Floyd Reese, the General Manager of the Titans 1999 Super Bowl team, passed away on Saturday morning at the age of 73.
Born in Springfield, Missouri, Reese was involved in football at a young age. After playing as a child, he went on to play Linebacker at UCLA as well as in the CFL before moving into coaching.
He spent 21 seasons with the Oilers-Titans as a coach, executive, and General Manager. He remains the winningest General Manager in franchise history and is climacteric to the organization's success as a whole. The organization announced in July that Reese would be inducted into the Titans' Ring of Honor during the 2021 season.
Reese was a brilliant football mind, assembling many great Titans teams over the year and averaging a 52% win percentage. He acquired some of the greatest Titans of all time such as Steve McNair, Eddie George, and Jevon Kearse. Reese's incredible drafting ability is highlighted by the fact that he drafted 3 Rookies of the Year, George in 1996, Kearse in 1999, and Vince Young in 2006.
His keen eye for talent is what made his teams so successful for an extended amount of time. In addition to the aforementioned ROTYs, Reese selected WR Derrick Mason, who's 2000 season ranks as the 2nd most all purpose yards ever in a season, in the fourth round, all-pro tackle, Michael Roos in the 2nd round, as well as all-pro DT Albert Haynsworth and 4-time Pro Bowler and "Mr. Monday Night" Keith Bulluck, who were both selected in the first round.
Floyd was also GM when the Titans moved from Houston to Tennessee and helped the team maintain a 50% win percentage during that time, despite the drastic change.
Reese also spent time as a coach with the Lions, 49ers, Vikings and Patriots. His coaching career began as an Assistant coach with his alma mater, UCLA (1971-1973) as well as Georgia Tech (1974) prior to moving to the NFL. He spent much of his time coaching Linebackers and Special teams. He coached alongside Bill Belichcick, the NFL's 3rd winningest coach in history, and became great friends with him.
Reese was also actively involved in the hiring process of Titans current GM, Jon Robinson. The Titans owners asked Reece for advice when they were looking for a GM in 2016 and Reese recommended Robinson, who he had met during his time with New England.
Reese was also co-host of 102.5 The Game's "Jared and the GM", retiring in mid-December of 2020. The radio show was among the city's most successful shows and was certainly my favorite.
The show spanned 5 years and never failed to entertain. Floyd's laid back personality provided a very nice contrast Jared Stillman's surprising takes. Sometimes the takes were so crazy, all Floyd could do was laugh. He was the stability of the show and was extremely good at his job.
Floyd did a great job of keeping Jared in line, providing insight on the NFL which the average person did not have, and making people laugh. When I was lucky enough to meet Floyd in January of 2020, he struck me as one of the nicest people I have ever met and made very humorous remarks.
When the show had big name guests like Nick Saban or Bill Belichick, they spoke very highly of Floyd both as a coach and person.
This shows just how respected Reese was by the Football community and he will be truly missed by everyone.