KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It all started at a Halloween party a few years ago. Kansas City Chiefs fan Matt Black decided to shave his beard, but keep his mustache in order to look like the football team’s head coach Andy Reid.
“When I went to the party, a lot of people asked me for my autograph, wanted to get their pictures with me,” Black said.
“Almost Andy Reid” was born out of the Halloween party. As a mustachioed, portly man, Black looks similar to Reid. Add in a Chiefs red shirt, a clipboard full of plays, a face shield, headset, and the two men are almost identical.
Black does admit he uses a little makeup to make him appear to be the same age as Reid, who is older than him.
“I would say probably 70-80 percent of [people who see me] really believe I’m Andy Reid. Probably 50 percent of them, after I tell them I’m not, still don’t believe me,” Black said.
He has taken his fandom and following to the next level this season by launching an account on popular social media site TikTok. He’s amassed more than 150,000 new followers this season. He posts a “Victory Monday” dance and a Red Friday hype video each week.
“I used to think I couldn’t dance, but evidently 100,000 people on TikTok think I’m doing pretty good,” he said.
Black made a move which wasn’t in his original playbook this summer. He saw looters vandalize the Ronald McDonald House in Chicago. The same house which cared for his family while his sister was in the hospital when they were kids.
“I felt like I needed to step up,” Black said “Use my Almost Andy Reid and do what I could to help out.”
Black connected with the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Kansas City. The organization isn’t allowing volunteers inside its homes because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Black was able to volunteer at the Red Friday Kickoff Edition event in September where flag sales generated $1 million for the charity.
“People really don’t know. They don’t know the difference it makes when you see those little [collection] trays underneath those [McDonald’s drive-thru] windows and you throw your change in there and the changes it makes in people’s lives,” Black said. “If my parents didn’t have the Ronald McDonald House to take care of them when my sister was sick, they wouldn’t have been able to stay there. We didn’t live in the Chicago area, we lived in Ohio. This is very important and very personal to me.”
He wants people to consider donating to the charity every time they visit a McDonald’s restaurant.
The CEO of the charity in Kansas City said raising awareness about the organization’s mission is critical to earning support.
“It’s so cool to have cool folks like Almost Andy Reid say cool stuff about us at Ronald McDonald House,” Tami Greenberg said.
She said the Chiefs organization has been great partners to the charity over the years. The team’s Red Friday fundraiser has collected nearly $3 million for the charity in eight years and Greenberg said the team’s commitment isn’t just one day a year.
“It’s hard to put into words how much we love the Chiefs,” Greenberg said. “All of Kansas City loves the Chiefs for all the good reasons. We, at Ronald McDonald House Charities, love them too because they support us for all the right reasons.”
Ronald McDonald House provides free housing to families when their child is in the hospital. It has three locations near Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. You can donate to the charity on its website.
