Dan Reeves: Super Bowl winning player and legendary head coach dies aged 77 | NFL News
Dan Reeves won two Super Bowls as a player and assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys before reaching four more as head coach of the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons
Last Updated: 01/01/22 3:20pm
Dan Reeves reached four Super Bowls as a head coach with Atlanta and Denver
Legendary NFL player and coach Dan Reeves has died at the age of 77 from complications associated with dementia.
Reeves won a Super Bowl as a member of the Dallas Cowboys in the 1960s but is probably better known for taking the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons to multiple championship games without actually winning one.
He passed away peacefully on Saturday, surrounded by his family at home in Atlanta, where he stayed after his coaching career came to an end in 2003.
Reeves was undrafted after a multi-sport college career at South Carolina University and had the chance to play professional baseball before being picked up to play safety for the Cowboys.
He would eventually settle into a running-back role and accumulated more than 3,500 all-purpose yards and 42 touchdowns in a career that included victory in Super Bowl VI.
Reeves won Super Bowls as a player and assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys
Reeves stayed in Dallas to begin his coaching career under Tom Landry, who he was an assistant to when the Cowboys won Super Bowl XII.
But it was his time with the Broncos which Reeves would become most associated with, winning AP Head Coach of the Year in 1983 for the first time.
Denver reached Super Bowls in 1986, 1987 and 1989 but lost all three despite being led by Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway, whose acquisition via trade had been one of Reeves’ first business decisions.
We’re saddened by the passing of Ring of Fame Head Coach Dan Reeves, who led us to three Super Bowl appearances.
We send our sincerest condolences to his family. pic.twitter.com/ybT0RJdeiW
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) January 1, 2022
Reeves had four years in charge of the New York Giants but made only one playoff appearance before he headed back to his home state to take over as Falcons head coach.
His second season ended in a 14-2 record and a fourth Super Bowl appearance, but the Falcons were beaten by, of all teams, the Broncos.
Reeves would coach five more – mostly unsuccessful – seasons before asking to leave, and although he briefly flirted with a return in San Francisco that would be all for his coaching career bar a two-day stint as consultant for the Cowboys.
His record of nine Super Bowl appearances as a player, coach and head coach has only been surpassed in recent years by New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, now with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
