They were a humorous, lighthearted pair in college — "Randy and Andy — that's what everyone called us," says Tidwell. "We were always together. We used to goof off constantly. We were always laughing. We used to wrestle a lot, too."

Randy and Andy used to cruise around town together on a little Honda 50, all 500-plus pounds on one little motor bike. "A cop pulled us over once," says Tidwell. "She was laughing. It looked like two people with wheels."

Randy tells another story about the time they were in a friend's boat and it caught fire. Reid jumped into the lake, but the other remained on board and the fire was extinguished. They couldn't pull Reid back into the boat, so they towed him into shore.

"We had a lot of fun," says Tidwell. "He's still the same guy, maybe a little more serious is all."

Tidwell never saw coaching in his friend's future. "When I first heard that Andy Reid was hired as a head coach, I thought, 'Well, there must be some other guy named Andy Reid,' " says Tidwell. "It's been incredible."

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E-mail: drob@desnews.com