MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — It’s unfair. Always has been.

The outside perception of Andy Reid always felt unfair. He’s been a better head coach than his reputation would lead you to believe.

Not anymore, though. Not after Reid’s Chiefs captured Super Bowl 2020 with a stirring 31-20 comeback win over the 49ers at Hard Rock Stadium before a decidedly pro-Kansas City crowd of 62,417.

Reid is a Super Bowl champion now and no one — not even the cynical detractors in Philadelphia — can ever take that away from him.

Finally, Reid, one of the most well-respected, well-liked coaches in the game, can die a man properly credited for the great coach he is and has always been — despite the dubious shortcomings that were attached to him.

“He’s one of the greatest coaches of all time,’’ Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “He already was before we won this game. I don’t think he needed the Lombardi Trophy to prove that. But to do this puts all doubts aside.’’

Reid will, indeed, go to the Hall of Fame without the hint of an argument now when his time comes.

Good for him. And bad for the critics who’ve made it a sport to tweak him for the gaping hole in his coaching résumé for all these years before Sunday night.

When the clock bled out to :00, a mob of Chiefs players and assistant coaches engulfed Reid, everyone wanting a piece of hugging him and giving him a Gatorade shower. That’s how much he’s thought of in Kansas City.

“You should have seen the smile on his face with that Gatorade on him,’’ linebacker Anthony Hitchens said.

The most powerful testament to the job Reid did in this game was this: He won without his superstar quarterback having his best stuff.

In the end, Mahomes led the Chiefs in overcoming a 20-10 second-half deficit and he’ll get most of the outside credit for this title that ended a 50-year drought without a championship for the Chiefs. But a poll of the players and people on the inside who know better will heap the largest helping of credit onto Reid’s plate.

Reid deftly pushed the right button in the fourth quarter when he went to a hurry-up offense in an effort to tire the 49ers defense and light a fire under his offense. His team, too, followed his even-keel demeanor and never panicked when it looked like the game was about to be over.

“He always says, ‘Don’t blink,’ ’’ Chiefs linebacker Reggie Ragland said.

So, they didn’t.

If we’re going to criticize Reid for the blown leads in previous postseason games, then we must credit him for the Chiefs overcoming a 24-0 deficit to the Texans to win 51-31 in the divisional round.

And for winning the AFC Championship against the Titans after trailing 17-7 in the first half.

And for Sunday night — a third comeback from a second-half deficit of at least 10 points in this magical postseason ride for the Chiefs — an NFL record.

In Reid’s Super Bowl loss to the Patriots 15 years ago when he coached in Philadelphia, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb threw three interceptions and was sacked four times, yet the Eagles lost only 24-21. Was Reid to blame for that?

Forgotten in the he-can’t-win-the-big-game chatter is the fact Reid took over a 3-13 Eagles team in 1999 and had it in the playoffs after one season. Then he inherited a 2-14 Chiefs team in 2013 and won 11 games his first season.

Still, the fact was this before Sunday night: Reid never was going to silence his critics until he won a Super Bowl.

And now he has. So, from now on, he’ll deservedly hear the beautiful sounds of crickets from the critics.

Reid no longer has to hear about having won more games than any coach (221 before Sunday) without a Super Bowl title. He no longer has to answer questions about his inability to win the big game.

Or going 1-4 in conference title games during 14 seasons in Philadelphia.

Or his questionable clock management in the Super Bowl loss to New England.

Or the 28-point lead the Chiefs blew in a 45-44 playoff loss to the Colts in 2013.

Or the home wild-card playoff loss to the Titans in 2017 when the Chiefs took a 21-10 lead into the fourth quarter and lost 22-21.

All of these things will stay with Reed, of course. But after Sunday night, his reputation will no longer be tainted by the negative undertones. A Super Bowl victory trumps everything. All the rest now has been reduced to a series of footnotes.

“This is all he’s been missing,’’ running back LeSean McCoy said.

Not anymore. Andy Reid is a Super Bowl champion. Finally.

And that’s the fairest thing of all to come out of Super Bowl LIV on a perfect night for validation in South Florida.