GIBBS: `GREAT CHEMISTRY' WAS KEY TO SUPER SEASON

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 28, 1992                   TAG: 9201280031
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By JACK BOGACZYK SPORTS COLUMNIST
DATELINE: MINNEAPOLIS                                LENGTH: Medium
GIBBS: `GREAT CHEMISTRY' WAS KEY TO SUPER SEASON
Joe Gibbs' fingerprints hadn't been on the Vince Lombardi Trophy for 12 hours and already he was talking about the pitfalls of trying to repeat as Super Bowl champion.
Besides Gibbs, only two other coaches - Chuck Noll and Bill Walsh - have won as many as three Super Bowls. As a Monday morning quarterback after Washington's 37-24 NFL title victory over the Buffalo Bills, the Redskins' boss was refuting a "genius" label.
"Mr. [Jack Kent] Cooke [the Redskins' owner] says there were only two of them, and neither was in football," Gibbs said, laughing. "One was Michelangelo. I forget who the other was."
What Gibbs will remember was his fourth Super Bowl team in a decade. Washington's 17-2 record included a strong start and finish - and more, the coach said.
"The thing that was different about this football team was that this one truly has great, great chemistry," he said. "There was a great feeling the players had for each other. There was no one fighting for his own personal things.
"There were very few off-the-field problems I had to deal with. I think our eight older guys took it upon themselves to try and make it that way. This truly was a team and not a bunch of stars.
"When you consider how we ask people to serve as role players, that says something. Guys like Gerald Riggs, who only played in short-yardage situations; he never complained about not being in there as we went down the field. We have a lot of guys like that."
Asked to describe the champion Redskins in one word, Gibbs was more vocal than usual.
"Consistency is one . . . and character . . . and intelligence . . . and deep," said the 11th year Washington coach.
Gibbs wasn't preparing to take time off before he begins his first NASCAR season as a Winston Cup team owner in less than three weeks. Although the NFL has pushed back the deadline for submitting Plan B's list of 37 protected roster players a month until March 1, there are pressing items for the coach.
"I know, when I get back to the office about 5 [p.m. Monday], there are going to be about four calls on our coaches [as prospects elsewhere]," Gibbs said. "That always happens when you do this."
There is a notion among those who work at Redskin Park that veteran linemen Jeff Bostic, Joe Jacoby and Russ Grimm, tight end Don Warren, wide receiver Art Monk and linebacker Monte Coleman want to push for their fourth Super Bowl win next season. That would match the Pittsburgh Steelers' accomplishment of the 1970s.
Gibbs points out that repeating is difficult "because teams are shooting more for you when you're on top and it's harder to sign players because they've won and maybe they think they're better than they are."
Quarterback Mark Rypien, the Super Bowl MVP, and cornerback Darrell Green will be seeking huge contracts. In the past two years, the only training-camp holdout was Rypien, at the start of the 1991 season. That aided Washington's preparation.
Gibbs said "there's no reason" the NFC should be so dominant over the AFC, although the former has won the past eight Super Bowls, six of those by wide margins.
"It's just the way things happen," Gibbs said. "During the season, Houston played us dead-even, and we won in overtime, and they're an AFC team."
Gibbs was asked to comment on the 1991 rise of several clubs - most notably the Detroit Lions, the Atlanta Falcons, the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints.
"Sorry to say, quite a few of them are in the NFC," said Gibbs. "In our division [NFC East], Philadelphia will have [injured] Randall Cunningham back at quarterback and the Giants are always tough for us. Dallas, you see them coming, and Phoenix is up-and-coming, too.
"For us, the pitfalls of trying to repeat are the other teams. And you have to win your division to get here. You get to the Super Bowl by having the home-field advantage."
The Redskins have three picks in the first two rounds of the draft, including No. 6 [from the San Diego Chargers] in Round 1. The Redskins will look for cornerbacks in Plan B, and backup quarterback Stan Humphries is better-than-average trade bait.
"This was one of my most satisfying years in coaching," Gibbs said. "We had a great season, and then we kind of had a dream game [Sunday] night."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB