After "deciding he'd had enough football," Reynolds moved to Texas and Oklahoma and worked in the oil business in 1936 and 1937. Reynolds had been drafted by the Green Bay Packers, but decided not to play professional football. In 1937, G.A. Richards, a millionaire radio station owner who also owned the Detroit Lions, invited Reynolds to come to Detroit to talk things over. Reynolds told Richards he had no interest in playing for the Lions, but noted that he did have an interest in working at Richards' Los Angeles radio station KMPC. Richards proposed a coin toss. If Richards called it right, Reynolds would play two years for the Lions and work at KMPC in the off-seasons. If Reynolds called it right, he would have the radio job without any obligation to play for the Lions. Richards won the coin toss, and Reynolds signed a double contract — to play football for the Lions in the fall and to work for KMPC in the off-seasons.