gone by the end of the season. 1997 Jones would be replaced by former Broncos Coach (and Georgia native) Dan Reeves, who would lead the Falcons to a 7–9 record in 1997. Rankin Smith died at the age of 72 on the eve of a Sunday Night game against Carolina. This game aired on TNT, part of Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System - which is based in Atlanta. In fact, this is the last NFL game aired on TNT to date. 1998 In the greatest season in franchise history to date, the 1998 Falcons shocked the league by posting a 14–2 regular season record and qualifying for Super Bowl XXXIII by upsetting the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game. Featuring a balanced offense led by Pro Bowlers Chris Chandler and Jamal Anderson, as well as an aggressive and opportunistic defense, the Falcons sprinted to a promising 6–2 start. To that point, however, the team's success was generally regarded as a fluke, given the franchise's history, a weak schedule, and blowout road losses to two contending teams, the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Jets. On November 8, 1998, the NFL finally began to take notice when the Falcons traveled to Foxboro Stadium and defeated the Patriots 41–10, at the same time snapping a streak of 22 consecutive losses at cold-weather sites in November and December that had dated back to 1982. It was in this game that TE O. J. Santiago introduced the famous "Dirty Bird" dance that became the team's trademark endzone celebration for that season. The win at Foxboro significantly raised the team's profile before a week 11 confrontation with the hated San Francisco 49ers, from whom the Falcons had received some of their most embarrassing losses to throughout their history. Atlanta earned a 31–19 win over the 49ers before a packed Georgia Dome. The Falcons won their final six games of the season, including a 24–17 week 16 triumph over the Detroit Lions which clinched Atlanta's first division title since 1980. A major distraction hit Atlanta the day after a road win over the Saints, in the form of a quadruple-bypass heart surgery that their head coach Dan Reeves required. Assistant coach and former Rams head coach Rich Brooks would temporarily handle head coaching duties in Reeves's absence, winning both of their last two games of the season. The Falcons entered the 1998