Former Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich has landed a new gig. The Carolina Panthers announced Reich as their new head coach on Thursday, nearly three months after he lost his previous role.
Although Reich has never coached for the Panthers before, he once played for the team, and he lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, for several years after retiring from professional football.
These links to the city and others explain why the Panthers’ tweet said Reich would be “coming back to Carolina.”
ESPN senior NFL inside Adam Schefter explained Reich’s connections to Charlotte in more detail in his own tweets about Thursday’s news.
“Frank Reich took the first snap in Carolina Panthers history during their inaugural 1995 season and started the first three games in franchise history,” he said.
In a second tweet, Schefter added, “Frank Reich attended seminary in Charlotte after his playing career and still maintains an offseason home in the area. One of his daughters recently started working in the Panthers’ marketing department. His brother just finished his 22nd season as (head coach) at Wingate University.”
One detail missing from Schefter’s tweets (perhaps due to character limits) is that Reich also served as president of Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte soon after he graduated from the school with a Master of Divinity degree.
In 2019, he told the school that his time at the seminary helped him understand that coaching in the NFL could be “sacred work” just like teaching seminary students or leading a church.
“It’s the idea that no matter what you do, you do it to the glory of God, and it’s sacred work. And that ultimately is what freed me up to understand that I could step away from the pastorate and still do the Lord’s work, still fulfill his calling in my life in a way that was meaningful,” said Reich, who also worked as a pastor before returning to the NFL as a coach.
Reich got his first NFL head coaching job with the Colts in 2018, just days after winning the Super Bowl as offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles.
“He was 40-33-1 during four-plus seasons in Indianapolis, 1-2 in the postseason,” ESPN reported.