Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 2, 1993 TAG: 9311020123
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICHARD JUSTICE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Offensive-line coach Jim Hanifan remembers the night he found out. He and Gibbs had sat down for a bowl of ice cream on the eve of a late-season game against the Phoenix Cardinals when Gibbs mentioned something about feeling bad. The two men talked some more until Gibbs, visibly bothered by something, became more blunt.
"I'm in trouble," he said.
"What do you mean, Joe?" Hanifan asked.
Gibbs said he was having more and more trouble sleeping and that he was suffering from shaking episodes, where electrical impulses shot through his arms and legs. At times, he believed he was having a heart attack. At other times, he simply thought his 52-year-old body was breaking down.
Hanifan was stunned.
"Have you told anyone?" he asked.
Gibbs said only a few people knew, and Hanifan urged him to see a doctor. Two days later, a couple of doctors visited Redskin Park in Ashburn and ran a battery of tests and they arrived at the same conclusion that doctors at the Mayo Clinic would reach some months later. A combination of sleep deprivation and stress was causing something doctors called "migraine equivalence." The recommended treatment was rest.
For his part, Gibbs hoped he was feeling nothing more than the effects of a tough, draining season and that once he was able to get away and relax, he'd be as good as new. During the last few weeks of the 1992 season, all of his coaches found out about his health problems.
All of a sudden, a guy known for his relentless hours, a guy so obsessed by his job that a year earlier he had ordered that clocks be removed from a meeting room when an assistant wondered if it wasn't about time to knock off, was different. He was so exhausted he was walking out of meetings around 10 p.m. and telling his assistants to finish the game plan. He was tired because he hadn't slept for weeks, but when he went to his office to lie down, he still was unable to sleep.
"I came in early a couple of times the day before a game because he was just struggling to get through the day," said Rod Dowhower, Gibbs' offensive coordinator. "I'd just tell him, `I'm here if you need me.' We were very worried about him. He was turning more of the details of the game plans over to us, and we were relying on him more for the guidance of what was being done that week. He just wasn't able to work the hours he was used to working."
These men who knew Gibbs better than anyone else on earth remembered those stories of last season as reports surfaced this week that Gibbs might return to coaching if the right deal could be struck with the expansion Carolina Panthers for 1995. They say they're not surprised he's tempted to return to the profession that has occupied him for his entire adult life.
But they're also skeptical he actually will return, especially since he seems to be enjoying his new life of motivational speaking, television work and association with his NASCAR Winston Cup team and a sportswear company. Gibbs said he has found the work enjoyable and rewarding, and other sources said his income is in the high six figures.
But . . .
"He's a highly competitive person, and I'm not sure he's fulfilling that need," said Wayne Sevier, the Redskins' special-teams coach. "His racing team is competitive, but he's not actually in the arena. I think if he played racquetball or golf everyday he could satisfy that competitive urge. There are definitely parts of the job he misses. Other parts of it, I'm sure he doesn't miss at all."
Will he return?
"When he left here, I didn't think he would coach again, and I'm still not sure he's going to coach again," Sevier said. "What I thought he would do is maybe take a front-office job."
What all of his assistants emphasize is that suggestions that Gibbs walked out on an old team and planned to take two years off before returning to coach the Panthers are ridiculous. They said his public statements on the day he resigned were the same as his private statements. He was simply worried about his health and he wanted to spend more time with his sons.
"Anyone who knew him would take offense at the suggestion that he had any ulterior motive for quitting," Dowhower said. "He's an honest guy, totally honest. If there's a suggestion he had this planned out, that's totally wrong.
by CNB