The Viral Andy Reid Baby Has a Prediction for the Super Bowl

It all started because Jodi Leeper thought her 5-month-old son had, in her words, “an old-man face.” So when Halloween rolled around back in 2013, Leeper, a physician's assistant who at the time was living in a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., thought it would be cute to dress up her baby, Graham, as some sort of grown-up. Perhaps she’d put him in a suit, have him hold a little briefcase.

Jodi sleuthed the web for inspiration and came across a miniature outfit that paid tribute to Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, replete with his signature Bears sweater, mustache, and shades. She suggested it to her husband, B.J.

The Leepers, however, were die-hard Chiefs fans. And their team was undefeated under its mustachioed new head coach, who’s since gone on to win three Super Bowls in KC, and is going for a fourth on Sunday. 

“No,” B.J. replied immediately. “Let’s do Andy Reid.”

So the Leepers went to work. Jodi’s brother, an optometrist, was able to secure Graham a pair of pediatric glasses, to mimic Reid’s eyewear. A recent Happy Meal had come with, of all things, a mini headset. This was meant to be! Graham could put that over his ears, to make him look more authentically like a play-caller.

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The Chiefs hat and shirt were easy enough to order. For Reid’s walrus-like mustache, the Leepers cut the mane of a toy horse and tried to tape a bushel of hair to Graham’s upper lip. Graham, like any sensible baby, resisted that move. So the Leepers taped the tuft to Graham’s pacifier—“his little binky,” B.J. says—to keep it in position.

The glasses fell halfway down his nose, making him look simultaneously judgmental—like a football coach—and bewildered. It didn’t hurt that Graham was, in B.J.’s words this time, a “chunky baby.”

B.J. snapped a picture, put the Andy Reid Baby on Twitter, and off we went. The Leppers had a viral hit on their hands. One outlet called it “the best Halloween costume ever,” and all these years later, it’s still difficult to mount a counterargument. Graham inspired a swath of copycats and might have contributed to Reid’s image as a jovial, likable guy as much as Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and all his team’s on-field success.

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Reid was asked about the picture at a news conference that season. “Graham, right, Graham is his name?” Reid responded. “I thought he had a heck of a mustache.” Local and national news outlets tracked down Jodi and B.J. Jodi gave an impromptu press conference. “I was just planning to go to the park with the kids, and I just told all the reporters, ‘Whoever wants to show up, I'll just be there and I'll answer questions,’” says Jodi. “And now thinking back, I'm in my sweats and a ponytail and a hat. Maybe would have rethought that.”

B.J., a physical therapist, would be in the middle of appointments when, every half hour it seemed, a secretary would interrupt, as Sports Illustrated, TMZ, and others were on the line. “For a while, we would name-drop,” says B.J. “‘Yeah, you know that kid? I’m his dad.’”

In 2017, the Leepers moved to Somers, Mont., where Graham, now 11, plays football, baseball, and basketball. According to his parents, he’s the shyest of the four Leeper kids–his siblings are 6, 13, and 16– and didn’t talk much at all when he was really young. Child fame, they’d joke, must have shocked him.

Graham’s older brother likes to tell kids in town to look up the Andy Reid Baby. “They're just, like, kind of surprised that I'm famous,” says Graham. “And if I tell them, sometimes they're like, ‘There's no way.’”

All in all, he approves of his costume, nearly a dozen years later. “It's pretty funny how they got all the mustache and all this stuff really close to what it looks like,” he says. Dad suspects that, as Graham gets older, he may not love the look. “We said, ‘That's gonna definitely come back to haunt you on senior night,’” says B.J. “When everybody's showing their baby pictures, you know which one we're going to use.”

The Leepers are still Chiefs faithful: Graham’s favorite player these days is running back Isiah Pacheco, as they both wear No. 10 in the backfield. B.J. just took his oldest son to his first Chiefs game for his 16th birthday; Graham would like a similar present. Graham says that if he ever met his onetime doppelganger, he’d want to take a picture with him. He’ll be watching with family and fellow Montana-based Chiefs fans at a gathering on Sunday, where Boulevard beer, a KC staple, will be served—to the adults.

“I’m predicting,” the Andy Reid Baby says, “that the Chiefs will win by a field goal.”