Newly-signed New Orleans Saints safety Justin Reid didn’t play football at all until the choice was taken out of his hands. Football runs in the family, but the former Kansas City Chiefs safety didn’t take the sport seriously until the Dutchtown High School head coach persuaded Reid to choose football over soccer.
Reid had no plans on being a dual-athlete and was going to forego playing football altogether. That was until Benny Saia stepped in and told Reid he had no choice but to play football. It’s a conversation that may be surprising seeing that Justin’s older brother, Eric Reid, was already at LSU.
Saia told the younger Reid, “You don’t have a choice. You have to play. Your brother plays in front of 100,000 people, and you tell me you’re not going to play football?”
This conversation led to doing a complete 180 and dropping soccer to focus on football. This is an interaction that likely plays in Justin Reid’s head constantly, but it creates a complete full circle moment for Reid as he plays in the state of Louisiana for the first time since his days at Dutchtown. Without that talk we don’t get the Justin Reid we know today, and the Saints would still be in pursuit of a starting safety.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Newly-signed Saints free agent almost picked soccer over football
