WT:No ordinary Joe: Redskins get the man they needed

TK · January 8, 2004

http://www.washtimes.com/sports/20040107-115538-9555r.htm

No ordinary Joe: Redskins get the man they needed

By Dan Daly

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"Joe Gibbs returns to Redskins."

How many headlines — here or anywhere — would cause more of a buzz than that? I can think of maybe one, offhand:

"Amelia Earhart found living on remote Pacific Island — with Tom Hanks."

Dan Snyder, the Fantasy League owner, has finally gotten himself a Fantasy League coach. Gibbs, after all, is a first-ballot Hall of Famer and one of Washington's leading sports deities. Of the Redskins' five NFL titles, he's responsible for three of them. He has also, in his time away from the game, led his NASCAR team to two championships.

That's the thing about Gibbs — he wins. Whether it's football, car racing or racquetball, he wins. And the Redskins and their embattled boss desperately need someone to make them winners. The franchise has been heading due south for four seasons, falling from 10-6 to 5-11, and it will probably take a certified genius to extract them from their current mess. Ray Rhodes ain't that genius. Neither is Jim Fassel or Dennis Green, though all of them have their merits.

But Joe Gibbs might be. In fact, I'm going to go out on a fairly short limb here and say Gibbs will be that genius — provided the owner stays out of the way. That's the reason, as much as any, why Joe is being brought in: to save Snyder from himself. With a Resident Legend around, perhaps Dan can confine himself to the business side of things, work more suitable to his talents, and leave the football stuff to an expert.

As for Gibbs, he was almost at the now or never point, coaching-wise. He's 63 and has been out of the NFL for 11 years, which puts him dangerously close to the Vermeil Line. But Dick Vermeil was gone from the game for 14 years and has done just fine, winning a Super Bowl with the Rams and going 13-3 this season with the Chiefs. If you can coach, you can coach.

Besides, it's more interesting this way, don't you think? Because he was away so long, Gibbs can't just reassemble his old staff and truck in a bunch of his former players. No, Joe pretty much has to start over (though he reportedly has hired Joe Bugel to whip the offensive line into shape). Can he assemble a group of assistants as sterling as the one he had in the '80s (Richie Petitbon, Dan Henning, Buges, et al.)? And can he upgrade the roster without the help of a personnel whiz like Bobby Beathard?

The answer to the first question, I'm convinced, is yes. I mean, never mind football, look at the job Gibbs did setting up his racing operation. A total novice when he started, he won the Daytona 500 in just his second year and the Winston Cup in his ninth. The man is an organizational master.

The answer to the second question is a more equivocal maybe. In his first season in Washington, let's not forget, the Redskins drafted four Pro Bowlers — Mark May, Russ Grimm, Dexter Manley and Charlie Brown — and signed a fifth, Joe Jacoby, as a free agent. They also found two other starters in the draft, Darryl Grant and Clint Didier, and acquired Joe Washington in a deal with the Colts. It's doubtful Vinny Cerrato or anybody else can supply Gibbs with the kind of talent Beathard did in '81. Heck, the Redskins hardly have any draft picks this year. They traded most of them for restricted free agents.

The Redskins do have the fifth overall selection, though. And free agency gives Gibbs options he didn't have during his first tenure (at the same time making it more difficult for him to keep a team together). But you wonder who's going to be his sounding board, who's going to talk him out of doing certain things that might not be in his best interest. In '81, you may recall, he wanted to trade John Riggins, who had sat out the previous year in a salary dispute, for draft choices to rebuild the club. But Riggins said he'd only come back if he had a no-trade clause in his contract. The rest is history.

Not to nitpick, but it was also Gibbs who green-lighted the drafting of Desmond Howard with the fourth pick in '92. That one still hurts.

But, hey, nobody's perfect, even a demigod. There's no doubt in my mind Gibbs can turn the Redskins around. They lost six games by four or fewer points this season. Isn't Joe Gibbs worth at least four points a game? He probably looks at LaVar Arrington and sees Wilber Marshall. He probably looks at Laveranues Coles and sees Gary Clark. He probably looks at Chris Samuels and sees Jim Lachey. It's not as if this club doesn't have some players (though not as many as it might think). But it's seriously deficient in direction — and hope. Gibbs gives the franchise a coach it can believe in.

The guy I'm happiest for is Patrick Ramsey. Patrick won't need nearly as much life insurance with Gibbs around. Unlike Steve Spurrier, Joe understands that every pass play begins with protecting the quarterback. (The Ball Coach thought every pass play began with getting someone open — quarterback be darned.)

Somehow, when we weren't looking, the NFC East turned into the Champions Tour. You've got Gibbs in Washington, Bill Parcells in Dallas ... Too bad the Giants can't summon Stout Steve Owen from the grave and the Eagles can't exhume Greasy Neale. Then you'd really have something. As it is, the first Gibbs-Parcells confrontation is going to be like George Foreman and Larry Holmes going at it — today. (Which they might be encouraged to do, now that Gibbs is returning to the sideline.)

This is going to be fun. Guaranteed fun. It may not lead to Super Bowls, but it'll be vastly more entertaining than the last 11 misbegotten seasons. Spurrier promised to be fun, too, of course, but it was all hypothetical. He'd never proven himself against NFL competition. Gibbs already has — and he'll do it again.

TK · January 8, 2004