Andy Reid turned 68 years old on March 19. He has won three Super Bowls as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, five overall counting his time as an assistant in Green Bay, and has been coaching professional football for more than 30 years.
None of that is why he will be on television this July.
On the same day as his birthday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that Reid will join the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square as guest narrator for a special broadcast of Music & the Spoken Word on Sunday, July 5, 2026.
The broadcast will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States. It will air live twice, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time, and will be available on television, radio, and the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel.
“I spent more than a decade just down the road from Independence Hall, where our Founding Fathers put pen to paper on the Declaration of Independence,” Reid said in the church’s announcement.
“They were the ultimate team, facing adversity, staying the course, and building something that has endured for 250 years. I’m honored to join the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square to celebrate the birth of our nation in a place that reflects the same spirit of unity and faith.”
Why This Pairing Makes Perfect Sense
For anyone who does not know much about Andy Reid beyond his coaching record, the announcement might seem like an unusual pairing. an NFL head coach narrating a choral broadcast.
For anyone who does know Reid, it is about as natural as anything he has done off the field.
Reid is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He converted while attending Brigham Young University, where he played offensive guard and tackle under legendary coach LaVell Edwards, graduating in 1981.
He met his wife, Tammy, in a physical education class at BYU. He has spoken openly about his faith throughout his coaching career, describing it as one of the three things, faith, family, football, that define his life entirely.
“If I’m not doing football or family, then I’m not doing anything,” he told the Deseret News. “I’m not a golfer. I don’t go fishing or all that stuff. It’s either family or football or church.”
He has said he never misses sacrament meeting on Sundays during the season.
When a game prevents attendance at a chapel, he and the other Latter-day Saints on his staff conduct a sacrament meeting among themselves with the permission of their bishops.
At Super Bowl Opening Night in February 2025, when a reporter asked him about his favorite book trilogy, he answered without hesitation: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Pearl of Great Price.
His Philadelphia connection, fourteen years as head coach of the Eagles from 1999 to 2012, makes the Independence Hall reference in his statement more than rhetorical. He was genuinely down the road from it for over a decade.
What Is Music & the Spoken Word?
Music & the Spoken Word first aired on July 15, 1929, from the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
On that summer morning, a radio crew ran a wire from a control room to an amplifier in the Tabernacle, hung a single microphone from the ceiling, and a 19-year-old named Ted Kimball, son of the Tabernacle organist, stood on a ladder to announce each number into it.
The broadcast went out over KSL radio in Salt Lake City.
It has aired every week since. More than 96 years without missing a broadcast. It is the world’s longest-running continuous network radio program, inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2004 and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2010.
It has received two Peabody Awards. It made its television debut in October 1949 and is currently the longest-running non-news program on television.
More than 12 million people in more than 50 countries listen each week by radio, television, and online streaming.
The Tabernacle Choir itself is nearly 180 years old. It has performed at multiple U.S. presidential inaugurations. President Ronald Reagan called it “America’s Choir.”
In 2003, President George W. Bush awarded it the National Medal of Arts for its “extraordinary contributions to music and the art of choral singing, for the wide reach and impact of its music, and for inspiring audiences worldwide.”
It performed at the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.
Choir president Michael O. Leavitt said of the July 5 broadcast: “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square lends its voice in celebrating the freedom of religion proclaimed to the world in the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago.”
The America 250 Context
July 4, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and the celebrations surrounding it are extensive. The July 5 broadcast falls the day after Independence Day, which is why it was chosen for the special program.
The church has been involved in multiple America 250 commemorations, including being part of “America’s Soundtrack,” a national playlist organized by the nonpartisan congressional commission America250 to mark the semiquincentennial.
“Music unifies us in a way few things can,” said Rosie Rios, chair of America250. “As we engage all 350 million Americans in the 250th anniversary of the United States, ‘America’s Soundtrack’ will give us a powerful way to connect through a shared cultural language.”
Tickets will be required to attend the July 5 broadcast in person at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Details on how to obtain tickets have not yet been released.
Who Reid Is As A Coach
The narration role is worth more context about the man behind it. Reid is not simply a successful coach who happens to hold a faith.
He is the winningest active coach in NFL history, the only head coach in the league’s history to win 100 games with two different franchises, and is widely considered among the greatest coaches the sport has ever produced.
He spent 14 years building the Philadelphia Eagles into a perennial contender, nine playoff appearances, six division titles, five NFC Championship Games, one Super Bowl appearance.
He was fired after the 2012 season, hired by Kansas City two days later, and has led the Chiefs to eleven postseason appearances, nine consecutive division titles, and three Super Bowl championships.
He has also navigated profound personal loss publicly and quietly. His son Garrett died in August 2012, at training camp, from a drug overdose. He was fired from his job months later.
He has spoken about how his faith carried him through both. “We’ve been blessed to have children and grandchildren, and we try the best we can to lead by example,” he said on the church’s All In podcast. “Following Christ’s teachings — what a great example He was for us. All the trials and tribulations that He went through.”
For a man who has spent more than three decades in the noisiest sport in America, the invitation to stand before the Tabernacle Choir on the Fourth of July weekend, narrating a program about unity and perseverance, is a different kind of stage.
But for anyone who has followed Andy Reid closely, it is not a surprising one.
