Tandler's Gibbs Book: Forward and PSA

[rtandler]

Since it’s a bit slow, I thought I would sneak in a couple of things:

--First, I’ve talked to a lot of people who didn’t quite grasp what the book was about, so I’m posting the forward here; it goes into a lot more detail than the press release does.

--Second, in the spirit of public service, I wanted to let people know that the pre-publication specials are going to end in a week, maybe sooner. So if you want to take advantage of free shipping you’ve got to act soon. Go to GutCheckBook.com

GUT CHECK: Forward

It was a bolt out of the blue.

The Redskins were looking for a coach to replace the disappointing Steve Spurrier. It appeared that the choice was going to come down to one of three coaches, all of whom had been fired from NFL teams at least once. Then, late in the evening on Tuesday, January 6, reports started to circulate that there was a new name in the mix, a magical name:

Joe Gibbs.

Internet boards buzzed and phones rang late into the very early hours of the next morning. There was utter disbelief at first—Gibbs turned down countless attempts to lure him back into coaching. Besides that, it’s just way too good to be true. Then there was a scramble for more information. What’s ESPN saying? Does the Post have anything new?

After sunrise, as many bleary-eyed fans made their way to work, the various news services started confirming the story. As much as everyone wanted to believe it, there were still doubts, still fears that the deal would collapse at the last minute. Then, early in the afternoon, came a statement from Gibbs saying that he was returning to coach the Washington Redskins. Yes, Virginia—and DC, and Maryland and everywhere else on the planet where Redskins fans reside—there is a Santa Claus, even though he was a couple of weeks late this year.

There wasn’t a buzz about the developments around town, there was a roar. The local media went to an all Joe Gibbs, all the time mode. People were walking around just smiling for no apparent reason. The more avid fans around would simply burst into spontaneous fist-pumping when the thought of Gibbs returning came to mind, which was a frequent occurrence. At his introductory press conference he was treated like royalty. It was Hail to the Redskins, Hail to Joe Gibbs.

In the days that followed, Gibbs continued to be the topic of conversation. One thing that many wanted to know was, “What were things like the first time around?”

In the 11 years that had passed since he suddenly resigned as the Redskins coach, many new fans had begun to follow the team. Others had only dim memories of the glory days from 1981 through 1992, having lived in other areas of the country at the time—there was no Internet to allow them to follow the day to day developments, no satellite dishes to watch more than a handful of games a season. Still others were too young during all or part of Gibbs Era I to remember much of it.

There are many fine books out there in which one could find out a lot about those Redskins teams. One is my book, the Redskins From A to Z, Volume 1: The Games, which has accounts of every game the team played from 1937 through 2001 including, of course, the Gibbs years. But, like most Redskins history books, there is a lot of information about the team before 1981 and more than a decade’s worth of games and events since recounted. No book focused exclusively on the Gibbs era. There was nothing on the market that was one-stop shopping for everything you wanted to know about the Joe Gibbs Redskins, no easy way to either get up to speed on, or refresh your memory about, the golden era of Redskins football.

Instead of looking around for a resource for those starved for Gibbs information, I decided to create one.

So was born Gut Check: The Complete History of Coach Joe Gibbs’ Washington Redskins. (For those who aren’t in the know, gut check was a favorite phrase of Gibbs’, as in “it was a real gut check out there,” in referring to a particularly challenging game situation.) Starting with the game accounts, annual statistical leader tables and annual player rosters that I had created for The Redskins From A to Z, I went about adding elements that would give the reader a solid notion of what those Redskins teams were about, what kind of character those players had and what made Joe Gibbs tick.

I had already been working on compiling information on every player in Redskins history for my second book (which will now end up being my third). Here, you get the profiles of every player who appeared in at least one game for the Redskins under Joe Gibbs. The basic information was obtained from Total Football, a giant reference book that’s packed with excellent data. Details in the player profiles came from a variety of sources, including newspaper accounts and a large stack of Redskins and NFL history books.

The Players make up the second section of the book. The first part is the Chronology, the Redskins year by year from 1981-1992. That section has the game accounts and annual statistics mixed in with a scrapbook of stories about the team as it made its way week to week and season to season through the NFL. Of course all of the big events, the signings and retirements are covered. There are also a lot of little things that will give you some insight into the playfulness of Dexter Manley, the toughness of the Hogs, the class of Doug Williams, the humility of Gibbs, and other such tidbits.

For these stories, I relied heavily on newspaper accounts written by the beat writers. At the risk of leaving many of them out, I’d like to particularly acknowledge the work of John Markon and Paul Woody of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Tom Friend, Paul Attner and Richard Justice of the Washington Post.

I received hundreds of comments by those who enjoyed my first book and it would be great to hear from those of you who have read this one. You can reach me at rtandler@comcast.net.

Hail to the Redskins!

Rich Tandler

February, 2004

[Tarhog]

You had me at hello Tandler.

Ordered it an hour ago

[redskns21]

Sounds great, I can't wait to pick one up. :applause:

[rtandler]

Thanks, Tarhog!

Do you want it signed to Tarhog or to your real name?

[Frunobulax]

Just ordered it via Paypal. Can I get it signed as well, to Kevin?

[Tarhog]

Originally posted by rtandler

Thanks, Tarhog!

Do you want it signed to Tarhog or to your real name?

John will be fine, thanks Rich.

[rtandler]

Thanks, Kevin! I appreciate it.