Reeves Says He’ll Be on Sideline for 49er Game

Atlanta Coach Dan Reeves expects to be on the Falcon sideline for the NFC divisional playoff game against San Francisco in the Georgia Dome.

Reeves, who underwent heart bypass surgery Dec. 14, oversaw practice at the Georgia Dome on Wednesday for the second day in a row. Atlanta (14-2) plays the 49ers on Saturday.

“It went fine. I feel good about it,” the NFL’s coach of the year said. “I think the chances are good, unless something happens, that I can be on the sideline.”

Reeves joked that he might surround himself with practice squad players to guard against the chance of injury on the sideline.

“I’m going to get a couple of guys to be my personal protectors,” he said.

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Mike Riley’s interview for the San Diego Chargers’ coaching job dragged on into a second day, although it remained clear that the position is his if he feels comfortable inheriting several assistants.

Riley said Wednesday that he had no reservations about the makeup of his staff. A deal making him the fourth Chargers’ coach in as many seasons didn’t seem far away.

“I think there’s some, I suppose, Ts to cross and I’s to dot,” Riley said. “Within 24 hours, I think we’ll be able to say that one way or another,” Riley said.

General Manager Bobby Beathard is insisting that Riley, the coach at Oregon State, retain defensive coordinator Joe Pascale and his staff, as well as offensive line coach Joe Bugel and running backs coach Ollie Wilson.

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Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin fined two rookies $500 each for being late to a team meeting even though their tardiness was caused by a car accident that sent both to the hospital.

Tavian Banks and Cordell Taylor were on their way to a team meeting Saturday night when Taylor’s car was involved in a one-car accident, flipping four times before hitting a guard rail on a downtown bridge.

The players were 30 minutes late to the team meeting at a downtown Jacksonville hotel. After the meeting, they were taken to a nearby hospital for observation.

Neither suffered major injuries and nobody else was involved. Both were on the inactive list for last Sunday’s wild-card playoff game against the New England Patriots.

Always a stickler for rules, Coughlin said that he did not think twice about levying the fines.

“No one’s more thankful for the fact that those two young men were not injured than I am,” he said. “However, facts are facts and they don’t cease to exist because we want to ignore them.”

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The sprained right ankle of Miami tight end Troy Drayton still was severely swollen, leaving the Dolphins to list him as doubtful for Saturday’s AFC divisional playoff at Denver.

“Troy had more swelling than we anticipated,” Dolphin Coach Jimmy Johnson said. “We took the cast off, and there still was significant swelling. He limped to the whirlpool pretty badly.”

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Art Shell, offensive line coach for the Atlanta Falcons, will interview for the Cleveland Browns’ head coaching job Sunday, team President Carmen Policy said.

So far, the Browns have talked only with Minnesota offensive coordinator Brian Billick and Denver offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak about their head-coaching job.

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A day after his West Coast meeting with St. Louis Ram President John Shaw, Dick Vermeil was back on the job and contemplating the changes that must be made to turn around the franchise.

Vermeil said the meeting in Los Angeles was anything but the summit showdown some had speculated it would be.

“No ultimatums, nothing,” Vermeil said. “I didn’t expect ultimatums. It went as well as it could go for only winning four games.”

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The New York Giants fired offensive line coach John Matsko after finishing the season with the second-worst offense in the league.

“We need to get more consistent play from our line,” Giant Coach Jim Fassel said. “I just felt we needed to make a change.”