Dan Reeves, the winningest active coach in the NFL, is among the leading candidates for coach-of-the-year honors after his Atlanta Falcons won their 14th game in their last 18 starts. Their 31-19 victory Sunday over the San Francisco 49ers put the Falcons alone in first place in the NFC West.
But Reeves might not want the recognition, not if the Falcons hope to build on the tradition he started when he arrived last season. Coaches of the year almost always see their teams slump the following season.
Reeves was coach of the year in Denver in 1984 and again with the New York Giants in 1993, only to suffer through growing pains and a worse record the year after each time. Reeves’ successor with the Giants, Jim Fassel, will become the 21st Associated Press Coach of the Year in the past 22 seasons to fail to improve his record the year after winning the award. The Giants lost only five games last season and already have lost seven this year.
The lone exception is Jimmy Johnson, who won the award after leading the Dallas Cowboys to a 7-9 record in 1989. Dallas was 11-5 in 1990.
Reeves has plenty of competition for the award this season:
– Chan Gailey. Like Reeves a former quarterback for the same high school in Americus, Ga., Gailey has the Dallas Cowboys back on top of the NFC East in his first year as successor to Barry Switzer.
– Dennis Green. The dean of NFC coaches, Green has the Minnesota Vikings on top of the whole NFC with the highest-scoring offense in the conference.
– Mike Shanahan. After winning championships, coaches tend to get overlooked in coach-of-the-year balloting. Ask the Bulls’ Phil Jackson. But if Shanahan keeps his unbeaten Denver Broncos on top of the AFC when everybody knows how difficult it is to repeat, he shouldn’t be ignored.
– Jon Gruden. In his first year as a head coach anywhere, the youthful-looking Gruden has restored the big, bad Oakland Raiders to their long lost definition of “bad.” Nobody thinks they’re this good. All they do is win, baby.
– Johnson. The Miami Dolphins are winning with defense and find themselves atop the AFC East again, keeping pace with Johnson’s prediction he would build a Super Bowl contender in three years.
– Bill Parcells. The New York Jets stumbled again Sunday and have now lost to the lowly St. Louis Rams and Indianapolis Colts. But the Jets remain in the thick of the playoff hunt and still have the best division record in the AFC East in Parcells’ second season.
– Mike Ditka. Who could expect the New Orleans Saints to be better than their current 5-5? Ditka started his eighth quarterback in only a year and a half back on the job, proving he hasn’t lost his touch at the most sensitive position.
– Wade Phillips. In his first year, he has put the Buffalo Bills back on track by resurrecting the career of Doug Flutie.
Who’s better: In the battle for three wide receiver supremacy, the San Francisco 49ers are leading the Minnesota Vikings. Jerry Rice (58-879-6), J.J. Stokes (42-508-6) and Terrell Owens (43-700-7) have combined for 143 receptions for 2,087 yards and 19 TDs. Minnesota’s Cris Carter (47-658-7), Randy Moss (36-698-7) and Jake Reed (31-456-4) have an aggregate figure of 114 for 1,812 yards and 18 TDs.
Parcel out credit: During Parcells’ 14-year coaching career with the Giants, Patriots and Jets, he is 103-65 when assistant head coach/defense Bill Belichick is on his staff. He is 21-27 without him.
No way Elway: The chances of John Elway going back on his implied plans to make this his final season get smaller by the week. The great Denver quarterback wanted no part of a Farewell Tour, so he hedged when the media prodded him to leave the door open to next year.
It turns out Elway hasn’t been around to fully enjoy any kind of Farewell Tour anyway. And when he is around, it’s a painful process.
Elway has missed all or parts of six of Denver’s 10 games this season, and can identify with San Francisco’s 37-year-old Steve Young, who said after losing to Atlanta Sunday: “Every game is like a car wreck.”
“I’ve never been so frustrated in my life,” Elway said. “I’ve never had nagging injuries like this, never. If I can make it through a game without adding another injury, that would be an (accomplishment).”
The rib cartilage Elway initally strained against the Cincinnati Bengals two weeks ago and aggravated last week is the most painful injury of Elway’s 16-year career. Yelling out signals is becoming a chore.
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“I’ve tried to battle through pain, thinking over time it would take care of itself,” Elway said. “I had a tough time calling the play in the huddle (last week). I was hoping I would hang in there to where it would loosen up, but it didn’t.”
As for next season, he said: “I’m not even thinking about next season right now. All I’m thinking about is trying to get to next week.”
Snap decision: Mark Rodenhauser was signed by the Bears in 1987 as a replacement player during the strike that shortened that season to nine games. Master of the long snap and jack of no other trade, Rodenhauser has stayed in the league ever since.
After the Carolina Panthers cut him earlier this year to save $167,000 under the salary cap, the Pittsburgh Steelers picked him up.
But the Panthers have regretted it after bad snaps arguably cost them two victories.
So Carolina searched the rooftops and signed 12-year veteran Danny Villa last week. Since his release by Oakland in the preseason, Villa has been working with his father-in-law in Boston, cleaning out chimneys.
He was earning $59 per chimney, which made accepting the Panthers offer of $134,000 for the remainder of the season (pro-rated from the veteran’s yearly minimum of $325,000) a no-brainer.
“I’m not stupid,” Villa said. “The seven weeks I hope I’m here, I’ll make more than in 10 years of chimney sweeping.”
Villa said he dressed the part of traditional chimney sweeps, including the top hat. He said he got tired of carrying ladders and getting very dirty.
“But it washes off at the end of the day,” he said.
“It’s been a while since he lined up and hit people,” Carolina coach Dom Capers said. “As a chimney sweep, that’s not part of the job description.”
Look out above: With their perfect 6-0 record in the weak NFC East, the Dallas Cowboys can practically coast to the playoffs. During a down season for the entire NFC, watch out. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, always optimistic, sees big possibilities.
“I believe we’ve got an opportunity, and I believe it’s every bit the opportunity we’ve had in our Super Bowl years to be a team playing well when we get to the playoffs. I don’t know of any year when we’ve had a better opportunity,” Jones said.