Reeves Fires the First Apology

Either Atlanta Falcon Coach Dan Reeves has learned nothing in eight previous Super Bowl appearances as a player or coach about how to avoid creating distractions, or he’s trying to keep the spotlight off his team.

Or he simply likes to see his name in headlines.

After having created a huge furor before even arriving in Miami by saying he fired current Denver Bronco Coach Mike Shanahan from his job as a Denver assistant under Reeves in 1992 because he felt Shanahan was trying to undermine his authority, Reeves apologized Sunday.

“There are still a lot of wounds there,” said Reeves in his first news conference after arriving with his team for Super Bowl XXXIII against the Broncos. “I caused some of those wounds. I apologize for opening those wounds last week because I don’t think anything is accomplished by it. It’s not going to change anything. The only thing I know that cures wounds is time.”

Reeves said last week that he fired Shanahan for, at least in Reeves’ mind, passing on remarks to quarterback John Elway that should have remained among the coaches, for coming up with a scripted list of plays with Elway without informing Reeves and for not warning Reeves about a critical newspaper column.

Shanahan has denied the first two charges and said he had nothing to do with the newspaper story and shouldn’t have been responsible for alerting Reeves.

Reeves blamed himself Sunday for the revival of the feud.

“I should be smart enough after 18 years in this business,” he said, “to know better, but I tried to cooperate [with the media] and some people made a lot more out of it than they should have.”

The next question Reeves was asked was whether he had warned his players about the pitfalls of Super Bowl week.

Watching Reeves in action Sunday might have been all the warning they needed.

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Atlanta defensive back Eugene Robinson, a 14-year veteran who has been in two Super Bowls with the Green Bay Packers, was asked Sunday how valuable his experience will be in this Super Bowl.

As Robinson prepared to answer, seated at a table and surrounded by reporters and microphones and cameras, a large potted plant, inadvertently nudged by an overanxious reporter, began to tumble over in Robinson’s direction.

Without hesitation, Robinson calmly reached out, grabbed the plant and shoved it back into place without leaving his seat.

“Now that’s experience,” Robinson said. “You can’t teach that kind of thing.”

Grabbing an Elway pass on Sunday, however, may prove to be a bit more difficult.

Denver (16-2) vs. Atlanta (16-2)

Sunday, 3:15 p.m., Fox