Cardinals replacing head athletic trainer Tom Reed
Mar 28, 2023, 8:17 AM | Updated: 11:43 am
Arizona Cardinals defensive end Zach Allen (94) walks off the field after being checked for an injury during an NFL football game between the Detroit Lions and the Arizona Cardinals in Detroit, Michigan USA, on Sunday, December 19, 2021. (Photo by Amy Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(Photo by Amy Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The Arizona Cardinals have fired head athletic trainer Tom Reed, head coach Jonathan Gannon confirmed to reporters at the NFL league meetings on Tuesday.
Compare.bet’s Kyle Odegard first reported the firing.
Gannon said a replacement had yet to be named. The official website of the Texas Tech Red Raiders said that associate athletics direct/head football athletic trainer Drew Krueger had accepted a job for the Cardinals as the new head athletic trainer.
Reed had served as Arizona’s head athletic trainer for the past 15 seasons (2008-22) after spending nine years with the Atlanta Falcons as an assistant athletic trainer (1999-2007).
He was also given the added role of infection control officer during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 where he helped guide the team through protocols and daily testing.
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Arizona was decimated by injury last season on both sides of the football, with quarterback Kyler Murray, cornerback Byron Murphy and left tackle D.J. Humphries among those who finished the season on injured reserve.
Reed’s departure comes after an NFL players union poll gave Arizona an F-minus grade for their training room facilities, though Reed and his staff earned a B-plus grade in the same poll. Offensive lineman Josh Miles shared his appreciation for Reed upon learning of the trainer’s departure.
“Almost a year ago to the DAY, Tom Reed basically pushed me into getting an MRI that found a mixed tumor in my neck that had been there for 12 years without my knowledge, rushed to schedule my surgery and it may have saved my life,” Miles wrote on Twitter.
Reed is among the many changes the Cardinals have seen this offseason as they look to turn the page from the Kliff Kingsbury era.
In their first season as general manager and head coach, Monti Ossenfort and Jonathan Gannon had already been making changes throughout the organization before Reed’s firing.
That included the release of then-defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, who is now with the Denver Broncos in the same role.
Before his time in Atlanta, Reed worked as an assistant athletic trainer at Miami-Ohio from 1996-99 for the football, men’s basketball and soccer teams in addition to track and field.
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