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Floyd Reese, the general manager who put together the roster for the Tennessee Titans’ only Super Bowl appearance, died on Saturday. He was 73 years old.
His family announced his death to the team. Reese had cancer and was with his family when he died, according to one ESPN social media post 102.5 The Game, the radio station where Reese worked until mid-December.
Reese spent 21 years with the Oilers-Titans as a coach and executive, and he remains the most successful general manager in franchise history.
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“As Managing Director, he has built a team that has enjoyed continued success and helped guide our franchise through its toughest and highest times,” said controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk. “His keen sense of talent has led him to some of the best players in our team’s history, which has led the team to some of our greatest achievements.”
Reese is set to be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor this season.
He drafted a trio of Associated Press NFL Rookie of the Year starting with Eddie George in 1996, then Jevon Kearse in 1999 and Vince Young in 2006. He made Steve McNair, NFL co-mVP in 2003, the No. 3 overall pick in his second draft as general manager of the Houston Oilers. Reese called McNair and George, the 14th pick overall in 96, key elements.
“It was magical,” Reese said in 2019 before the franchise pulled the numbers from McNair and George. “So after hanging out with these guys, we were like, ‘Hey, if we can build a team of that kind of guy, we’ll be fine. “And, at least for a while, it worked.”
Reese’s selection of Kearse to No. 16 overall in 1999 proved to be the final piece of the Super Bowl team. Kearse anchored the defense with 14 ½ sacks, still a rookie record.
The Titans went 13-3 that season to reach the Super Bowl as a wild-card team.
Tennessee went 104-72 between 1999 and 2009 for a 0.591 winning percentage, although Reese’s contract was not renewed after the 2006 season while Jeff Fisher remained in coaching. Only Indianapolis, New England, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia won more in this period than Tennessee.
Reese was a linebacker coach for four seasons with the Oilers before moving to the front office in 1990 as an assistant general manager. He took over as general manager when the NFL instituted the salary cap, which in 1997, according to Reese, was the most difficult challenge he faced in the job.
“No team has had to rebuild like we’ve done, because of our salary structure and our seven-year run in the playoffs,” Reese said in 1997. “We’re halfway there, I’m halfway there, I’m here. hope we can complete the task. “
Reese also hired Fisher as a coach after Fisher had been an interim coach for the last six games of a 2-14 season in 1994.
Together, Reese and Fisher oversaw the departure of the franchise from Houston in July 1997. The then-Tennessee Oilers played that season in Memphis and 1998 at Vanderbilt University, with team offices behind a medical building. in Nashville.
Renamed the Titans before the 1999 season, the franchise reached two AFC championship games over the next four seasons, with a playoff loss to New England in January 2004.
Reese was also an analyst on ESPN NFL Live and wrote for ESPN.com before joining the Patriots as a senior football advisor in 2009. He then worked at a sports talk radio in Nashville.
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A native of Springfield, Missouri, Reese played linebacker at UCLA from 1966 to 1969. He spent a season in the Canadian Football League as a defensive lineman.
He became a coach at Liberty Union High School in Brentwood, Calif. In 1970 before joining his alma mater in 1971 for three seasons as an assistant. He was an assistant at Georgia Tech in 1974.
Reese went to the NFL in 1975 as a strength coach for Detroit. He held the same position in San Francisco in 1978, and Bud Grant hired him as a linebacker and special teams coach in Minnesota in 1979. He was promoted to defensive coordinator in 1984.
Survivors include his wife, Sally, children and grandchildren.
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