Tag: Dan Reeves

Falcons recap: Team mourns Dan Reeves, 3 return from COVID list

The Falcons mourned former head coach Dan Reeves, 3 players returned from the COVID reserve, and 5 practice squad players were elevated.

The man that led the Atlanta Falcons to their first-ever Super Bowl appearance, legendary former NFL head coach Dan Reeves, passed away on Saturday morning at the age of 77.

In today’s recap, players and fans pay tribute to Reeves, three Falcons return from the reserve/COVID-19 list, and the team elevates five practice squad players for Sunday’s game in Buffalo

NFL legend, former Cowboys player-coach Dan Reeves passes away at 77

Dan Reeves was an integral part of the Cowboys’ first five Super Bowl appearances, and went to four more over an incredible NFL career. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Dan Reeves is best known as the head coach for three different NFL franchises and one of only ten coaches in league history to win 200 career games. Over an NFL tenure that spanned nearly four decades (in an official capacity), he was a member of the coaching staffs for an incredible nine of the first 33 Super Bowls.

But Reeves got his pro football start as a running back for the Dallas Cowboys, amassing 1,990 rushing yards and 25 touchdowns over the course of 100 games in an eight-year playing career. But he also compiled nearly as many receiving yards and scores as one of the club’s earliest double-threat stars.

Reeves passed away early Friday morning at his home in Atlanta due to complications from a long illness.

A Georgia native, Reeves played quarterback for the University of South Carolina. Though he was far more proficient as a runner, Reeves finished his collegiate career as the Gamecocks’ passing leader.

The athletically-gifted Reeves went undrafted in 1965, but received interest from the NFL’s Cowboys and AFL’s Chargers, as well as MLB’s Pittsburgh Pirates. He signed with Dallas, even though they offered him less money, because they were willing to try him at other positions.

Danny Reeves, as he was then called, spent time as a safety before being moved to running back to help cover for team injuries. He took to the new role well, leading the Cowboys in rushing yards in just his second season (despite sharing the backfield with Don Perkins) and finishing second in receiving yardage (behind only Bob Hayes). Reeves ended 1966 with over 1,300 all-purpose yards, a league-leading and then-franchise-record 16 touchdowns, and helped lead Dallas to their first championship game in 1966 versus Green Bay.

Reeves was in uniform for the next year’s NFL championship, too- the infamous Ice Bowl- where he rushed for 42 yards, caught three passes for 11 yards, and threw a 50-yard touchdown to Lance Rentzel on a halfback option pass. It would be the Cowboys’ only offensive touchdown of the game, and accounted for half of the team’s passing yardage in the wickedly frigid conditions.

Knee injuries began taking a toll on Reeves’s playing days in 1968, and he spent his last three pro seasons as a player-coach under Tom Landry.

It was a unique position that would serve Reeves well later in his football life.

“Probably the toughest part was learning to keep things to yourself,” Reeves would say later, as relayed in Joe Nick Patoski’s book, The Dallas Cowboys: The Outrageous History of the Biggest, Loudest, Most Hated, Best Loved Team in America. “I knew a lot of things that were going on in the coaches’ meetings that I couldn’t share with players and a lot of things that players were complaining about that I couldn’t share with coaches… You had to keep your mouth shut.”

His double-duty stint included the Cowboys’ Super Bowl V loss- in which a pass he dropped was intercepted by the Colts and set up their winning field goal- and the 24-3 Super Bowl VI victory over Miami.

Following the 1972 season, Reeves stepped away from the team for a year, but returned in 1974 for a full-time spot on the coaching staff. After seven more years learning under Landry and trips to Super Bowls X, XII, and XIII, Reeves was ready for a head coaching job of his own.

He was the youngest head coach in the league when he took over in Denver in 1981. He would mentor a young quarterbacking phenom named John Elway and eventually lead the Broncos to three Super Bowl appearances.

After being fired and replaced in Denver with future Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips, Reeves took over the top job for the New York Giants. He went 11-5 and made the playoffs in his first year, earning AP Coach of the Year honors, but he lasted just three more lackluster seasons there.

From New York, Reeves went home to Georgia and was named the Falcons’ head coach in 1997. He led Atlanta to a 14-2 record in 1998. During that campaign, he underwent quadruple-bypass heart surgery in late December but still returned to the sidelines three weeks later for Super Bowl XXXIII, the franchise’s first, where they lost to his former Denver squad. He was named AP Coach of the Year a second time that season.

Reeves was replaced in Atlanta during the 2003 season at his request, again, by Wade Phillips.

To go with his 201 career victories, Reeves’ teams also notched 165 regular season losses, tying him for the most ever by a head coach.

Reeves even had a short-lived reunion with the Cowboys organization in 2009. After being hired as a consultant under Phillips (by then the Cowboys’ head coach), Reeves left two days later when specifics of his job duties could not be ironed out.

Reeves is in the Broncos’ Ring of Honor and has a special place in the history of two other clubs as their head coach. But his legacy in Dallas as both a player and a coach- and for a while, both at the same time- will make him uniquely missed by the Cowboys family.

The stoic Reeves was often asked throughout his life about the iconic Tom Landry, and his comments about his former coach and boss could just as easily pertain to Reeves himself now, as the NFL remembers a football life well lived.

“He was not going to make a rah-rah talk to get you fired up about playing,” Reeves said once of Landry. “He felt like the greatest motivator was preparation, and we never went into a football game that we weren’t very well prepared. We weren’t going to be surprised by anything the other team did because he covered every detail. His greatest motivator was preparation.”

Dan Reeves would have turned 78 on Jan. 19.

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Ex-Dallas Cowboys RB, NFL head coach Dan Reeves dies at 77

Former NFL player and coach Dan Reeves has died at 77

Dan Reeves, who played running back for the Dallas Cowboys and went on to coach multiple NFL teams has died at the age of 77.

Reeves died Saturday from complications of dementia.

“His legacy will continue through his many friends, players and fans as well as the rest of the NFL community,” the family said in a statement.

Reeves played for the Cowboys from 1965-72 after attending college at South Carolina.

He threw a halfback option pass for a touchdown to Lance Rentzel in the Ice Bowl on New Year’s Eve 1967.

Over 23 years as a head coach, Reeves had a record of 190-165-2. He was head coach of the Denver Broncos, Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants.

 

NFL fans remember Dan Reeves, who was a part of nine Super Bowls

The former Broncos, Giants and Falcons coach was 77.

Fans of the NFL are still reeling from the death of John Madden, the highly influential coach and broadcaster known for his gregarious, out-sized personality and penchant for teaching the game.

Now another legend of the game has passed. On Saturday, the family of Dan Reeves announced that the former coach and player died at age 77 after a long illness.

Reeves, who played running back for the Cowboys and was a head coach with Denver, the New York Giants and Atlanta, was part of a remarkable nine Super Bowls. He won Super Bowls as a player and an assistant under Tom Landry. His Broncos teams lost three Super Bowls in the later half of the 1980s. His Falcons team lost Super Bowl XXXIII.

Fans, former players and journalists shared their memories Saturday morning after the news of his death broke.

Former Giants coach Dan Reeves dies at 77

Former New York Giants head coach Dan Reeves, who was with the team in the 1990s, has passed away at the age of 77.

Former New York Giants head coach Dan Reeves has died at the age of 77. His family announced the passing in a statement through NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo.

“Legendary NFL player and coach Dan Reeves passed away early this morning, peacefully and surrounded by his loving family at his home in Atlanta, GA. He passed away at age 77 due to complications from a long illness. His legacy will continue through his many friends, players and fans as well as the rest of the NFL community. Arrangements are still to be determined,” the statement read.

Reeves was hired by the Giants prior to the 1993 season and led the team to an 11-5 record, which remains the best-ever record for a first-year head coach in franchise history. It also won him the AP Coach of the Year Award.

In 1994, Reeve’s Giants finished at 9-7. They continued to slide in 1995 and 1996, finishing with records of 5-11 and 6-10, respectively.

The Giants fired Reeves at the conclusion of the ’96 season.

In addition to his time with the Giants, Reeves served as head coach of the Denver Broncos from 1981-1992 and the Atlanta Falcons from 1997-2003. He was also an assistant with the Dallas Cowboys in 1972 and from 1974-1980.

Reeves participated in nine Super Bowls during his legendary career, winning two as a member of the Cowboys. He also led the Broncos to three Super Bowls but lost each, including to the Giants in 1986.

In 1998 as head coach of the Falcons, Reeves won his second AP Coach of the Year Award.

Reeves was indicted into the Broncos Ring of Fame in 2014.

The Professional Football Researchers Association named Reeves to the PFRA Hall of Very Good Class of 2017.

Once a Giant, Always a Giant.

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Throwback Thursday: Giants-Chargers in the 1995 Snowball Game

In the latest Giants Wire Throwback Thursday, we travel in time to 1995 and the infamous New York Giants-San Diego Chargers Snowball Game.

This Sunday will be just the 13th time the New York Giants will face the Chargers and the first time in Los Angeles. The other road games in the series were all played in San Diego.

The first matchup hosted by the Giants was at Yankee Stadium in 1971. The second was at Shea Stadium in 1975. The Giants would go on to host the Chargers four times at Giants Stadium: 1983, 1986, 1995 and 2009.

The 1995 game was probably the most memorable. Not for the play on the field but for the behavior of the fans.

The 5-10 Giants were closing out a disappointing season as the 8-7 Chargers came to town on a snowy week in the New York/New Jersey area. The stadium had been cleared of the snow well before the game, but there were still remnants of the week’s foot of snowfall still lingering throughout the venue.

As the Giants’ season circled the drain, the scene got ugly. Giant fans began to display their disgust over the team’s performance. It remains one of the lowest points in the 96-year history of the franchise.

From the New York Times:

With the Giants about to complete a 5-11 season, several of the 50,243 spectators began to throw snowballs, if not iceballs, onto the field. Soon, hundreds were throwing them.

One of the iceballs struck the Chargers’ equipment manager, 60-year-old Sid Brooks, near his left eye. Knocked unconscious, he regained consciousness in the locker room.

When the snowball throwing continued, the referee Ron Blum threatened to declare a forfeit. He did not, but Wellington Mara, a Giants owner, said later that Blum “would have been justified” to rule a forfeit. The Giants later took a full-page ad in a San Diego newspaper apologizing for the “snowball game.”

The Giants lost, 27-17, ending the third year of Dan Reeves’ four-year tenure as head coach. He would be fired after a 6-10 the next year.

The Chargers would finish with a 9-7 record and lose to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Wild Card game.

 

America’s Team: Cowboys 10 most memorable Thanksgiving Day games

With 52 Thanksgiving games on their resume, the Cowboys have plenty of holiday memories to choose from. Cowboys Wire picks out the 10 best.

America’s Team is as much a part of the All-American holiday as parade floats and candied yams. The Dallas Cowboys will host their 53rd Thanksgiving Day game in 2020. This season’s edition will mark the tenth time Dallas has welcomed their division rivals from Washington for the traditional late afternoon tilt. That’s the most of any Cowboys Thanksgiving opponent.

Over the years, the club’s Thanksgiving Day series has created some of pro football’s most memorable moments, including several chapters that are absolutely indelible within the Cowboys’ own storied history. To celebrate, Cowboys Wire takes a look back through the archives to dish out the ten quintessential Thanksgiving games that have meant the most to the team.

But the feast can’t be all deep-fried turkey and pumpkin pie; mixed in with some of the franchise’s most satisfying wins are also a few standout games that didn’t go Dallas’s way. Consider them the unpleasant cranberry sauce that your weird aunt brings every few years and makes you have at least a small helping of.

Several with Giants connections among best coaches to never win a Super Bowl

Several former members of the New York Giants and others more loosely connected have been listed among the best coaches to never win it all.

The New York Giants have participated in five Super Bowls, winning four and there have been many players and coaches in sphere over the years that have been involved in countless others.

Touchdown Wire has compiled a list of the best coaches that have never won the Super Bowl and several of those names have Giant connections.

From our friend Doug Farrar:

Does a head coach need a Super Bowl win to be considered great? There are 20 head coaches in NFL history with at least 50 wins over the .500 mark in the regular season and the postseason. Only three — George Halas, Curly Lambeau, and Steve Owen — did not play their trade in the Super Bowl era (Okay, Halas retired as a head coach after the 1967 season, but we’ll give him a pass here).

Of the 17 remaining coaches on that list, five — Paul Brown, Andy Reid, Marty Schottenheimer, George Allen, and Bud Grant — never won a Super Bowl. Brown and Grant are in the Hall of Fame. Marv Levy, who finished his career 31 games over .500 and lost four Super Bowls as Grant did, is also in Canton.

A quick side note on Owen, who coached the Giants in the pre-merger, pre-Super Bowl days from 1931-53, the longest tenure of any New York Giants head coach (268 games). He has the most victories (151 – Tom Coughlin is second with 102) and won the NFL Championship in 1934 an 1938.

The only other coach mentioned above to never win the Super Bowl that actually coached the Giants was Reeves. He took the helm in 1993 and coached 64 games between then and 1996. He won the AP NFL Coach of the Year in ’93 with an 11-5 record, but the Giants got bounced out of the playoffs by the score of 44-3 by the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round that year.

That game was both Phil Simms’ and Lawrence Taylor’s last in the NFL and the last Giants’ playoff game for the next four years. Reeves went 9-7, 5-11 and 6-10 after that and was canned in favor of Jim Fassel in 1997.

Reeves was also on the other end of the Giants’ first Super Bowl victory as the head coach of the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. Levy was their victim in Super Bowl XXV as head coach of the Buffalo Bills.

Other coaches with Giants’ connections: The Giants beat both Andy Reid and Dennis Green in 2000 on their way to Super Bowl XXV. John Fox was the Giants’ defensive coordinator under Jim Fassel and Marty Schottenheimer was a Giants’ defensive assistant in the mid-1970s.

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Broncos legend Randy Gradishar snubbed by Hall of Fame

Broncos legend Randy Gradishar has been snubbed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame once again.

Denver Broncos linebacker Randy Gradishar is not among 10 senior “Centennial Slate” candidates who were voted into the 2020 Pro Football Hall of Fame class on Wednesday. The senior members will be part of a special expanded 20-member class celebrating the NFL’s 100 years.

Gradishar was named a finalist in December but was snubbed in the final voting process.

Gradishar was a key member of the Broncos’ defense from 1974–1983. During that time, Gradishar earned seven Pro Bowl nods and Defensive Player of the Year honors (1978). He helped Denver’s famous “Orange Crush” defense lead the Broncos to the Super Bowl in 1977 and is a member of the team’s Ring of Fame.

The NFL did not officially track tackles during Gradishar’s career but he is unofficially credited with 2,049 tackles and officially credited with 20 interceptions. He was a play-making linebacker and one of the best defenders in franchise history.

Former Broncos coach Dan Reeves was also a Centennial Slate finalist but the voters selected former Steelers coach Bill Cowher and former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson over him. Denver also has two modern-era finalists in safeties Steve Atwater and John Lynch.

Atwater and Lynch are among 15 modern-era finalists who will learn their Hall of Fame fates on Feb. 1, the eve of Super Bowl LIV.

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Will Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson help Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan reach Hall of Fame?

If Bill Cowher and Jimmy Johnson belong in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Dan Reeves and Mike Shanahan do, too.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame will have a special 20-member class in 2020 in celebration of the NFL’s 100 years. The expanded class will include 15 “Centennial Slate” inductees, two of which are coaches.

Former Broncos coach Dan Reeves was among the finalists for the “Centennial Slate” but the voters choose former Steelers coach Bill Cowher and former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson instead.

Many fans and pundits on Twitter were perplexed about Johnson and Cowher reaching the Hall of Fame over Reeves and another former Broncos coach, Mike Shanahan.

It’s debatable if Reeves and Shanahan were more deserving but one could make a strong case that they are at least as deserving.

Shanahan was a brilliant offensive mind that won two Super Bowls as a head coach and three overall. His style of offense is still seen around the NFL thanks to his impressive coaching tree that includes Gary Kubiak, Kyle Shanahan (his son), Sean McVay and Matt LaFleur.

If voters believe that Johnson and Cowher belong in the Hall of Fame, surely they must believe Reeves and Shanahan do as well, right? Unfortunately, that might not be the case, in part because of the voting process for the 2020 class.

Johnson and Cowher were selected by a special “blue-ribbon panel,” not the usual selection committee. That panel’s view on what’s deserving of Hall of Fame recognition might not line up with the selection committee’s view, so even if Shanahan and Reeves are just as deserving as Johnson and Cowher, Denver’s two former coaches might still face an uphill battle to Canton. Classes will go back to being selected by the usual committee in 2021.

While the Broncos won’t have a coach enter the Hall of Fame this year, the team does have three finalists: modern-era safeties Steve Atwater and John Lynch and linebacker Randy Gradishar, a Centennial Slate candidate.

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