of the 1992 draft. This came off the heels of the 1991 season in which Reeves had fired offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike Shanahan for "insubordination", as Reeves felt that Shanahan was driving a wedge between him and Elway, who said in 1990 that his relationship with the head coach was "the worst." Reeves was fired after the season and replaced by his protégé and friend Wade Phillips, who was previously the Broncos' defensive coordinator. Upon the death of Reeves in 2022, Elway stated that Reeves was a "winner" and said he owed a good deal of his career to Reeves. Reeves was hired as head coach by the New York Giants for the 1993 season. In his first season, he led the Giants to an 11–5 record and a berth in the playoffs. Reeves's 1993 season record is the best ever for a first-year Giants coach, and he was named the 1993 Associated Press Coach of the Year after helping them improve from a 6–10 record in 1992. Reeves was fired after the Giants went 5–11 in 1995 and 6–10 in 1996. In 1997, Reeves was named the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Under his command the team, which had finished the 1996 campaign with a 3–13 record, steadily improved. After going 7–9 in his first season, the Falcons went 14–2 in 1998, going on to capture their first NFC championship. He became the third coach (after Bill Parcells and Chuck Knox) to lead three different franchises to the playoffs. Reeves coached the Falcons to a 12–2 record before being hospitalized for the final two regular season games to undergo quadruple-bypass heart surgery in December. Reeves managed to return to the sidelines just three weeks later to lead the Falcons to victory in their first NFC Championship. During Super Bowl XXXIII, Reeves's Falcons were pitched against his former team, the defending champion Denver Broncos whose quarterback Elway was in his final season that had Shanahan as head coach. The Falcons lost, 34–19. In the process, Reeves earned the NFL's top coaching awards as he was named the 1998 NFL Coach of the Year. In 2003, after winning just three of the first thirteen games, Reeves asked to be released and the Falcons replaced him with Wade Phillips as interim coach for three games. In 2007, Reeves had an active role in the startup of Georgia State University's