Reeves Finds Himself in a Giant Mess

He is the winningest active coach in the NFL, and based on recent results, it might be difficult to guess his identity.

His team has lost 15 of 22 games, and from afar it appears he is trying to get himself fired. He’s known best for not getting along with quarterbacks, losing Super Bowls and being a control freak. He has publicly been at odds with the team’s longtime general manager, and because of his honesty, refusal to dodge any question and inability to be politically correct, he’s going to continually be hanged in headlines by his own words.

“Do I have any concerns about surviving here? Sure,” said Dan Reeves, the New York Giants’ coach. “We’re [2-4] and we were 5-11 last year. Perception is everything. When I was having conversations with the ownership here after last season, they were saying, ‘If you’re not happy, why don’t you go somewhere else?’

“Well, I might not get a job somewhere else. There’s no guarantee, and they said, ‘You’ll have a job tomorrow.’

“ ‘If that’s the case,’ I said, ‘Let’s work things out where you can pay me and if I get a job then you won’t owe me anything.’ ”

No deal, said the Giants, so Reeves, although not happy with the organization’s approach to football, stayed on for this season.

“Leave?” Reeves said. “I look at it and say there’s Mike Ditka out there. Chuck Knox out there. Bill Walsh out there. There are really good coaches not coaching anymore.”

Will Reeves--145-107-1 in the NFL but perhaps known best for his disagreements with New York General Manager George Young--become the next Ditka, Knox or Walsh at the end of the 1996 season?

Ditka said, “Reeves will never get another job in the NFL” after he’s fired in New York, and like most NFL observers, Ditka expects this to be Reeves’ last year. There are stories being circulated already about Reeves’ potential successor being either Giant defensive coordinator Mike Nolan or Arizona offensive coordinator Jim Fassel.

Only a few years ago, Reeves had the credentials to be considered one of the best--if not the best--head coach in the NFL. He won with the kind of substandard talent that would get most coaches fired, although he had John Elway at quarterback for 10 of his 12 years.

In Denver, Reeves was the coach and general manager, a dictator of sorts. Known as much for his Texas accent as his volatile temper, Reeves was also incredibly sensitive with the willingness to publicly expose his insecurities and weaknesses.

Although they needed each other to go to three Super Bowls, he and Elway never meshed. But to this day he remains in denial in understanding the depth of Elway’s disenchantment with him.

When advised recently about some of the feelings John and Janet Elway have for him today, including the suggestion that a restrictive Reeves took away Elway’s younger years, he became emotionally affected, taking his glasses off and rubbing moisture from his eyes.

“That really blows me away; they think that, oh gosh,” he said. “God almighty.

“They think I robbed him of his good years, huh? . . . That frustrates the heck out of you, but you have to answer to yourself, and I know where my heart was and what my reasons were for doing things. There are some situations that happened, if I had been more mature, would have turned out differently, yeah, but that’s life.”

In recent weeks, he has been blamed for trying to trade Elway to Washington six years ago, and in rebuttal Reeves is crestfallen and angry. “They think that? Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “There’s no way; I can’t believe they would think that. I could have traded him to any number of places--Al Davis came to me two or three times wanting him, and I just laughed at him.”

A few weeks ago, the Denver media suggested Reeves hurt the Broncos by not drafting wide receiver Carl Pickens, now with the Cincinnati Bengals. It wouldn’t be surprising to hear the shortage of snowfall in the ski areas blamed on Reeves.

To this day, Reeves says, he does not know why he’s not coaching in Denver, although he suspects, “It had something to do with John Elway,” and Mike Shanahan, the current Bronco coach.

After Denver owner Pat Bowlen told Reeves a year earlier that he would be given a new contract, Bowlen reneged and then dismissed Reeves after the Broncos finished 8-8 in 1992--with Elway sitting out four games because of injuries.

“Something happened, but I don’t know what,” Reeves said. “I don’t understand, and I’ve never been told.”

Elway reportedly has said in later years that he was not going to play anymore if Reeves remained the coach, but some believe those statements were made to force Bowlen to go after Shanahan, Elway’s friend, former position coach and offensive coordinator with the 49ers at the time.

“I think there was a good chance of Shanahan being hired then,” Reeves said. “I had a problem with Mike when he worked for me, and I made the move to let him go because it came out in the paper that I had a problem with John. If you’re coaching the position, why don’t you tell me about it? I was blindsided. I never, not once, criticized John in public; anything said was said in our meetings.

“John was the best quarterback I have ever been around. No way would we ever have been to three Super Bowls without John Elway. To this day I don’t know what problem we had.”

The problem was really Elway’s. Elway, whose Achilles’ heel in his early years was thinking everyone was out to get him--including the city of Denver--always believed he could have had the statistics of a Dan Marino had Reeves only let him play without so many restrictions. He blamed his disappointments on Reeves, who was demanding and uncompromising.

Marino joined a Super Bowl team, Elway came to a team in transition. When Wade Phillips replaced Reeves as coach and let Elway fire at will, his statistics were Marino-like, but the Broncos were 16-16.

Was Reeves too confined to a boring offensive system? Was he unable to communicate with one of the game’s great athletes? Was he just too much of an intense load to deal with day in and day out? All of the above, and so Elway reportedly went to Bowlen: Reeves or Elway, make your choice.

“I was sitting in Pat Bowlen’s office and he was saying he felt it would be unfair to ask me to change and he wanted to be more involved,” Reeves said. “I was given no other reasons, so if that’s the truth, fine, but all I know is two years later he turns around and gives Shanahan the same thing I had.”

After leaving Denver, Reeves went after the Giants’ job, surprising many NFL people who never thought he could co-exist with Young. And they were right.

“I wish I had more control over what I do,” said Reeves, who does not shy away from the direct question. “There’s that perception that I have to control everything, and yeah, I think there is a better chance to compete that way. When it comes down to it, the guy who has to stand up and be counted is the coach.

“Look at this situation with the Giants and the four coaches that have been through here before me. If not successful, those are the guys who go, and George [Young] is still sitting there. And he’s got more control over this than those four coaches.”

Reeves is just about finished in New York. He has had Elway-like difficulties with quarterback Dave Brown, although Brown is nowhere near as talented. The Giants had a chance to win or tie 10 games in the final two minutes last season and lost nine. That is a quarterback’s time to shine, but Reeves now has the nothing-special record of 27-27 in New York with a nothing-special quarterback.

“I know what people say about me and quarterbacks,” Reeves said. “But Dave and I play golf together, not a lot. He’s in his mid-20s and I’m 52, and I don’t think Dave Brown wants to go out with me. I have respect for the job he does. If I had daughter his age he’d be the kind of guy I’d like my daughter to go out with. He’s a good person, but I can’t all of a sudden say he’s a great quarterback and he’s executing well, because I haven’t seen it yet.”

Vintage Reeves. Honest until the door hits him in the rear end.

After last season he told the team’s ownership that it could no longer do business as it did years ago in winning two Super Bowls because of the changes in free agency and the salary cap. The Giants’ management told Reeves it would continue to do business as it had always done.

“I’ve never seen anything in life change by saying we’re going to continue doing things the same way,” Reeves said.

“It’s frustrating. Before I came here, the biggest frustration was being known as the guy who couldn’t win a Super Bowl. Now we go 5-11 and [2-4] and the perception overall is he can’t coach. That’s frustrating. Big time.”

The record, overall, reflects that Reeves, the control freak and the guy who can’t get along with quarterbacks, can coach--can deliver a winner. But after this season, will he ever get a chance to do so again in the NFL?

IN QUOTATIONS

--Former Bear Dan Hampton on the Packers: “I’m not impressed by Green Bay. I’d much rather play Green Bay tomorrow than Dallas because I think Dallas can hurt you more than Green Bay.”

--Dallas offensive lineman Nate Newton, on the fans’ warm welcome for Michael Irvin: “Say what you want about Dallas. The Cowboys believe in forgiveness. Loyalty. Outside of murder, you can’t do too much wrong on our team.”

DOWN AND OUT

--San Francisco wide receiver J.J. Stokes has had nine passes thrown his way in the last two games, and although six have touched his hands, he has caught none.

“Definitely, I should have had those balls,” Stokes said. “It seemed like the harder I tried, the worse off I was. I just need to relax, stay relaxed, and take it from there.”

Jerry Rice, who has caught a pass in 165 consecutive regular-season games, talked to Stokes. “He just told me to trust my hands,” Stokes said. “Everybody’s pointed out to me that he went through the same situation.”

Stokes will have plenty of time to relax; he dislocated his right wrist in practice Thursday and will be sidelined at least two weeks.

--Baltimore cornerback Antonio Langham has given up a touchdown pass in each of the team’s six games. “It’s not wearing on me,” Langham said. “I’m not doubting myself. I just need to step up and make the plays. There’s no need to doubt myself. I can play.”

EXTRA POINTS

--The St. Louis Rams were outscored by 32 points by a team--Carolina--that had never scored more than 30 points in franchise history.

--Tampa Bay’s Robb Thomas caught two touchdown passes against Minnesota for the first time since 1988--when he was playing for Oregon State against USC.

--In six games, Giant kicker Brad Daluiso has tried five extra points. In seven games, Packer kicker Chris Jacke has tried 26.

--In 1976 the NFL did not have a single 300-pounder playing in the league. In 1986 there were 13. Now, according to the league offices, there are 178.

Today, the smallest NFL offensive lineman is Houston center Mark Stepnoski, who is listed at 269.

WINNING IS . . .

Two weeks ago Philadelphia Coach Ray Rhodes made it clear how much he wanted to beat the Cowboys: He continued to play quarterback Ty Detmer, although Detmer had suffered a concussion.

Detmer called several incorrect formations because he was having trouble thinking clearly.

“Really, I was out of character in keeping the kid in the game,” Rhodes said. “Normally, I wouldn’t have put him back in the game. It’s a gray area. It was one in which [Detmer] couldn’t focus and couldn’t remember a lot of things. But it was a serious enough concussion that he was out of it and a little dazed. If I had it to do over again, once I realized he was [messing] things up, I probably would have gone to Bobby [Hoying].”

Hello, is anybody home? Said Detmer: “I don’t know if the coaches were asking if I wanted to come out or what. A lot of things I still don’t remember.”