Quick Kicks

Reeves, Brown mend fences

There was an air of finality as Dan Reeves met with some New York Giants players early Sunday morning at Giants Stadium.

The 10-minute conversations centered on football and what the players need to do to better themselves in the wake of the Giants’ second straight losing season (6-10) and their third year in a row missing the playoffs.

Reeves and quarterback Dave Brown even apologized to each other for failing to get the job done.

“It was a good meeting,” Reeves said. “We talked about the frustration that we both had as far as not getting the end results. I feel badly I didn’t get him to play the way I felt he was capable of playing.”

Brown said his biggest problem with Reeves was he felt the coach sometimes undermined his leadership role by either benching him or creating the appearance that his job was in jeopardy - like when he started Tommy Maddox in an exhibition this season.

“We apologized to each other for not getting it done,” Brown said. “We talked about how frustrating it was. I felt there was some finality to it.”

Reeves, who has a year left on a five-year, $5 million contract, said he was prepared for the worst.

“I’ll just see what they have to say,” said the 52-year-old who is the NFL’s winningest active coach, but only 31-33 in New York. “I’m sure it won’t take long. We’ll get things discussed and we’ll have an idea then.”

RFK rocks one last time

Nadine Simpson came to rock RFK Stadium one last time.

“We are the ones that make all the noise,” said Simpson, of Manassas, Va., sitting in east end zone seats she and her friends shared for 27 years.

At the other end of the field, former Washington Redskins quarterback Doug Williams recalled his favorite memory of the venerable stadium.

“Down in this end zone,” Williams said, “when the ball fell incomplete to Darrin Nelson against the Minnesota Vikings in 1987, and we knew we was going to the Super Bowl.”

Williams and 32 other former Redskins coaches and players, including Dexter Manley, were honored at halftime of Sunday’s game between the Redskins and Dallas Cowboys, the NFL’s last appearance at RFK. Manley had to get permission from a Texas parole board because of his recent cocaine conviction.

The Redskins are moving out of the 53,000-seat stadium, known as D.C. Stadium when it was built in 1961 and now the smallest in the NFL, into a 78,600-seat state-of-the-art facility five miles away in Landover, Md. Team owner Jack Kent Cooke is building the new stadium because he needs more luxury boxes to remain financially competitive in the league.

Where was Big Dawg?

Sir Purr, Carolina’s mascot, drew a penalty flag in the second quarter against Pittsburgh when he pounced on a punt that was rolling through the back of the end zone, obviously unaware the ball was still alive. Players from both teams had already given up on the ball, so referee Dick Hantak declared a touchback. Hantak then picked up the flag and, instead of walking off a penalty against the Panthers, decided to settle for a lecture of the furry black mascot.

Just as Hantak seemed to be getting through to the feline, Sir Purr was distracted by a nearby ball of yarn, coughed up a hairball and found a nice warm spot to take a nap.