To spare Dan Reeves the torture of the National Football League rumor mill, Arthur Blank once promised his coach that he'd be among the first to know if the owner wanted someone new to run his team.
The Atlanta Falcons owner kept that vow, and on Wednesday the team announced that Reeves was being dismissed after six-plus seasons as head coach.
Falcons officials have begun researching candidates to replace Reeves. Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips will coach the team until the season ends, but is not expected to be a primary candidate for the permanent job.
"There are no secrets in the NFL," Blank said. "We want to start the due diligence process for selecting a new head coach, following league policies, and we want to avoid unnecessary rumors, time drains and internal distractions as we do it."
Blank told Reeves on Tuesday that he would not be back as head coach next year, but urged the Georgia native to stay for the final three games of the 2003 season. Blank described it as giving the 59-year-old Reeves, who grew up in Americus, "a chance to write this last chapter however he wants."
But Reeves didn't want to pen a final chapter in that fashion, and asked to be released from his contract immediately. Blank agreed, and said Wednesday that Reeves will be paid for the balance of his contract, which runs through the 2004 season.
Reeves was at the team's facility Wednesday, meeting with the news media.
"If the decision had already been made to release me, my feelings were that I would like it to be effective immediately," Reeves said. "It's like me calling in a player and saying, 'I'm going to release you, but I want you to play three more games until I find somebody to replace you.'"
Reeves has a career record of 201-174-2 in 23 seasons as an NFL head coach, ranking seventh in league history in number of wins. When asked if he was retiring, he said, "No. I've been fired."
Blank spoke only in general terms about why he is replacing Reeves, though the team's 3-10 record and Reeves' overall mark of 52-61-1 with the Falcons had plenty to do with it.
Players were surprised chiefly by the timing. "It was very shocking," said linebacker Keith Brooking. "There was a lot of speculation about what was going to happen with Coach Reeves. We're not stupid. We're not idiots."
Reeves' best season in Atlanta was in 1998, when the Falcons reached the Super Bowl, losing to Denver. It was Atlanta's only appearance in an NFL title game. But five of Reeves' seven seasons with the Falcons were losing campaigns.
The Falcons were widely predicted to compete for a playoff spot this season, and they were even picked by some to reach the Super Bowl.
But quarterback Michael Vick, the key to last year's success, missed the first 11 games of the season after breaking his right fibula Aug. 16 in a preseason game. He did not start until the 13th game -- Sunday's 20-14 overtime win over Carolina.
There have been other key injuries, too, but the team has been beset with more off-field problems than in any season since Reeves was hired early in 1997. In October he suspended cornerback Tyrone Williams for conduct detrimental to the team, and at other times has demoted several players, including running back Warrick Dunn, the team's offensive captain.
Cornerback Ray Buchanan was bumped out of the starting lineup after seven games, when the entire starting secondary was changed. "I think everybody just started to play for themselves," Buchanan said. "It wasn't like everybody was late for meetings and stuff."
Reeves has been a head coach for three NFL teams -- the Denver Broncos (1988-1992), the New York Giants (1993-1996) and the Falcons (1997-2003). Special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, who is Reeves' son-in-law and has worked as an assistant since 1988, said Reeves is being used as a fall guy.
"If anybody thinks [the Falcons' poor record] is one guy's deal, then they're sadly mistaken," DeCamillis said. "It takes drafting, it takes personnel, it takes coaching, it takes players to play [the way they're] supposed to play."
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