NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - He’s a former Dutchtown High School standout whose football journey took him from Prairieville to the pinnacle of success in the NFL.
And now, safety Justin Reid returns home to play for a team he’s watched his entire life: the New Orleans Saints.
“I know what it means to families who, you know, spent their lives being lifelong fans of the organization,” Reid says. “And what it means to be proud of a team that goes out there and steps on the field. So, it’s an honor to put their patch on and go out there.”
Growing up just an hour from New Orleans, Reid understands the pressure and privilege of wearing black and gold.
“Louisiana is a football state,” Reid says. “And, you know, even back when I was growing up, you can literally feel like the happiness of the whole state relative to if we won or lost that weekend.”
After seven years in the league, Reid finally gets to don the fleur-de-lis on his NFL helmet.
“Best thing I want to do is just have guys believe not only that I’ll be there to have their back, but to believe in themselves more than anything—that they’re capable of going out there,” Reid says. “And we can go out and, you know, win any game, win any situation.”
Reid hopes to bring another Super Bowl win to the city, just like the Saints did on Feb. 7, 2010.
Reid’s favorite moment of that game? Coach Sean Payton’s game-changing play call, Ambush.
“Well, you guys know I kick a little bit,” Reid laughed. “Probably the surprise onside kick was one of the highlights about how cool that experience was.”
Reid has a history of kicking, even handling extra points and kickoffs during his time with the Kansas City Chiefs. His versatility is a credit to the sport he first loved: soccer.
“I was hooked on soccer,” Reid says. “I loved it. I had a passion for it. I was the only one out of my brothers that didn’t play youth football.”
At first, Reid wasn’t interested in football. That changed thanks to his Dutchtown coach, Benny Saia.
“Coach Saia grabbed me out of science class,” Reid says. “And he was like, ‘Hey, man, you know, you don’t think you want to just at least give it a shot, see if you like it?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, you know, I’ll give it a shot.’ And, you know, one thing led to another. And I mean, to this day I can only thank him for that conversation because it changed my life.”
Reid went on to play college football at Stanford before being drafted 68th overall by the Texans in 2018.
After four years in Houston, he signed a three-year deal with the Chiefs. Kansas City reached the Super Bowl each year Reid was there, winning back-to-back championships in his first two seasons.
His final Super Bowl appearance with the Chiefs came in Super Bowl LIX—at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Though the Chiefs lost a tough game, playing in the Superdome foreshadowed Reid’s next move, bringing him closer to home and family.
“I have a three-month-old at home,” Reid says. “So you get some babysitting help from, you know, my parents and my siblings. But even more than that, I get to do things that I haven’t been able to do the last 12 years since I left for college and Stanford back in 2015. Like, I got to go to my niece’s choir recital a week ago, you know, just locally. So it’s like the little things like that, little experiences that have been really cool to catch up on.”
Even sibling rivalries are picking back up.
Reid is the youngest of four children. He has an older sister, Christina, and two older brothers, Eric and Ryan.
Eric also played in the NFL for seven years with the San Francisco 49ers and the Carolina Panthers.
“We are extremely competitive,” Reid says. “The latest competition right now is we all started getting into golf. And we had a trophy made so that every time we play together, the winner of that round gets to keep the trophy until the next time that we all go play.”
That competitive spirit carries over to the field, where Reid prides himself on being a tone-setter.
“I want to bring that thunder,” Reid says. “I want guys to be afraid of running through the middle of the field.”
Reid’s return to Louisiana also reunites him with another familiar face: former LSU standout and veteran safety Tyrann Mathieu.
Reid and Mathieu were teammates in Houston during Reid’s rookie season in 2018.
“You know, be like thunder, lightning or whatever you want to call it,” Reid laughed. “We have a little bit of history back from my rookie season, eight years ago in Houston. But we have—we both have a ton of experience, and, you know, complement each other well and communicating, you know, to help drive the team.”
While “thunder and lightning” won’t be the duo’s official nickname…
“We’ll come up with something,” Reid laughed. “‘Thunder and lightning’ is taken by the backfield. We’ll come up with something a little more original.”
Louisiana natives are expected to play key roles under new Saints defensive coordinator Brandon Staley.
“Just really excited about, you know, being a cog in the wheel of his vision,” Reid says.
From Prairieville to the pros and now back home, Reid says he’s living out his dream, where it all began.
“You know, we got guys who are excited, a lot of guys who grew up here in Louisiana, know what it means,” Reid says. “And you know, we all want to go out and perform, make the city happy.”
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