Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201270165
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JIM DUCIBELLA LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS LENGTH: Long
GIBBS IS A REAL MASTER AT PUSHING THE RIGHT BUTTONS
JOE GIBBS would blush and deny it, but in nine years since the Redskins' first world championship in 40 years in Super Bowl XVII, he has carved for himself a place on the NFL coaches' Mount Rushmore.\ The woman almost tripped over her own feet, bobbing and weaving her way through the crowd. The football coach with the burgundy-and-gold tie was her target and Joe Gibbs felt a rush of self-satisfaction when she finally settled in beside him.The day before, Gibbs had guided the Washington Redskins to their first world championship in 40 years, outfighting Don Shula's Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII. Gibbs was about to rehash the triumph with the nation's media when he took the woman's pen and started to sign his name.
"I saw yesterday's game," she said as Gibbs formed a capital J. "You are the best coach ever, Don."
Nine years later, Gibbs still throws his head back and laughs loud and hearty when he talks about it.
"That," he says, "told me what I wanted to know about fame."
Today, Gibbs joins Shula, Tom Landry, Chuck Noll and Bud Grant as the only coaches to take their teams to at least four Super Bowls.
If Washington wins, Gibbs will stand alone as the only coach to win three Super Bowls with three quarterbacks.
Enough numbers. They show what everyone knows. Joe Gibbs is one of the more successful football coaches in history.
They shed no light on why. Neither does Gibbs, who talks comfortably about everything but himself.
Others don't hesitate. Conversations with players present and past, Redskins coaches and administrators, other coaches, friends and associates unearthed Joe Gibbs' Six Commandments of Coaching.
\ Demand excellence
\ "Joe never, ever gives anyone an excuse to fail," says Washington special-teams coach Wayne Sevier, friends with Gibbs for 30 years. "He starts the season telling the players we can go to the Super Bowl. Never do they pick up a paper and read that our offensive line is not good enough, or that our linebackers are not quick enough.
"If we have injuries, he turns that into a positive. He says, `Hey, you're the backup, but you think you should start. Here's your chance to prove it.'
"Why did so many players who were put on Plan B by other teams mold here? Because it was expected and they knew it was expected."
One of the 12 Plan B players who will face the Buffalo Bills today, guard Mark Adickes, says Gibbs and his coaches foster an attitude unlike any other he has experienced.
"They expect perfection," he says, "whether it be in the weight room or on the practice field. They expect absolutely no mistakes, and that includes of themselves.
"Coach Gibbs makes you want to do your best. Other places, the players say, `Let's see what we can get away with.' I have never seen that happen here and I'm amazed."
\ Show a human side
\ Two years ago, Redskins defensive end Charles Mann recalls, he and some teammates were about to begin Bible study class at Mann's home when the phone rang.
It was Barbara Sevier, Wayne's wife and Gibbs' secretary.
"She said she was calling for Joe and that he wanted to know if he could come by and worship with us, but that he understood completely if we'd rather he not come by," Mann says. "He hadn't called himself because he didn't want us to be put on the spot. We told her to tell Coach it was fine.
"He came and he interacted openly, honestly. He gave of himself. From that point on, I saw him as a man who had wants and needs, and yet, had all this power. It really turned me on because our wives were there. We had told them what he was like, but I don't think they really believed until they saw it."
Wives don't understand Gibbs.
Two years ago, he called tight end Ron Middleton, whom he had waived three times. Middleton had been left unprotected by Cleveland and Gibbs wanted to know if he would consider coming to Washington again.
The Middletons were at the movies. Gibbs left this message on the answering machine:
"Ron, this is Joe Gibbs. We've been looking at films and we feel we made a mistake cutting you the last time. My number is . . . . Call me if you'd like to talk, but I'll understand if you're too angry at me and can't."
Middleton says when he reached for the phone, his wife started screaming that he was the biggest fool she had ever known.
"But that call was so honest," Middleton adds. "You don't find honesty like his from a lot of people in this business. At that point, I didn't care how many times he had cut me. I knew he was a class act."
\ Be available
\ Art Monk, Washington's Hall of Fame-bound receiver, says that at one time or another, every player on the team has visited Gibbs with a problem.
That turns out to be a slight exaggeration. But Monk, the quietest Redskin, has been there several times and enjoys an open-door policy that belies the NFL stereotype of coach as demigod.
"You can talk to him and he'll either help you directly or put you in touch with the person who can," Monk says.
"You would be surprised how many head coaches hardly know their players," Adickes adds. "The great ones must be the man, but at the same time, players have to feel they are accessible. He walks that line perfectly."
Sevier says he has one or two almost violent arguments with Gibbs every season, including this one.
"You can say whatever you want to him, anyone," he says. "He'll react when it's said, but once that door closes and you leave his office, nothing's held against you.
"Joe is great at taking what you said and, if it makes sense, incorporating it. I don't know of a player or coach who had a discussion with Joe that Joe held against him."
\ Let 'em be themselves
\ In a case of good outweighing bad, Gibbs, a devout Christian, never squelches individualism, although there have been times he probably wishes he had.
He talks occasionally of wondering whether he did enough to help former defensive end Dexter Manley battle his substance addiction. Likewise, former cornerback Barry Wilburn and former running back John Riggins.
"He doesn't try to set anybody in a mold," says Nick Giaquinto, a reserve running back on Washington's Super Bowl XVII winner and now the athletic director at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.
"When I was there, `The Hogs' were just starting. We had the `Fun Bunch' and `The Smurfs.' All these little things were encouraged. The different personalities added flavor to the atmosphere and the chemistry. So important was the blending of different personalities toward a common goal."
Maybe that attitude comes from pre-conversion Gibbs, the one CBS announcer John Madden remembers from their days together in the 1960s at San Diego State. Madden paints a picture of Gibbs as a party animal, a fun-loving rogue who lived in a ramshackle old house out in the suburbs along with a few friends and a pig he had "borrowed" from a farmer.
"When they'd throw parties, they'd bring the pig in to mingle with the guests," Madden says, chuckling. "That's not this Joe Gibbs."
\ Bury your ego
\ "He's remarkable at dealing with all these different egos," Sevier says. "The staff. The players. It's not about offense and defense. It's about dealing with people and being able to delegate authority. Joe excels at human relationships."
Gibbs heaps so much credit on everyone but himself that sometimes it rings hollow. Ask about the defense and Gibbs will say it's a product of the brilliance of Richie Petitbon, Larry Peccatiello, Lavern Torgeson and Emmitt Smith.
"About the most I do is go to Richie and say, `Hey, stop 'em,' " he has said several times.
Likewise, although he is acknowledged by all who see his work as a brilliant offensive mind, Gibbs again prefers to deflect the credit to assistants Rennie Simmons, Don Breaux, Rod Dowhower, Jack Burns, Charlie Taylor and Jim Hanifan.
But it's Gibbs who writes and rewrites the offensive script 100-150 times in the days before the game in a ritual that hasn't varied in 11 years.
Home or away, Gibbs sequesters himself in a corner of the locker room exactly two hours before kickoff, furiously condensing the game plan one last time, oblivious to the activity around him.
When he emerges from his cocoon, Gibbs has the plan memorized and has most of what he wants to do firmly in his mind.
\ Keep competitive edge
\ Friends say Gibbs is probably the most competitive person they know. Sevier says there is an easy way to get him to do something he doesn't want to.
"Just tell him he can't."
Two years ago, Sevier goaded Gibbs, a former national racquetball champion, into playing a match against former punt returner Walter Stanley, then about 25 years old. Stanley had said he'd like to play Gibbs, then 50.
"When was the last time you played racquetball," Sevier asked.
"A year ago," Gibbs said.
"There's a player here who thinks he'd whip your butt. He told me no one with a soft body like yours can stay with him." (Stanley had said no such thing.)
"Who!!!!!"
"Walter Stanley."
Sevier says Gibbs immediately sought out other coaches who had played Stanley for a scouting report on Stanley's strengths and weaknesses.
Then he phoned Stanley to arrange a match.
Was Stanley good?
"He thought he was," Sevier said, laughing. "But that was before he played Joe."
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