Former NFL player Andre Reed earns bachelor’s degree at 41

KUTZTOWN, Pa. (AP) – Andre Reed, the 16-year NFL receiver who played in four consecutive Super Bowls with the Buffalo Bills, earned a college degree Saturday at age 41. Reed played four years of football at Kutztown in the early 1980s, but was 10 credits shy of a bachelor’s degree when the Bills drafted him. He completed a general studies degree through independent study from his home near San Diego and participated in Saturday’s commencement ceremony. Reed and his wife, Cyndi, have two children, Auburn, 10, and Andre, 8. “I wanted them to see how important education is,” Reed said. “This was 80 percent for them and 20 percent for me.” Al Leonzi, an education professor at Kutztown and one of Reed’s college coaches, was there to see Reed finish. “I told Andre and everybody else that you’re one play away from unemployment,” Leonzi said. Reed, a high school star in Allentown, is fourth on the NFL’s all-time list of receivers with 951 receptions for 13,198 yards and 87 touchdowns in his career. He now works as a motivational speaker. Reed’s father Calvin died in 1996, but his mother Joyce was on hand for the ceremony. “This is even bigger than the Hall of Fame, if he ever makes it, which I think he will,” she said.