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Monday, Feb. 1 1:07am ET In the biggest game, Reeves rolls the dice |
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MIAMI -- Caution screamed, "Try something else."
Dan Reeves kept rolling the dice.
Come from where he was six weeks ago, on an operating-room table
with a failing heart, and there is no such thing as a long shot.
Fourth-and-one early in the game? Go for it.
Keep sending eight defenders to the line of scrimmage, and keep
challenging the kid quarterback he taught to be a man to prove he
still had one great game left? Absolutely.
"I thought John Elway was a great quarterback when he lost
three Super Bowls," Reeves said after Elway, no longer a kid at
38, came back to haunt his old coach. "I'm sure this one put a
smile on his face."
Reeves ended up on the wrong side of 34-19 Sunday night, on the
wrong side of the Super Bowl in his fourth try as a head coach. As
the last few seconds ticked off the clock, he folded his arms
across his chest, not to stop the hurt in his heart, but to remind
himself that it was still beating.
There is no easy way to say how much this one took out of
Reeves.
He had quadruple-bypass heart surgery in the middle of December.
He barely slowed his stride. He was back on the sideline before
almost anyone noticed he was gone. After all, Reeves had the
Atlanta Falcons on a roll, had the job he first interviewed for 20
years ago, and maybe most important of all, he still had something
to prove.
A half-dozen years ago, after he'd put in 12 seasons in Denver
practically raising Elway, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen handed Reeves
his walking papers. Sunday was supposed to be payback.
It was, just not for him.
"They all hurt when you come in and lose. I guess I'm just
fortunate to be here. You go through that," Reeves paused, but did
not have to elaborate, "and you get here, well, who knows what
your chances are?"
His musing came out as a question, but the truth is that he
probably knew the answer going in.
His chances were not good when he brought the Falcons to Miami
last week, but they got much worse Saturday night. Safety Eugene
Robinson, a veteran who was supposed to exert the kind of
leadership and steadying influence that Reeves is all about, got
arrested on a downtown street and charged with solicitation.
Over and over, Reeves was asked how it affected his team. Over
and over, he kept defending Robinson. "I don't know anybody that
hasn't made any mistakes in his life. Our concern all along was for
Eugene Robinson."
The next time the question came up, Reeves smacked the table on
the podium in front of him.
"This is the last time I'm going to answer that one," he said
finally.
He talked to the team late Saturday night, then again before
they took the field.
"Coach told us that if we lost this game, it would be the
ultimate loss," linebacker Jessie Tuggle said. "We worked so hard
to get to this point. We just didn't respond."
There was a moment in the second quarter when it was still
possible, when Denver's lead was just 10-3. Then Falcons kicker
Morten Andersen missed a 26-yard field goal and Elway brought the
Broncos to the line of scrimmage and saw eight Atlanta defenders
still hanging in stubbornly to stop the run, still close enough to
read his lips.
He called play-action, rolled to his right and waited for Rod
Smith to slip past the cornerback and into single coverage against
Robinson. Then he let it fly. Eighty yards later, Smith rolled into
the end zone and over the Falcons' chances of winning their first
Super Bowl.
"We knew before the game they were determined to stop the
run," Broncos offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak said. "We knew we
were going to have to throw the ball to beat them. It was a little
more than we expected, but things worked themselves out."
Kubiak could afford to be modest. Elway finished 18-of-29 for
336 yards and made nearly every tough throw he had to. He picked up
the Most Valuable Player trophy afterward, something that could not
have gone down smoothly with Reeves.
He was spared that final embarrassment when the crowd around
Elway swelled to the point where congratulating him proved
impossible. Reeves, however, was able to catch up with Broncos
coach Mike Shanahan, who was his assistant in Denver and a key
player in the drama that got him canned.
"I told him congratulations and asked him to pass on my
congratulations to John," Reeves said.
He was calm at the end, bearing no grudges, certain he had no
regrets, uncertain even whether he would have done anything
differently.
As it turned out, the second chance Reeves was granted six weeks
ago was more important than winning any game or setting the record
straight.
"Somebody has to be a loser. If you can walk off and feel like
you've done everything you can, taken all the chances you could,
then you congratulate the other guys and that's enough," he said.
"I have no problem with that."
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