On ESPN's Up Close, Atlanta coach Dan Reeves, who took the surprising Falcons to Super Bowl XXXIII against the Denver Broncos, discussed the state of his health and the state of his team, among other subjects with host Gary Miller.

Reeves underwent bypass surgery in December shortly before the Falcons entered the playoffs, but he says the surgery hasn't adversely affected his golf game. he also spoke candidly about losing the Super Bowl for a fourth time as a head coach and the contract status of running back Jamal Anderson.

Miller: Dan, we normally ask "how are you doing?," but in your case this becomes a little different type of question, doesn't it? How are you doing?

Reeves: I'm doing great, probably as close to being a hundred percent now as I was prior to the surgery. There's not anything, I can still hit the golf ball just as far in the woods as I could before the surgery. So I'm back to normal now.

Miller: Are there things that are better? Are there ways that you feel better than ever?

Reeves: No. Probably because it's during the season and you're tired anyway . . . I really didn't know that I was sick. I really felt like I was in pretty good health, and I just had some symptoms that I happened to mention to a doctor. Thank goodness that he found out that I did have blockage in all three arteries. But you know as far as feeling bad, I didn't feel bad at all.

(Re: losing his fourth Super Bowl as a head coach. The Falcons lost 34-19 to the Broncos.)

Miller: The mourning period, you're kind of used to it in the Super Bowl, unfortunately, but what you went through in December with the heart disease and knowing that you might have lost your life, (did it) lessen some of the concern with losing the Super Bowl.

Reeves: No, no. It hurts. When you get to an opportunity to be the World Champion and you come up short, and believe me, I've had enough experience to know what that feels like, I'd like to remember what it feels like to win the thing. But you know it still hurts, and it (the heart surgery) really didn't have any effect on it all.

You still feel a tremendous letdown. You still know that you accomplished an awful lot to get there, and especially in our case where nobody really expected very much from the Atlanta Falcons, we were able to come back and have a good year last year.

(About the Eugene Robinson incident in which the safety was picked up for soliciting a prostitute the night before the Super Bowl by Miami police.)

Miller: What about the Eugene Robinson situation. People say, well, he just wasn't himself in that game. How strange was that whole 24-hour period?

Reeves: Well it was definitely a distraction, there's no question about that, but he didn't play a single down offensively, and probably one of the things that really cost us in the game was our inability to get it into the end zone, when we were in the red zone, and they did. They came away with points, we came away with a missed fourth down and a missed field goal, two interceptions when we got down there.

You can't play a good football team and give up four scoring opportunities and come away with nothing. I told Eugene at the time, "You've got to be honest with me, and let me know you know how you feel. I can't look at you and say mentally whether you are to play, you've got to be honest with me" and when you go through two weeks of preparations you certainly going to be a better team if you have the starter in there. He told me prior to the pregame warmup that he was ready to go, felt like he was ready to play.

Now, you know everybody can look at it, and every time he makes a mistake, it's because of what happened. You know, nobody knows, but certainly it was a distraction, something that you would loved to not have happened, but it happened and you have to deal with it and you have to move on, and that's true of Eugene's life. And I think he's doing a really good job now, he's coming in, working out, probably in the best condition that he's been in for a long, long time, and I think he'll have a good year.

"I'm just 55 years old; I'm not ready to feel like there's a tombstone over me." -- Reeves

Miller: Yes, you've re-signed him, he's a guy who's got some age on him. Do you think he'll be a starter all season?

Reeves: Oh I think so, he's one of the leaders on the field as well as off the field. Eugene played extremely well for us last year; he got better as the year went along, and that's one of the reasons that in our re-negotiations with him that we wanted to make sure that he was in our off-season program.

(On the contract status of Falcons running back Jamal Anderson.)

Miller: Another guy who has not re-signed and is a huge concern, Jamal Anderson, one of the best players in the NFL, and he is using that as a negotiating ploy here. You guys have an offer on the table, and it sounds like the hang-up is the signing bonus, and Ricky Williams gets a signing bonus who hasn't taken an NFL carry yet of 8.8 million, Jamal understandably says, "I want around at least that, maybe 10 million." What's the situation?

Reeves: Well we haven't got it done. First of all, Jamal has a contract you know, and we've been trying to re-negotiate that contract, trying to add years to it because he is an integral part of our football team. We haven't come to an agreement yet as to what that contract would be. Hopefully we'll get it done, but if we don't, I fully expect Jamal to live up to his contract. Then at the end of the year we'll make a decision as to whether he'll be a free agent or we put one of the tags we have available to put on him; but we certainly would like to get it done to where Jamal is happy and we are happy.

Miller: How close did you come to trading him?

Reeves: Not at all. I mean, you always have conversations during the draft about anybody. New England had shown an interest in Jamal prior to this season, even prior to our Super Bowl year they had asked "are you interested in trading Jamal Anderson," which we weren't, but we knew there was an interest there.

Then when they lost Robert Edwards, all of sudden you're sitting in the draft and you just saw a football team give up their whole draft and a couple other draft choices for Ricky Williams, who hasn't played a down, what would New England be willing to give up (for Anderson)? So you at least going to call and ask, and that is basically the extent of the conversation, just see if they are going to give us an offer we can't refuse. But it never even came to that. So it was just a conversation that probably nobody should have known, but for some reason it came out. And certainly Jamal was hurt because his name was mentioned, but you mention almost every player on your squad during the draft at some time or another.

(On his heart surgery.)

Miller: When you see tapes of your press conference after the heart surgery, is it hard not to get emotional?

Reeves: Well, it's tough. I don't know what it is about the surgery that you go through, but it is a very emotional situation. I can't even watch a movie. I told someone the other day that I look at Roadrunner cartoons and when he hits a fork in the road I start crying. You are much more emotional now than you were prior to it. I don't know why it is, I don't know what causes it. It's not something that I am ashamed of. I mean, I think a lot of times, the stress I put on myself and if I'd let my emotions out or cried when I wanted to and not keep it inside, maybe it's good for you.

Miller: What did you cry at before?

Reeves: Well, not a lot. I'm definitely one of those guys, when you're brought up, you weren't supposed to cry, you weren't supposed to let the other team or any opponent know that you were hurt by any means. That's something my dad always told me - "don't ever lay on the ground if they hit you, get back up real quick, they won't know that they hurt you." So I always kept my emotions inside. I definitely have a side of me with people who are really close to me, that I really care about and I've cried before. But I try not to do it in public where a lot of people see it, like that deal when I was released from the hospital.

Miller: Is it ironic that it is the heart and the heart?

Reeves: Well it is. First of all, even through last year I kept thinking that I must be imagining this, there can't be anything wrong with me. That was part of the problem that I had. I really expected that if there was something wrong, I'd wait till the season was over. You know, this was not something that was critical, I'll just wait till the season's over and get it checked out. Because I had some of the same symptoms that I had previously in 1990 while exercising, almost like a burning sensation in my throat. Before a game, and your heart starts beating, during a game and your heart starts beating, all of a sudden I feel that lightness in my throat. And I thought, boy I'm imagining this, there can't be anything wrong because I'm in such good shape, and so forth and thank goodness I didn't wait 'till the end of the season, because I really was kind of a heart attack waiting to happen.

Miller: This happens to you in December you make it on to the Super Bowl, but "Crossing the Goal Line" is the campaign you put together (about preventing heart disease). How did this come together so quickly?

Reeves: Well it was after the surgery. I had so many letters from so many people asking about heart disease so I was interested in trying to find out about some of those answers. We have 300,000 people die suddenly from a heart attack that either had the symptoms or didn't recognize the symptoms. We're trying to keep that from happening; I thought that would be a good thing to do. And then it's trying to let people understand that when you have some type of surgery, whether it be a bypass or you have a procedure done, that your life isn't over with. You still have the heart disease and you still have to deal with that, but your life isn't over with, and you have to try to lead a productive life. I've got grandchildren I want to see them grow up and see them go to school and hopefully see some great grandchildren one day. I'm just 55 years old; I'm not ready to feel like there's a tombstone over me.

Miller: You know you had good friends of yours, Mike Ditka and Bill Parcells both had this, but you thought, nah that's them.

Reeves: Well truly the two people that helped me the most, the first two calls I got were from Bill Parcells and Mike Ditka. And both of those guys were a tremendous help, and in particular Bill, because Bill had been through bypass, and had gone through some of the same things and told me exactly how I was feeling and what I needed to expect and what I needed to do; because I really did want to try and be back four weeks after the surgery. We were going to play the 49ers and I wanted to be back and be a part of it, because they were winning without me. And it's not any fun to sit there, you want to think "boy they can't replace me." And you find out real quick that they can!

(On John Elway and playing the Broncos in the Super Bowl.)

Miller: John Elway, a huge part of your career. You've said a lot of what happened for you wouldn't have happened without John. But when he made his grand retirement, he didn't mention you. Were you surprised at that?

Reeves: Well, I didn't see the entire thing, I know he was extremely . . . But I didn't see the entire thing, there are a lot of things that happened there that yes, I would have liked for him to mention me, but the fact that he didn't doesn't mean a whole lot.

Miller: How much did it mean to play them in the Super Bowl, (coach Mike) Shanahan and Elway?

Reeves: Well I wish it had been somebody else, because you spend 12 years of your life with the Denver Broncos and I knew they were and excellent, outstanding football team, the defending champions, and I knew we were going to have to play really really well to beat them.. But you know, it was kind of special in a way because you spent so much time there and you'd like to know that somebody that fired you that you'd have a chance to get some revenge, but it didn't work out that way.