The Kansas City Chiefs‘ Super Bowl victories in the last few years saw Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes take much of the limelight, but both leaders have constantly made sure to praise those who help the team succeed behind the scenes. One of those unsung heroes is Porter Ellett, who coaches football with one arm.
Ellett, 34, has been with the Chiefs for the last eight seasons, celebrating all of their Super Bowl wins during the Reid-Mahomes era. Since 2023, he’s been the team’s assistant running backs coach.
Before being promoted to his current position, Ellett served as offensive quality control coach for three seasons (2020-22) after spending three years as the senior assistant to the head coach, Reid, from 2017 to 2019.
Why does Porter Ellet only have one arm?
Ellett lost the use of his right arm in an accident when he was four years old, but it wasn’t until high school that he had his arm amputated. As it often got in the way when he played basketball, he decided to undergo the surgery to have his right arm removed at 16. But that never held him back, quite the contrary.
Assistant coach Porter Ellett of the Kansas City Chiefs catches a football before the NFL game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on November 22, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
How did Porter Ellett lose his right arm?
Ellett’s accident occurred when he was riding in the back of a moving pickup truck along with other kids, taking turns playing on a motorcycle secured in the truck bed. In an interview for the BYU magazine, Ellett recalled: “I went to get off of it, and I ended up falling out of the truck.
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“It was the worst combination of an injury, because I couldn’t move it, but I could feel pain in the arm,” he said of the accident, which caused a triple skull fracture and severe nerve damage to his right arm.
But far from letting that accident define him, Ellett learned how to move forward with his life. After high school, he went to BYU to study economics. As he looked for a job while finishing his degree, Ellett got to work for the university’s football team.
Ellett’s history with football
In an interview with Groco.com, Elllett revealed that before then, he actually didn’t have much experience with football. “My high school was so small that we didn’t have football. We played fall baseball, because the weather in you know higher elevation, Utah. … So we played fall baseball and we didn’t have enough kids to support baseball and football in the fall. So we didn’t even have a football team. But I did play baseball, I did play basketball, I ran track and cross country
However, he did have certain interest in the gridiron: “And I played football on my own; played catch. I had schools that were a little bigger in the area. They tried to get me to come play football, but I wasn’t willing to travel, and then also give up baseball with all my teammates. So I just stayed and played baseball. I didn’t play football. Coached baseball; coached basketball after high school as well.“
Assistant coach Porter Ellett of the Kansas City Chiefs warms up on the field prior Super Bowl LVII between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium on February 12, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona.
But when he started to work with the BYU Cougars, that’s when it hit. “That is when I fell in love with football, ended up realizing that I wanted to work in football,” explained Ellett, who had to wait before having another chance to work in the sport.
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The decision to coach
After graduating from BYU, Ellett spent nearly a year working as tax analyst for Goldman Sachs. With support from his wife, Carlie, he started to work his way back to football by studying sports management at Baylor.
“I kind of left everything; left my job at Goldman Sachs moved to Texas to pursue this kind of this pie in the sky dream. But I wanted to coach. That’s how I ended up you know, doing this,” Ellett revealed.
Ellett’s way to Reid’s Chiefs
He was still studying and working at the facilities of McLane Stadium when he got the phone call that would change his career. It was Andy Reid, who wanted Ellett to join him in Kansas City.
Ellett had a straightforward message for the Chiefs coach, as he recalled in his interview for the BYU magazine: “As long as you would be okay with your right-hand man not having a right hand.”
After a laugh, Reid replied: “All right, then you’ll be my left-hand man.” That’s how Ellett is known in Kansas City, where he’s become an instrumental piece of the Chiefs. Because behind Reid and Mahomes, there are many contributors who help the organization succeed. One of them is Ellett, whose story is nothing short of inspiring.
