ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601290094
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
There was a time when Joe Gibbs really did think he might be handed his head.
It was October 1981. He was a rookie head coach in the NFL. His Washington Redskins were 0-5.
``It was like training camp all over again,'' former tackle Joe Jacoby recalled. ``Joe said we were starting over, and we weren't going to cut any corners.''
What they did was turn the corner on the road to the Super Bowl, four of them in 10 seasons. Gibbs only blushed when some called him the coach of the decade. Imagine what he'll do when he's handed his head - bronzed, of course - on July 27 in Canton, Ohio.
``Really, I had no idea,'' Gibbs said Friday when asked about his no-brainer candidacy for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to which he was voted Saturday. ``I was stunned when my name was on the original list [of 15 finalists]. I was thinking you had to be out five years or something.''
Gibbs' coaching career was, indeed, something. In 12 seasons, he guided the Redskins to 140 victories. In NFL history, no coach with 100 victories has averaged more than his 11.7 per season, although San Francisco's George Seifert should get there next season. Gibbs' 16-5 playoff record (.762) is exceeded in winning percentage only by Vince Lombardi's 9-1 (.900) among coaches with more than five postseason games.
Only Pittsburgh's Chuck Noll has won more Super Bowls than Gibbs' three, but Gibbs is the only coach to win three with different quarterbacks. Among retired coaches, everyone ahead of 10th-place Gibbs on the victory list coached at least six more seasons than he spent on the Redskins' sideline. He is the 12th coach to reach the Hall of Fame.
What has happened to the Washington franchise since Gibbs resigned March 5, 1993, says as much as anything about his dozen years in charge. In 10 of Gibbs' years, the Redskins won at least 10 games. In his last 48 games, Washington was 33-15. The Redskins are 13-35 since.
``I was there for all 12 years,'' said Jacoby, a four-time Pro Bowl performer who retired to the automobile business after 13 seasons. ``You always knew where you stood with Joe. He was always telling us not to tell you guys [the media] too much, not to let stuff out of the bag. His attention to detail made him special, I think. You knew where you stood with him, too.''
Gibbs got into stock car racing before his last year as a coach. He won a Super Bowl in his second Redskins season, then won NASCAR's Super Bowl - the Daytona 500 - in his second season as a racing team owner. He went to work for NBC Sports, where it was predicted his commentary would be predictable. He and sidekick Mike Ditka have been acclaimed for their studio byplay and candor.
Until last year, when he told the expansion Carolina Panthers he wasn't interested, it was pretty much assumed Gibbs one day would return to coaching and sleeping three nights a week in his office. No, his legacy will be only a Washington monument.
``I'm not looking to go back into coaching now,'' Gibbs said by phone from Arizona, where he was announced as a Hall of Famer on Saturday and will work Super Bowl XXX from a stadium set today. ``I'm so at peace with myself now. My wife [Pat] and I have a great life there in [Huntersville] North Carolina. Our sons are both working for me in racing, and it's still an exciting life.
``A big part of it, I think, is that most guys in coaching are very competitive. The job is trying to be the best at what you do. You leave that and that part - the excitement - is missing, and they find themselves getting real anxious. The racing keeps me in the competitive world. It's tough. Bill Parcells, when he left coaching, he did TV, but he was bored. So, he went back.''
Gibbs never thought of himself as a Super man. He was more the Clark Kent-type. Bespectacled. Guarded in his remarks. Never gave away who he was. He knew he was a good coach, but what was important was to be a better person. In that regard, he's a Hall of Famer, too.
Jacoby said he only can remember Gibbs exploding twice in his 12 seasons. Once was late one season in Philadelphia, when the 'Skins already had clinched the NFC East Division title and were losing 14-0 to the Eagles at halftime.
``He came into the locker room, knocked all of the [water] cups off a table, kicked over a chair and started screaming,'' Jacoby said. ``His voice went up a couple of octaves. Upset? I'd never seen him like that. One thing, though. He never cussed. Ever.''
The other occasion that drew Gibbs' ire was a practice at Redskin Park. He didn't like the blocking in a special-teams workout, so he got into the middle of the play. ``That was kind of to get the players going,'' Gibbs said.
``He did get a head-butt,'' Jacoby said.
Gibbs' stoicism on the sideline, where he called plays, was measured, he said. ``It was kind of like taking a mental test down there. I guess most people who would analyze me would say I'm even-tempered,'' he said. ``Others would say I'm stubborn.''
There's no argument, however, on whether or not he was successful.
``Almost all of us work hard at what we do,'' Gibbs said. ``It's like in third place, though. For me, God is first, then family, loved ones and friends. I coached for 28 years, and now, all of a sudden, this. If people are saying, `Hey, you might have been one of the best at what you do,' I think we'd all like to have something like that.''
Might have been one of the best? Gibbs is no ordinary Joe. He's another bulldog in Canton, and they really are going to give him a big head.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines KEYWORDS: FOOTBALLby CNB