told him the team wasn’t going to replace his shoulder pads. Ragland said Wright’s willingness to adapt to his preference helped ease his decision this past summer when he switched from the Riddell Revolution helmet to the Zero1 helmet.
“When we see him, he always has a smile on his face,” Ragland said of Wright. “He relates to all of us some type of way. He’s always accommodating even if we’re being prima donnas. If some guys forget something, he finds a way to get it right.”
One of the most important items Sherman didn’t bring to Kansas City when he was traded from the Cardinals in May 2013 was a padded compression shirt. Sherman, in protecting his AC joint, had worn the equipment underneath his shoulder pads in every game since playing high school in North Attleboro, Mass. Wright ordered several types of compression shirts and had Sherman select one. Sherman has worn the additional padding in all 101 games he has played with the Chiefs.
Last month, Sherman was named a Pro Bowler for the first time in his career. One of the first people Sherman thanked for helping him accomplish the honor was Wright.
“He’s one of those guys that secretly holds this building together,” Sherman said. “He’s been here through ups and downs. He’s one of the guys you can go talk to and he’ll listen.”
The man who first introduced the thrill of sports to Wright was his father, Roger. Growing up in Sugar Creek, Mo., a small town just east of Kansas City, Wright’s father instilled in him the importance of a strong work ethic. Roger was an employee at a concrete company during the week, and on the weekend he was a race-car driver who competed in the World of Outlaw sprint car circuit during the 1980s.
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As a teenager, Wright was a member of his father’s racing crew. He helped with maintenance of the sprint car and watched his father take on the challenge of trying to win on the dirt tracks at the Iowa state fairgrounds, the Missouri state fairgrounds and the Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway.
“We were 100 percent a racing family,” Wright said. “I was a football fan, but I had never taken the time to go to a game. Our whole world was about racing, and that’s what I was going to do.”
After graduating from William Chrisman High School, Wright was encouraged by a friend to join him in a new summer job. On a whim to make money before attending college, Wright became a courier for the Chiefs in 1983 for their training camp at William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo.
Almost immediately, Wright was fascinated by the Chiefs’ operation. He met players after practices, communicated with coaches and did his best to say yes to every assignment. Wright was around so much that he developed a relationship with general manager Jim Schaaf. When camp ended, Schaaf called Wright into his office. Wright expected a thank you and a handshake.
“What’s your plan?” Schaaf asked.
“Well,” Wright responded, “I’m going to try to go to school.”
“Would you be interested in staying on full-time for the season?” Schaaf said.
“Yeah, I really would,” Wright responded. “But I really want to go to school.”
“What if we sent you to school at night?” Schaaf said.
For the 1983 and ’84 seasons, as the Chiefs struggled on the field, Wright was the pleasant courier who delivered packages and gained as much knowledge as he could about every department. He attended business classes at Longview Community College, but the allure of working for the Chiefs and the ability to get experience in several different areas — such as the ticket office, driving owner Lamar Hunt and his wife Norma to and from the airport and entering statistical information into the team’s first computers for the scouting department — kept him from earning his degree.
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In 1985, Wright began providing extra help in the equipment department. As the manager, Davidson appreciated Wright’s eagerness to carry a few shoulder pads while understanding more about the function of each piece of equipment. Schaaf and coach Frank Gansz, who was hired in 1987, gave Wright his first opportunity to help handle equipment during the team’s three-day minicamp in Phoenix.
“That’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Wright said.
He loved being in the locker room, a place where teammates from different backgrounds, cultures and traditions can exchange ideas and find commonalities while striving for victories in a grueling season. But as soon as Wright felt established in his career, he thought he would be looking for a new job when Schaaf and Gansz were fired after the 1988 season.
Instead, new head coach Marty Schottenheimer promoted Wright to assistant equipment manager to work under Mike Davidson. In 1992, Wright passed the Athletic Equipment Managers Association’s exam — he could have been grandfathered through since he already was working in the profession, but he chose to take the exam — and became the NFL’s first certified equipment manager. For 22 seasons, Wright learned from Davidson, and the two men placed accommodating players as their highest priority.
“They have a difficult job, just to clean up a bunch of sweaty jocks and pants of grown men,” said Dante Hall, a former receiver. “There’s some nasty dudes that play football. What I remember most about Allen was he always did his job with enthusiasm, even when he was tired. He’s the epitome of working your way to top.”
Under Schottenheimer, the Chiefs played an exciting and dramatic brand of football that led them to several playoff appearances. Wright, of course, was always in the middle of the action, even using one of the shoestrings off his own shoe to help tighten Marcus Allen’s shoulder pads.

Tim Grunhard joined the Chiefs in 1990, and he always had Wright change his cleats, either at halftime or sometimes even between series, to gain better leverage at the line of scrimmage. Often, Grunhard needed to rely on Wright to replace a cracked helmet, a loose screw connecting his chin strap or a broken facemask.
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“Those are the kinds of things people don’t know about so that you don’t miss a play,” Grunhard said. “It’s almost like being a pit crew guy in NASCAR. You’ve got to make a call, and hopefully you make the right adjustment for that player to be at their best. Allen and I used to always go down to the Daytona 500, and I’d tell him, ‘We’re just like those pit crew guys.’”
It was great having some key parts of @chiefs here at the @WorldofOutlaws races tonight. Thanks for coming and good luck tommorow night. #ChiefsKingdom @Shermanator_42 @Big_Fish79 @AllenWright4 @ECraft_ pic.twitter.com/21SpTuAOf9
— Brian Brown (@BrianBrown21) October 20, 2018
With skill-position players, Wright sometimes plays the role of a counselor in trying to enhance confidence.
Wright understood that former Chiefs receiver J.J. Birden needed the full extent of his speed to be most effective. Prior to joining the Chiefs, Birden felt his shoulder pads were too big and heavy on his body when he played with the Browns. Birden credits Wright and Davidson for helping him emerge as reliable NFL receiver because they gave him shoulder pads similar to what kickers wore in the ’90s.
“Psychologically, that made such a big difference,” Birden said. “When I had the smaller pads, I felt faster. Can an equipment manager’s job really impact your performance? Absolutely.”
One of the first people Joe Montana called the night he arrived in Kansas City was Grunhard, his new center. The Chiefs acquired Montana, the four-time Super Bowl champion quarterback, via a trade in April 1993. Grunhard and Wright welcomed Montana to the city by taking him to Kelly’s, the well-known Irish pub in Westport.
“Within an hour, it looked like it was St. Patrick’s Day,” Grunhard said. “We were there until 3 a.m.”
After that night, Montana trusted Wright. The Chiefs went 11-5 during the 1993 season, as Montana energized the city. The team’s home wild-card playoff game against the Steelers that season is when Wright performed the most prominent mid-game adjustment of his career.
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Having previously played for San Francisco, Montana had rarely performed in games with freezing weather. In practice leading up to the game, Wright had Montana try a number of gloves. The topic became so newsworthy that the ABC announcing crew led its broadcast of the game with this revelation: Montana, in his 20th career playoff game, would wear gloves for the first time in his career.
In 18-degree weather, Montana’s first five passes fell incomplete.
“When he came into the huddle to start the game, you’re kind of like, ‘Um, OK, what he is doing with gloves on?’” Birden said of Montana. “That second series, I remember he threw me a hitch route, and we could do that in our sleep, it was such an automatic play. He threw it high. The next couple plays, he called it again and he was off to the left.”
After the Chiefs’ second series, a frustrated Montana came to Wright and asked him if there was another type of glove he could try.
“I saw the gloves on his hands, and I just said, ‘Hey Joe, you’ve never worn gloves before,’” Wright said. “He looked down at his hands, and he’s like, ‘You’re right.’ He took them off and handed them to me.”
A glove-less Montana then rallied the Chiefs to a comeback victory in overtime by completing 22 of his 28 pass attempts after halftime for 203 yards, including the game-tying touchdown to receiver Tim Barnett.
“I think about the @Chiefs winning the Super Bowl, almost every week. I hope that I get to experience that day.”
Welcome to #ChiefsKingdom.
This is the Heart of the Game, presented by @CitiBank. https://t.co/yFUUwAmUar
— NFL (@NFL) December 27, 2017
Montana led the Chiefs to the AFC Championship Game, but the team hasn’t reached the same level of success since.
Wright has yet to experience the joyous locker-room celebration that comes with a trip to the Super Bowl. In fact, the more familiar feeling for him has been the opposite. He has seen players curse after close losses that deny the Chiefs from reaching the postseason. He has witnessed, up close, almost every crushing playoff loss in the franchise’s history, such as the missed field goals by Lin Elliott against the Colts in 1995, the fourth-down incompletion against the Broncos in 1997, the no-punt loss to the Colts in 2003, the 28-point collapse to the Colts in 2013, the 2016 loss to the Steelers in which the Chiefs didn’t allow a touchdown and last year’s 18-point collapse to the Titans.
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“He didn’t have to take the beating that we all did physically, but I would contend that he probably took the beating mentally as much as anybody else,” Grunhard said of Wright. “It’s a lot of heartache and disappointment when you’re there through all 16 games every year for 30 years and you still haven’t won a Super Bowl.”
Packing up the equipment after the season’s final game is always difficult, but Wright also feels fortunate to work in such a passionate place where people care enough to cry.
Occasionally, Wright is reminded of the saddest moments in his career. He will think of the shock he felt after the death of Derrick Thomas, the Hall of Fame outside linebacker who wanted his jersey as tight as possible so offensive linemen couldn’t hold him on his way to the quarterback. Wright felt sorrow during Schottenheimer’s final day with the franchise. He mourned Lamar Hunt’s death. And he felt various emotions when players from the 2012 team wanted Jovan Belcher’s jersey to hang in the locker room during a victory over the Panthers the day after their teammate fatally shot his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, before committing suicide.
Through all his experiences, Wright feels blessed with what the Chiefs have given him. In the last decade, Wright, as of way of showing homage, has contributed to the Chiefs’ hall of honor, the team’s historical exhibits located in the main concourse of the stadium. He has provided artifacts and old equipment from prominent former players to allow fans to relive the Chiefs’ greatest memories.
Montana’s red and black gloves from the wild-card playoff game are on display in the hall of honor thanks to Wright’s wife, Lisa. She and Wright went through a closet in their home years after the game and found the team-issued jacket from the 1993 season.
“She puts it on and puts her hands in the pockets and pulls out a pair of gloves,” Wright said. “As soon as she held them up, I knew exactly what they were.”

Two seasons ago, during the annual alumni event, Wright gave the large group of former players a tour of the team’s facility, which included the hall of honor. Birden smiled when he saw the shoulder pads that he had donated to the Chiefs through Wright.
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“It makes you feel like you still have a part of your teams there because somebody is still there from the days that you were there,” Birden said of Wright. “Every year he’ll say, ‘I just want to make sure you guys know you’re a part of the history of the Chiefs.’ I don’t see him very often, but every time I do, I feel like it’s yesterday.”

At the end of the alumni ceremony, the group of former players gathered. But before a photo could be taken, Carlos Carson, the former receiver who was inducted into the team’s hall of fame that night, pointed at Wright. Carson asked Wright to join his longtime friends.
“It was probably the single greatest thing that’s ever happened to me in my career,” Wright said. “It really, really meant a lot to me.”
Wright’s bond with Reid began through their routines. Both men value structure, and Reid changed many of the team’s procedures when he began his tenure six seasons ago. Wright also received a new responsibility from Reid: He became the spotter at practice.
Reid and Wright usually meet near midfield before each practice starts and go through that day’s script of drills and scrimmages. While ensuring every piece of equipment needed is in place, Wright also runs all over the field during practice. Sometimes he snaps the ball for quarterback Patrick Mahomes when the offensive linemen are working on position drills. When the offense simulates plays, Wright will place the ball on the exact hash and yard line on his script for Reid to see how the play design looks on a certain area of the field. Wright is the official the players are supposed to give the ball to when the team practices the two-minute drill.
Inside the action at #ChiefsCamp practice with Equipment Director Allen Wright. https://t.co/l4BOcp80w5
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) August 14, 2018
Wright hasn’t missed a single practice under Reid.
“An extremely hard worker and very organized,” Reid said of Wright. “From a head coaching standpoint, you can’t ask for too much more than that from that spot.”
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Wright spent part of Christmas Day at the hospital after father Roger, now 77, suffered a heart attack. For much of the week that followed, Wright split his time at the hospital and the Chiefs’ facility. With concern for Roger’s health, Reid admired Wright’s dedication to helping the Chiefs before their regular-season finale against the rival Raiders. Wright felt he needed to uphold the routine he and Reid created.
“If somebody else did practice, it would be different, perhaps a distraction,” Wright said. “I kind of walked a tightrope between the two things. It (was) a hard week.”
With Reid’s support two years ago, Wright implemented his idea to have the Chiefs wear sweatshirts with the name of fallen military service members from Missouri or Kansas as part of the NFL’s “Salute to Service” initiative. Each player received a card about their service member’s life and their contributions for their country.
Whenever possible, Reid has used Wright’s consistency and longevity to demonstrate to his players how they should handle themselves in influencing others. Reid felt Wright deserved to be recognized in front of the team after the Chiefs beat the Texans on Oct. 20, 2013. The game was Wright’s 500th with the franchise. The players responded by cheering for Wright and letting him break down the huddle with one word: family.

“It takes everyone in this building to win football games, not just the football team,” said fullback Anthony Sherman. “It’s just as much as a victory for us as it is for Allen. He loves this team. He gets so excited to win football games, and we get excited to keep having him move up the list of equipment managers with accolades.”
Earlier this season, after the Chiefs finished training camp, Wright sat in Reid’s office. Their chat, at some point, moved away from football, which has occurred often. Reid asked Wright if he had any regrets in his life.
Wright said he had two, the first being the fact he is just eight credits away from earning his business degree. His second regret was what he didn’t do after he received a $7,000 bonus after the 1993 AFC Championship Game. Wright went to the jewelry store Tivol with the intent of buying a Rolex wristwatch.
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“I’m from Sugar Creek, and I didn’t come from an area with a lot of money,” he said. “I couldn’t make myself do it.”
The next day, Reid called Wright back into his office. Reid told Wright that he thought more about their conversation and the specific wristwatch mentioned. Reid purchased two, matching Rolex stainless steel submariners, and he handed one to Wright.
“The things that you’ve done for the people in this building,” Reid told Wright, “this is the least I could do.”
Wright cried.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “One of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.”
People have asked Wright when he plans to retire. Wright takes pleasure in not having an answer. When Wright was younger, he wondered when he would get tired of his job. Such a day has never arrived.
In fact, Wright has shown just as much emotion on the sideline this season as he displayed during the Schottenheimer-led Chiefs of the 1990s. In the Chiefs’ victory last month over the Ravens, Wright screamed in amazement when Mahomes completed an impressive 24-yard pass to running back Spencer Ware in which the ball traveled between three defenders.
“I’m jumping around like I’m 18 years old,” Wright said. “I was right in line with the ball. I see it and I’m like, ‘Holy shit!’ I still get really excited.”
Wright smiled throughout the Chiefs’ win over the Raiders to clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. None of the Chiefs had a serious equipment issue, and Wright fist-bumped several assistant coaches on the sideline in the second half. After 18 days of anxious waiting, Wright left the field in the fourth quarter to execute one of his favorite tasks: He opened that box containing the AFC West title hats and put one in each player’s locker.
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“For the career to turn out the way it has, I’m as happy as Patrick Mahomes going through what he’s going through,” Wright said. “It couldn’t have turned out any better. I can’t wait to tell people that I work for the Kansas City Chiefs.”
Ahead of Wright is more preparation in the event the Chiefs’ season ends in the best possible outcome. As he has done a few times before, Wright, in following the league’s requirements, will arrange and reserve a trucking company to help transport the team’s equipment if the season ends in Atlanta for the Super Bowl. He also will place an order for championship hats.
“We’ve got a chance, and you can’t help but get excited,” Wright said. “You can make an argument that this is one of the better chances we’ve had.”
Steph and the @warriors honor Director of Team Operations Eric Housen with a ring of his own! 💪 pic.twitter.com/kVsXQq2c4v
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 17, 2018
Several of Wright’s friends reached out to him in October after Warriors star point guard Stephen Curry honored and included Eric Housen, the director of team operations, in the ring ceremony after the team won the NBA championship in June. Wright watched the video of the ceremony and was happy for Housen, who has spent much of his 32 years with the Warriors as their equipment manager.
Wright has envisioned how it would look and how he would react if the Chiefs win the NFL’s ultimate prize.
The former players Wright has served for 35 seasons want his dream to come true. The men on this year’s roster know exactly what needs to happen if they win the Super Bowl: The celebration on the field must include Wright holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
(Top photo of Wright: Steve Sanders/KC Chiefs)
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