After the Kansas City Chiefs lost the AFC championship game to the Cincinnati Bengals at the beginning of January, a narrative arose about Kansas City head coach Andy Reid: that he had blown more 18-point leads than any other NFL coach.
But is that really true? Let’s find out.
These games don’t happen very often. Since 1940 (which is as far back as you can go with Pro-Football-Reference’s Stathead service), there have been just 51 games (both regular and postseason) in which a team led by 18 points or more at halftime and then lost the game.