WP:Redskins Go From Coach To First Class

TK · January 8, 2004

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63447-2004Jan7.html

Redskins Go From Coach To First Class

By Don Oldenburg

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, January 8, 2004; Page C01

As word spread yesterday that Joe Gibbs was returning as head coach of the Redskins, it was like a decade-long dark cloud had lifted, as if Frodo had finally cast the ring into the molten pit at Redskins Park and the world of burgundy and gold was, at last, saved.

Overnight, disparaged owner Dan Snyder went from goat boy to genius. Fans went from fickle to fanatical. And before the Super Bowl-winning, NASCAR-wowing NFL Hall of Famer Gibbs could even slip on a new-style Redskins cap for photographers, the team in turmoil had turned a corner.

But what is it about the once and future Redskins coach that changes everything without changing much of anything -- except his mind about coaching again? Why is it that without signing a single new player or hiring a coaching staff, without drawing a new game plan, resurrecting the Redskins to glory days is considered a done deal?

People who know Joe Gibbs best say that's just the kind of guy he is.

"It's like Vince Lombardi coming to town," says former Redskins linebacker Sam Huff, a Hall of Famer himself. "That kind of man who can do it. I'm not saying Joe Gibbs is a Vince Lombardi, but he's pretty darn close."

Check the record for starters, says Huff. Gibbs won three Super Bowls and 124 regular-season games in the National Football League. That's 50 more wins than all of the Redskins coaches who followed in his footsteps managed. His all-time winning percentage of .683 is third-best in the history of the NFL, behind Lombardi and John Madden. And he did it in just 12 seasons -- before gracefully leaving the game a winner.

And now, at 63, he's back.

"He's got it," says Huff, who broadcasts Redskins games on radio with Sonny Jurgensen and Frank Herzog. "He's the one guy who has the credibility to pull this whole thing together."

Jurgensen, a Hall of Famer and former Redskins quarterback, calls Gibbs "one of the best of all time" and says rehiring him is "the best possible move the Redskins could make."

Although surprised by Gibbs's decision to come back to football after rising rapidly to the top echelon of NASCAR racing, Jurgensen says the return of the king, er, coach, "instantly" rights a lot of wrongs for much-criticized Snyder. "A lot of things have gone badly for him. This turns it around."

Says former Redskins offensive line coach Jim Hanifan, "I imagine they're going to have a ticker-tape parade back there. It's some of the biggest news Washington has had."

Hanifan, the former St. Louis Cardinals head coach who now is an assistant coach with the Rams, coached seven years with Gibbs before either got to the Redskins. He describes Gibbs as "a tireless worker, a detail guy, an organized individual who is driven for success."

"He was really a guy that, gee whiz, he does the whole darn thing," says Hanifan, whose book "Beyond X's & O's: My Thirty Years in the NFL" was published in November.

What Brian Mitchell remembers most about Gibbs's winning ways during the three years he played for him was his professionalism and dedication.

"He wouldn't leave the complex. He would spend the night there sometimes," says the former Redskins running back and punt returner, currently a New York Giants player. "He understood that was his job and he had to give his all to it. When you know your coach was spending the night there, the least you could do is go out and do the best you can."

Gibbs also won team loyalty with a positive, calm and evenhanded treatment of players, says Mitchell.

During his rookie year, Mitchell recalls, he showed up late for a team meeting just as Gibbs was naming him captain that week. "I overslept," says Mitchell. "When I got to the meeting, he said, 'Look, you are no longer a kid. You'd better get yourself a better alarm clock.' He could've got rid of me or dogged me, but this guy gave me an opportunity instead. That made me work my butt off for him. I consider him the best coach I've ever been around."

In Gibbs's first year as the Redskins coach in 1981, the team lost its first five games and was nicknamed the "Deadskins," not that different from the franchise's problematic play in recent years. Except for one thing, says Mike Nelms, former defensive back. Joe Gibbs was the coach.

"He said, 'Hey, we're going to play as a team, win as a team and lose as a team, but I do not want any back-stabbing or finger-pointing if we lose,' " says Nelms, who now owns an auto dealership in Culpeper, Va. "I remember some people pointed fingers and they lost hands. He established himself as a credible person and he never looked back."

Other players talk about Gibbs's ability to collect good people and create teams -- in his own image, you might say. He's all about consistency for Raleigh McKenzie, who played guard and center on Gibbs's teams from 1985 to 1992.

"His approach to everything is consistent with his final objective, which is to win a Super Bowl," he says. "Right from the start, he talked about positioning ourselves to win the Super Bowl. It was never waiting and biting our nails and hoping somebody else would help us out. We all felt the same way -- we all wanted to win."

That kind of team unity produced four Super Bowl appearances and three victories, whereas Redskins coaches since Gibbs have gone to the playoffs only once.

"What you get with Joe Gibbs is a no-nonsense person who is driven by success," explains Monte Coleman, the Redskins' ageless linebacker who now is an assistant college football coach, who played the entire first Joe Gibbs era. "It wasn't that he walked around with an iron rod demanding respect. It was just something that went with him. Most all of the players respected him and agreed with his coaching style and philosophy."

Former Redskins center Jeff Bostic was playing cards until 6 a.m. at Redskins Park that day in 1992 when Gibbs resigned. He heard the news on his way home. "I was totally blown away, and I'm equally blown away that he's coming back," says Bostic, who played his entire 12-year career for Gibbs and guesses his old coach missed the hands-on competitiveness of the NFL.

But now that Gibbs is returning, the Redskins had better start preparing for dramatic changes, warns Bostic. "Joe is very diligent, very hardworking, very disciplined," he says. "His practices are going to be a shock for that Redskins football team. The days of going to camp and pushing and pulling and leaning on each other in shorts, that's going to be over. Joe believes a team plays like it practices."

Which bodes well for the Redskins?

"Let me say this: If there is a person who can right the ship in Washington, they've got him."

Mike Nelms seconds that: "If it can be done, he will be the one to do it. And since he took the job, I'm sure he thinks it can be done. So consider it done."

TK · January 8, 2004