‘Home is St. Augustine, Florida:’ Austin Reed’s journey with the Bears featured on ‘Hard Knocks’

CHICAGO — An NFL rookie from Northeast Florida is in the TV spotlight as he tries to gain a roster spot.

Austin Reed, who graduated from St. Augustine High School, has been featured in the first two episodes of the Max series “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Chicago Bears.”

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Reed is an undrafted free agent who signed with the Bears in May ahead of rookie minicamp. The Bears’ starting quarterback is Caleb Williams, who was drafted No. 1 overall.

The first episode shows Reed getting some playing time in the Bears’ first preseason game against the Houston Texans at the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio on Thursday, Aug. 1.

His parents, Jen and Tom Reed, along with fiancée Peyton Peffers, watched excitedly in the stands.

“I’m like, shaking,” Jen Reed said to Peffers, comparing their shaking hands. “Oh wow, yours might be worse!”

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Meanwhile, Austin chats with the ref before taking a snap.

Referee: “Where’s home for you?”

Reed: “Home is St. Augustine, Florida.”

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He gets to play a little bit, throwing two passes, but then the rain came.

“Reed looks like a natural,” Hard Knocks narrator Liev Schreiber said. “Unfortunately, Mother Nature doesn’t much care.”

The game ended up being called. Final score Bears 21, Texans 17.

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The second episode of “Hard Knocks” showed more of Reed’s personality, as he and teammate Cole Kmet talked about how they watch “Love Island” with their significant others.

“It’s like watching a car wreck,” Kmet said. “Like, you’re like ‘I gotta watch.’”

“Yeah, you can’t look away, exactly, 100%,” Reed said.

The episode then flashes back to Reed’s playing time in the first preseason game, where he only got two plays in before the bad weather.

“My parents have been to pretty much every football game since I’ve started playing except for maybe one or two,” Reed said. “It’s definitely tough seeing them be all excited and then what happened, happened.”

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Reed talks about how being in a supporting role is different from his college career, during which he played at West Florida and Western Kentucky.

“It’s a different scenario whereas the last three, four years of my life, I’ve been a starter,” he said. “Just the role you have to embrace when you’re coming in the league in this situation I’m in.”

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Reed also talks about how the NFL has always been his end goal.

“This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. I’ve always wanted to play in the NFL,” he said. “There’s never really been a second plan. I know eventually after football, I’ll have to do something but you know the plan has always been the NFL until the NFL officially tells me no.”

Later in the episode, Jen and Tom Reed are back in the stands for the Bears’ second preseason against the Bills.

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The weather is much better, so Reed gets more playing time, including a handoff touchdown to Ian Wheeler. The Bears ended up winning the game 33-6.

There are three more episodes of “Hard Knocks” with the Bears. The next one, airing Tuesday at 9 p.m. on Max, will feature the team’s 27-3 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

After that, there are two episodes left in the series, so we will see how much more screen time Reed receives.

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