Lakewood Ranch High alum Austin Reiter goes for second Super Bowl win with Chiefs
While Manatee County’s population has increased during the last six decades, one thing has remained a constant: a football player from the area competing in the Super Bowl.
The latest is Austin Reiter, who is making his second consecutive Super Bowl appearance after winning last year’s game with the Kansas City Chiefs.
The team’s starting center, Reiter has the chance to join even more exclusive company should the Chiefs win. Only Henry Lawrence, who won three Super Bowl rings with the Raiders in the 1970s and 80s, has won multiple Super Bowls from Manatee County.
“It promotes the dream,” Reiter said. “All these kids on these high school teams, these young, impressionable kids. I don’t think I was in high school thinking I was going to play in two Super Bowls. But if I can instill that dream in these Manatee County kids playing football, I think it’s awesome.”
Starting with the first Super Bowl, Manatee County was represented in the game. Manatee High alumnus Bill Anderson played for the Green Bay Packers, who defeated the Chiefs, in the inaugural Super Bowl. Former Hurricanes also won Super Bowl rings in the 1990s with Alvoid Mays (Super Bowl 26 with Washington) and Tyrone Williams (Super Bowl 31 with Green Bay).
Southeast High alums Peter Warrick (Super Bowl 40 with the Seattle Seahawks), Brian Poole (Super Bowl 51 with the Atlanta Falcons) and Rod Harper (Super Bowl 44 with the New Orleans Saints), Braden River High alum Sharrod Neasman (Super Bowl 51 with Atlanta) and Lakewood Ranch High alum Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (Super Bowl 43 with the Arizona Cardinals) represented the area.
Every decade has seen a Manatee County player make it to the Super Bowl. And like DRC, Reiter is getting the chance to play the Super Bowl in Tampa.
A University of South Florida alumnus, Reiter’s NFL journey began with Washington drafting him the seventh round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He then landed in Cleveland and tore his ACL in his first game with the Browns.
Eventually, Reiter came to the Chiefs and has been entrenched as the team’s starting center for star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. And their bond goes so far as opening up Pokemon card packs together.
“I think it was [guard] Andrew [Wylie] that brought a box of pack of cards to Tampa [in Week 12],” Reiter said. “Saturday night, we do our night meetings and then right after that we go back to our rooms. We’ve got a little bit of time there. And we’ve been ripping open packs on those Saturday nights. It’s kind of turned into a little tradition. It’s kind of gotten out of hand a little bit, I think we’re bringing like 50-60 packs now.”
Reiter said they have gotten Mahomes in there and it’s been a great hobby during quarantine.
Mahomes, to this day, still refers to Reiter with the incorrect pronunciation of his last name. He said he says, REE-ter, instead of RYE-ter.
“When he first got here, I called him REE-ter and he’s never corrected me,” Mahomes said. “So I’m like the only person left that still calls him REE-ter instead of RYE-ter.”
Reiter said it’s been that way his whole life. He said he thinks the entire Washington Football Team organizatin called him REE-ter from the day he was drafted until the day he left.
“At that time, I just stopped trying to correct people and just dealt with it,” Reiter said. “It’s kind of gone on my whole life. The player [Mahomes] is, he can call me whatever he wants.”
Super Bowl champion is a name that can’t be taken away, and Reiter has a chance to add a second ring this Sunday.
“He’s very smart, he knows what he’s doing out there,” said tackle Mike Remmers, who is replacing injured starter Eric Fisher on Kansas City’s offensive line Sunday. “He’s basically the quarterback of the offensive line. He directs all the traffic, gets us all going in the right direction. He does a great job throughout the week, bringing the energy, making practice fun. He comes out and you can just tell by his energy and his excitement throughout the week, it motivates other people. He’s just heck of a teammate, heck of a locker room guy.”
