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Wednesday, November 06, 2002

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Dan Reeves will see it on film all week. Perhaps he saw it when the Steelers played Indianapolis on a Monday night. Quarterback Tommy Maddox finally has realized the promise Reeves saw in him 10 years ago.

	Tommy Maddox was drafted by Dan Reeves and the Denver Broncos. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette)

Reeves knew it back then and tried hard through the years to allow that talent to mature.

Today, Reeves coaches the Atlanta Falcons, who are in the thick of the race for the NFC South Division title with a 5-3 record. And for the first time since Reeves and Maddox made their third and final split in Atlanta five years ago, they will be on the same football field Sunday when Maddox leads his Steelers against the Falcons.

x"When he released me there," Maddox said, "he said, 'Tommy, I not only know you can be a success in this league, I know you can be a starter and a successful starter in this league. I know that, for whatever reason, it's not working out with us today.'

"The only problem was when he released me I said if he liked me so much why did he release me? There must be something wrong. He didn't want it to happen, I didn't want it to happen, but I got labeled as his guy, and it was tough to come off of that."

Reeves wanted Maddox to succeed John Elway in Denver. That's why Reeves drafted the UCLA sophomore late in the first round in 1992. But Maddox entered a volatile situation with the Broncos. Elway and Reeves were not on good terms, and Reeves was fired after that season. Maddox had lost his best supporter and, two years later, the Broncos traded him to the Rams for a fourth-round pick.

The Rams released him in order to redo his contract, which Maddox was willing to do. But Reeves called him from New York and offered him a job with the Giants, and Maddox had so much respect for him that he went.

	More Steelers Coverage: Steelers Report: 11/6/02

That, too, was not a good situation. The late George Young, then the Giants' general manager, had drafted another young quarterback, Dave Brown, as a first-round supplemental pick in 1992. Young wanted Reeves to play Brown, and Maddox never got a good chance to play.

"When Dan and I were together, you had John and Dan in Denver," Maddox said. "You had Dan and Mr. Young in New York. There were some tough situations that existed around that. By the time I got to Atlanta with him where he didn't have all that going on, my confidence wasn't at an all-time high, and I didn't play well. It was a tough deal."

By the time Reeves invited Maddox to Atlanta in 1997, the quarterback had been out of football for a year. It just wasn't working.

Five years later, it is working very well with the Steelers, and he still has two big fans in Atlanta.

"No one's happier than I am for Tommy," Reeves said. "It took a long time for him to get that chance. I was glad to see what he did in the XFL. He showed leadership qualities and the tangible things he did. He played well down here last year against us in the preseason game. We had the lead and he came in and beat us. He's going in the right direction. A lot of times, all you need is the opportunity."

Ron Hill was a Denver scout when the Broncos drafted Maddox. Today, he's Atlanta's vice president of football operations.

"He's a great kid, on the field and off the field, a good person," Hill said of Maddox. "We had good grades on the guy coming out. Obviously, you don't make a guy a first-round pick unless you know what he is. It's just taken Tommy a little longer and a little different path to achieve what he did.

"He was really young coming out. That's a tough position to play. Sometimes, it just takes a maturity level and a growing period. He's got a good head on his shoulders. He's just taken a different path to where he's at than some. He's got some talent, the kid's proven that. Johnny Unitas got to where he was in different ways, too."

Maddox talks about Reeves, whose 193 victories are more than any active coach, with fondness. He said it was like playing for his father.

"Because when you respect a guy like that and do well for him, it was like when my father used to coach me," he said. "I didn't want to be the one to mess anything up.

"In some sense, you try to do things that are out of your control. I think he was kind of the same way. He wanted me to do well. It seemed like the more we tried, the more it didn't work out."

The story of Maddox's return from the football scrap heap might be unique, not because he received another chance, but because it came after he was of football for so long. For those who think it's a fluke, that Maddox will not last, Hill says it's not so because he's finally getting a chance to show the talent that made him a first-round draft pick.

"He has a head on his shoulders and he had a lot of production at UCLA," Hill said. "His accuracy was good, his arm strength was above average. I think the compelling thing was his age and his ability to make some plays. He played at a high level of football in college."

Hill did not rejoin Reeves until three years ago in Atlanta, so he's not sure what happened along the way.

"It's what you make of your opportunities today not how you got there," Hill said. "I tell players, I don't care what you've done, it's what you're going to do. I don't really know what all happened out there. Obviously, it didn't work out, and he knocked around.

"A lot of guys would have said the heck with it and gone on. Obviously, it meant something to him to stick with it and make the most of his opportunity. It's taken some stickability."

They might not root for him Sunday, but Maddox will have two fans on the other side in Heinz Field.