Andy Reid, Chiefs players stepped up to comfort fans after Super Bowl parade shooting

The Kansas City Chiefs woke up on Wednesday morning expecting the most important thing they'd do was celebrate their Super Bowl victory at a parade. Some of them ended up doing far more than that.

Tragedy struck the parade when shooters opened fire, killing at least one person and injuring 21, including nine children who are thankfully expected to recover. Eight adults have life-threatening wounds.

In all the chaos, stories emerged of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid and a host of KC players playing their part to comfort the rattled fans around them.

High school sophomore Gabe Wallace revealed that Reid hugged him after he fled into Union Station when the shooting started.

“Andy Reid was trying to comfort me, which was nice,” Wallace told the Kansas City State. "...He was kind of hugging me, just like, ‘Are you OK, man? Are you OK? Just please breathe.’ He was being real nice and everything."

Wallace was distraught over the possibility that his friends, whom he had been separated from, had been injured or worse. Fortunately, they were eventually reunited, safe and mostly unharmed.

Reid wasn't the only Chief who stepped up. Albert Breer of The MMQB tweeted that players were "UNBELIEVABLE calming panicked kids down." He specifically cited quarterback Blaine Gabbert, guard Trey Smith, center Austin Reiter and quarterback Chris Oladokun.

Smith had a WWE title belt with him. He gave it to one kid to help calm him down.

Chiefs fans rose to the occasion to tackle and restrain one of the suspected shooters. Chiefs players also did what they could to help those in need during a terrifying time.

After all the dust had cleared, Marquez Valdes-Scantling hopped on Twitter to see what could be done for the kids being treated at Children's Mercy Hospital.

As much as Wednesday was a day of tragedy. It was also a day of heroism and love.