A Matter of Heart

Dan Reeves is a walking contradiction right now, simply because he’s up and walking around.

Reeves, the coach who helped transform the Atlanta Falcons into NFC West champions with a 14-2 record, likes to keep things low-key and routine. His Falcons won by sticking to NFL basics: run the ball, stop the run.

He knows the postseason calls for even greater attention to detail. It’s a time to minimize distractions, focus on what worked during the regular season, keep on doing the same old things.

But when the coach intends to run the team from the sideline in an NFL playoff game less than a month after quadruple heart bypass surgery, how normal is that?

Reeves had the procedure Dec. 14 and defensive coordinator Rich Brooks was named interim head coach. Since then, Reeves talked to the team by phone a couple of times, then showed up a few hours before kickoff of the final game of the regular season for another motivational speech.

The doctors have allowed him to gradually increase his workload, but how much he would contribute to preparation and game-day coaching remained in doubt.

Even the news conferences have a bit of suspense. There was some uncertainty as to whether Reeves would conduct the weekly media session Tuesday or Brooks would continue to do it, as he had in Reeves’ absence.

In came Reeves. He walked up to the lectern and dutifully held up a blank sheet of paper so the cameramen could adjust the white balance on their minicams.

“You missed me, didn’t you?” Reeves said. “Did Rich do this?”

No, came the response.

“See, told you he couldn’t replace me.”

After the laughs died down, he started talking about the things coaches always talk about, mundane stuff about special teams, turnovers and injuries.

But as soon as he started taking questions, the No. 1 topic was his health.

“My goal is to try to be on the sidelines,” Reeves said. “But I think I’ll have a better idea once we go through the next three days of practice, how much energy I have at practice, how much I’m able to stand up. I’m really allowed to do whatever I feel like I can do. I’ve just got to be smart and see.”

Reeves is a smart man, but he can’t be counted on to do the smart thing because it’s a football game--a playoff game, at that--and that clearly ranks high on his priority list. He already indicated he would have waited until after the season to have the surgery if he could have, and that it was probably “dumb” of him to think that way.

“When they said ‘bypass’, I said, ‘What’s my alternative?’ ” Reeves said. “They had me in a bind, because I was in a hospital bed and they weren’t going to let me out.”

Monday, the doctors gave him clearance to do more. He helped with the game plan and got in his exercise (he’s back up to 15 minutes on the treadmill, twice a day). He went home, got a good night’s sleep, and showed up for Tuesday’s 8 a.m. meeting.

“I was two or three minutes late, but I was here,” Reeves said.

At first it looked like Reeves would be in the coaches’ booth for Saturday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers--if he was even allowed in the Georgia Dome at all. Standing on the sideline, just a few steps away from rampaging linebackers without brakes, could be hazardous to his entire body, not just his heart.

Yet that’s where Reeves wants to be.

“It’ll be very emotional for him,” cornerback Ray Buchanan said. “But at the same time Dan’s got to be careful, because with his heart condition, you’re in a playoff atmosphere and you can get real excited about a lot of the things out on the field. We’ve really got to be careful about that.

“Some of the players say we’d rather have him up in the press box. We can feel his presence whenever we’re out there on the football field, even though he’s not there. It’s going to be a very emotional game. Dan will probably have to take it easy.”

If Saturday’s game is anything like Sunday’s thrilling 49er-Packer game, that will be tough. Just watching on television could get your heart pounding harder. How will Reeves hold up? For the first time there will be justification for all of those sideline shots of the coach on TV.

“The doctors say you’ve got to be yourself, so I do a good job of being myself,” Reeves said. “I’m not worried about it. The heart is in good shape. I’m not going to go screaming like I do sometimes. Hopefully I’ll be a little bit more in control and understand those things. There are going to be times when I’m still going to holler and do the things that I always do . . . if my heart allows me.”

He has talked with Bill Parcells and Mike Ditka, coaches who have had heart problems in the past and are still on the NFL sidelines. He says he gets a lot from them, particularly Parcells, but the words probably don’t mean as much as what Reeves sees: they’re still out there coaching. He has been in the NFL for 34 years as a player and a coach. He has been married to his high school sweetheart the same amount of time. Obviously, Reeves isn’t the type to just walk away.

“I really haven’t thought about my health--it hasn’t crossed my mind--and I still don’t,” Reeves said. “As long as my health is good and I’m enjoying what I’m doing, this is what I want to do. I’m not looking to retire or get out of it or do anything.”

He already won the coach-of-the-year award, primarily for getting the Falcons to adopt his work ethic. Now, just by showing up to do his job, he has become an even more inspirational leader.

“You think about what he’s gone through, it’s amazing that he’s trying to join us as quick as he has been,” quarterback Chris Chandler said. “You think about, all we have to do is go play a football game, and he just went through major heart surgery. It gives us a lot of motivation.”

Reeves talked about the added urgency of playoff games. Perhaps, he might listen to his words and apply them to himself, make sure he is doing the right thing. The doctors already sent him back to the hospital briefly for trying to do too much too soon after the surgery. If there’s anything coaches hate, especially at this time of year, it’s making mistakes.

“Everything takes on a little bit more of a finality,” Reeves said. “If you don’t win, it’s over . . . There’s just more on the line.”

There’s more on the line, all right. Let’s hope Dan Reeves wins. And if he also happens to advance in the playoffs, well, that would be good too.

The Playoffs

Saturday

San Francisco at Atlanta

9:30 a.m., Ch. 11

Miami at Denver

1:15 p.m., Ch. 2

*

Sunday

Jacksonville at N.Y. Jets

9:30 a.m., Ch. 2

Arizona at Minnesota

1:15 p.m., Ch. 11