Thomas Johnson "John" Reaves was an American college and professional football player who was a quarterback for 11 seasons in the National Football League and three seasons in the United States Football League during the 1970s and 1980s.
23 Facts About John Reaves
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John Reaves was a first-round pick in the 1972 NFL Draft, and played professionally for the Philadelphia Eagles, Cincinnati Bengals, Minnesota Vikings, Houston Oilers, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL, and the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL.
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John Reaves was born in Anniston, Alabama, in 1950, and moved to Tampa, Florida, with his mother and grandmother after his father died when he was 9 years old.
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John Reaves played basketball and baseball and ran track for the Knights, and once scored 52 points in a high-school basketball game.
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John Reaves was a first-team All-SEC selection in 1969, a first-team All-American in 1971, and a team captain in 1971.
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John Reaves returned to Gainesville during the NFL offseason and completed a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1973.
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John Reaves was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1985.
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John Reaves was picked as number 30 among the 100 greatest Gators from the first century of the Florida football program by The Gainesville Sun in 2006.
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John Reaves was selected in the first round of the 1972 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, and he played for the Eagles from 1972 to 1974.
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John Reaves was then traded to the Cincinnati Bengals in 1975, claimed off waivers by the Minnesota Vikings in 1979, and signed to the Houston Oilers in 1981.
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John Reaves jumped to the expansion Tampa Bay Bandits of the start-up USFL in 1983; he was the Bandits' starting quarterback for three seasons under head coach Steve Spurrier in a pass-oriented offense.
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John Reaves only played eight games of the 1983 season because of a wrist injury.
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John Reaves threw for 1,276 yards, but tossed 16 interceptions compared to nine touchdown passes.
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John Reaves bounced back in 1984, going 313 out of 544 for 4,092 yards and tossing 28 touchdowns, compared to 16 interceptions.
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John Reaves was to play for the Orlando Renegades during the USFL's 1986 fall season, but the league dissolved before they could play a game.
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John Reaves next appeared as a replacement player for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 1987 strike.
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John Reaves was an assistant football coach for the Florida Gators under head coach Steve Spurrier from 1990 to 1994, working primarily with the Gators quarterbacks, including Shane Matthews.
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John Reaves left Gainesville to become an assistant coach for the South Carolina Gamecocks under head coach Brad Scott from 1995 to 1997.
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John Reaves was arrested on gun and drug-possession charges in 2008.
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John Reaves entered an Atlanta-area substance-abuse rehabilitation program in May 2009.
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John Reaves was the former father-in-law of current Ole Miss Rebels football head coach Lane Kiffin, who was married to John Reaves's daughter Layla.
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John Reaves's son David was an assistant coach under Kiffin during Kiffin's one year as the Tennessee Volunteers football head coach.
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John Reaves's younger son Stephen was a back-up quarterback for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.