Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 27, 1992 TAG: 9201270053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTS COLUMNIST
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS LENGTH: Medium
NO RETIREMENT TALK FOR GIBBS
Four Super Bowls in a decade apparently aren't enough for Washington coach Joe Gibbs.With Gibbs ready to begin his first year as a NASCAR Winston Cup team owner at the Daytona 500 in three weeks, there has been speculation he would leave the Redskins' sideline after 11 years.
Gibbs said Friday that he didn't intend to leave coaching now, although there are indications he seriously considered it.
Redskins' associates of Gibbs say that when he realized the tremendous expense of running a NASCAR team, he decided he needed to continue working.
Joe Gibbs Racing employs 15, and the team has seven race cars.
Gibbs is paid $1.2 million annually by the Redskins. The only NFL coach with a higher salary is Miami's Don Shula, at $1.25 million.
Gibbs, 51, and a certain enshrinee in the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he leaves the sport, lost more than $1 million in investments in racquetball clubs and real estate about a decade ago.
Asked how long he intends to coach, Gibbs said, "I don't have a plan for that. If somebody had told me 10 years ago that I'd still be here, I wouldn't have believed it."
No one would be surprised if Gibbs coached another three or four years - or until his youngest son, Coy, graduates from Stanford. Gibbs' older son, J.D., graduated last spring at William and Mary and will work with Joe Gibbs Racing.
"I think if you still enjoy it and the family still enjoys it, then you continue," said Gibbs. "If someone said, `Hey, are you going to do this for another 10 or 15 years?' that would be hard to say.
"The Lord has blessed me by putting here, with this owner [Jack Kent Cooke] and this town [Washington]. The Lord put me here, and I'm sure He will tell me when it's time to go."
Gibbs said he and his wife, Pat, "have a lot of things stored up we'd like to do someday. But right now, I'm excited about what I'm doing. There's a lot I don't like about it, but it's a great job. The positives greatly outweigh the negative."
Asked some of the tasks he'd like to make time for in the future, the bespectacled coach didn't go into great detail.
"Pat and I have talked about building a house," he said. "I'd like to get in really good shape once and run a marathon. And I'd like to be around my sons more than I am. I'm like any dad in that respect."
Gibbs, who fondly remembers his drag-racing youth in California, said one reason he decided to go into NASCAR was his sons' interest in working in the sport.
"Can you believe it? My sons don't want to coach," he said, laughing. "They're too smart for that."
Frankie Hall, the public relations coordinator for Joe Gibbs Racing, said that despite the long hours and pressure of NFL coaching, Gibbs had daily contact with crew chief Jimmy Makar.
Gibbs said that even when he departs the Redskins, he doesn't intend to leave the sidelines completely.
"I have a passion for working with people," he said. "Even when I stop coaching in the NFL, I'd want to do something on a smaller scale, like high school or junior high maybe."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING