Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 7, 1993 TAG: 9303060121
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
THE MAN, THE COACH, THE LEGEND
Certainly, he was no ordinary Joe.A couple of days before Super Bowl XXVI last winter, the subject of a media briefing was the voluminous vocabulary of Buffalo coach Marv Levy.
Relating how they coached the same sport but spoke from a different thesaurus, Joe Gibbs aw-shucksed, "Shoot, I'm just a P.E. guy from San Diego State."
It was classic Gibbs, seeking the underdog role - one he could never quite pull off as the coach of the Washington Redskins.
As an NFL coach, Gibbs surely was a P.E. guy - that's physical exertion - right to the end. Gibbs' desire and ability to outwork most other coaches was one of the Redskins' strengths.
On Friday, it became one of Gibbs' weaknesses. He went from tired to retired. But even in his last act as an NFL coach, Gibbs was competing and calling his last end-around play for Washington.
The Redskins wanted to hold Gibbs' retirement announcement until today, when the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys will be greeted by President Clinton in a White House reception. Emmitt Smith running through the Rose Garden? That's capital punishment for a Redskins' fan.
The news broke, however. When the person with the highest-pressure job in the District of Columbia - sorry, Bill - leaves office, it's too late to fix a leak. This was the biggest resignation in Washington since Nixon.
Gibbs, however, didn't have to apologize. In a dozen years on the Redskins' sideline, the 'Skins were 139-65. Gibbs guided Washington to three Super Bowl victories and another NFC Championship.
His postseason record of 16-5 puts Gibbs in Vince Lombardi's league as a championship coach. Writing Gibbs' coaching epitaph with only numbers, however, is like punting on third-and-short.
Gibbs' legacy is the Redskins' system. Time and again during training camp in the July sauna that Carlisle, Pa., can be, you'll hear a veteran player say he came to the Redskins because he heard it was a class organization.
Gibbs was the head of that class. How many other coaches would stand, arms crossed, on the sideline and listen to a tirade from star receiver Gary Clark, then professionally try to soothe the unraveling emotions?
Gibbs let his assistants coach and his players play. He didn't rip them in public. The Redskins long have been known as the NFL's "God Squad," Gibbs believes that the team that prays together plays together - a notion that obviously impresses Eagles free agent defensive star Reggie White.
Gibbs always left the business side to general managers Bobby Beathard and Charlie Casserly - until a balking player and the club weren't far apart in negotiations. Then Gibbs would get on the phone and coax the holdout by telling him how much he was needed.
Those players were part of the "system," a word that's somehow apropos but entirely too impersonal to describe how the Redskins play the game.
Washington's graybeards - Joe Jacoby, Jeff Bostic, Don Warren and Art Monk for starters - have been important to Gibbs not just because they could play the game. They are, and helped perpetuate, the Redskins' system.
Dale Jarrett, the driver who works for Gibbs in what Friday became more than the ex-coach's avocation, has known Gibbs for less than two years. However, Jarrett already has figured out why Gibbs has a special place in NFL history.
"The thing that impresses me most about Joe is that you don't often see someone as competitive as he is who is also as compassionate as he is," Jarrett said Friday at Richmond International Raceway after he learned of Gibbs' retirement.
"You don't necessarily put those things together. He finds good people, he takes care of those people, and they win. It sounds simple. It isn't."
Despite Gibbs' departure, that system will endure. Richie Petitbon, who deserved to be an NFL head coach years ago, will no longer be simply the secretary of defense in Washington.
The Redskins were fortunate a year ago, because when they reached the Super Bowl, they also kept Petitbon away from nine clubs hiring new coaches who wouldn't wait for a late interview.
Washington began 0-5 under Gibbs in 1981, then never looked back. He had won the race even before he got to last month's Daytona 500.
Gibbs plans to travel in retirement, and one destination he can count on is Canton, Ohio.
Gibbs will go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1998. Only on that day can anyone say his career has gone bust.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING