National Football League

Fake Andy Reid just wants to shake the Real Andy Reid's hand

Published Nov. 10, 2014 6:57 p.m. ET

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- And here's the crazy part: For the longest time, Fake Andy Reid didn't even like the Real Andy Reid. 

Chris Wilhelm -- a.k.a. Fake Andy, the man whose resemblance to the Kansas City Chiefs coach went viral Sunday after he was spotted in the stands at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo during the Chiefs' 17-13 victory over the Bills -- grew up, for bizarre and sundry reasons, in eastern Pennsylvania as a Chiefs fan, a dot of red in a sea of green.

But all he heard for more than a decade was Andy this, Andy that while Reid was coaching the nearby Eagles, winning NFC East titles and taking them to the Super Bowl. Some of his best friends were Eagles fans, and they still drove him nuts.

So when his wife Becky suggested he take advantage of being an Andy lookalike for Halloween 2012, Chris agreed, but only if he could do it as a mean satirical parody, if he could make fun of Reid hitting the proverbial wall that fall -- it would be his last with the Eagles, it turns out -- after a mostly successful run in Philly.

So he initially dressed head-to-toe in Eagles green and wore a sign around his neck that read:

WILL COACH FOR FOOD

"And I thought, 'Well, I'll add my touch to it,'" Fake Andy says now.

The costume was a hit, especially with Eagles fans. Of course, satire became surreal shortly thereafter: The football gods intervened and plopped Reid in Kansas City and the 38-year-old Wilhelm decided to make his Andy alter ego public during the Chiefs' visit to Philly last September.

Chris Wilhelm (right) got the idea to dress up like Andy Reid for Halloween from his wife, Becky (left).

"We saw a couple of articles," Wilhelm says from his home in Leola, Pa. "I didn't know it was going to get crazy. I wasn't expecting a phone call from anybody in Kansas City. That's pretty fricking nuts."

Nuts? Nuts is Emmitt Thomas waving at you. Nuts is Jamaal Charles reaching up and high-fiving you during an icy Sunday in Washington.

"My (overall) Chiefs stuff, you don't have a big enough calculator (to add up), probably," Fake Andy says. "Hats, shirts, sunglasses, my watch, you name it."

The entire Reid get-up, head to toe, cost him roughly $500. He found the fake headphones online; his fake play-call sheet is a menu from a local eatery.

But the passion, though, the passion is real: Sometime in the late 1980s, Wilhelm's parents, having failed to get him hooked on baseball or wrestling, stuck the little guy in front of a television while the Chiefs happened to be on.

It was love at first sound bite.

"It was one of Steve DeBerg's first years there," Wilhelm says. "And I actually like Steve DeBerg."

Flip through our photo album of NFL cheerleaders.

Fake Andy's home even features a man cave with the kind of Chiefs shrine you might find in Gardner or Raytown: an L-shaped bar with a red-oak finish on top, a 4-foot wide arrowhead on one wall, while framed jerseys of ex-Kansas City greats Joe Montana and Larry Johnson and current Chiefs safety Eric Berry hang nearby.

Derrick Johnson is actually Wilhelm's favorite of the present roster, so like the rest of Chiefs fandom, he swallowed hard when the middle linebacker was lost for the season because of a Week 1 injury to his Achilles.

"Joe Mays is out, Derrick Johnson's going out, (Mike) DeVito's going out, Eric Berry's going out Week 2 -- I was like, 'Oh my God, we're done,'" he says. "But Husain Abdullah, Ron Parker, all (those) guys are stepping it up a notch."

By day, Wilhelm works in the engineering department with the Dart Container Corporation. Because of his proximity and work schedule, Fake Andy has made the sacred pilgrimage to Arrowhead Stadium only once, in 2010, to watch the Chiefs lay out the 49ers and (then) quarterback Alex Smith by a score of 31-10.

"That was our first time out there; I loved it," Wilhelm says of Kansas City. "They had some art festival downtown and margaritas in the streets -- it was fantastic, I loved it.

"I've been meaning to (get back), but with my travel schedule, when we take a vacation, we take a week and like go to Key West. I'm trying to get back there. I'm hoping there's a Super Bowl coming up. I will refinance the house, I will do whatever we have to do to get to the Super Bowl."

Fake Andy isn't just a dead ringer for Real Andy: The Chiefs have a perfect record -- 5-0 -- whenever Wilhelm is in the stadium watching his beloved in person, in or out of costume. There was the San Francisco win at Arrowhead in 2010; victories at Philadelphia, Buffalo and Washington in 2013; and another at Buffalo this fall.

"You don't know close I was to saying, 'I want to go to (Indianapolis for the playoffs last January)," Willhem says. "And I decided, 'No, I'm not going to do it.'"

The Chiefs wound up losing that tilt in epic fashion, 45-44, to the host Colts in an AFC Wild Card Game, blowing a 28-point third-quarter lead in the process.

"And I'm thinking now," Fake Andy says, "maybe I should have (gone)."

While they've shared several NFL stadiums, Wilhelm has yet to meet Reid, face to face. Fake Andy wants to reach over, mustache to mustache, and shake Real Andy's hand.

"And thank him," Wilhelm says, "for bringing the energy back to KC, man."

You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.

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