Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 23, 1994 TAG: 9402230071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
So says the former Washington Redskins coach, who has been courted in recent months by the Jacksonville Jaguars and other NFL teams.
"I've pretty much told them my interest lies in Charlotte," Gibbs said in an interview before Sunday's Daytona 500. Gibbs owns a Charlotte-based NASCAR Winston Cup team that fields cars for driver Dale Jarrett.
"We pretty well made up our mind, if I'm ever going back, it'll be there [Charlotte], with my son being there and my business being there."
Still, Gibbs' future in football is far from resolved. The Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars, who begin play as expansion teams in the fall of 1995, asked NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue for a clarification of the status of Gibbs' contract with Washington. Tagliabue has a report from the Redskins outlining their position, but has yet to make a ruling.
Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke has said Gibbs is under contract and that he won't release Gibbs from that contract without compensation, which could include draft choices.
Gibbs contends he is not bound by the contract because he and Cooke mutually agreed to separate and because he has not been paid since his departure.
Gibbs, who won three Super Bowls in 11 seasons with the Redskins before resigning in March with two years remaining on his contract, says he still hasn't decided whether he should return to coaching. It's a decision he wants his family to share, and that has been their focus since his younger son, Coy, who will be a senior at Stanford in the fall, arrived in Daytona Beach on Thursday night.
"It's the first time we've all been together in two months," Gibbs said. "We have to reach a consensus. We're just trying to go through this the right way."
Then there's the matter of Gibbs' contract with the Redskins, who earlier this month hired Norv Turner to replace Richie Petitbon. Gibbs said he's waiting on the NFL hierarchy to resolve the dispute.
"In the NFL, you're never quite sure what's going on," Gibbs said. "My understanding is someone in the league is working on it . . .
"But I haven't worked for the Redskins for a year now. I've got no compensation for a year now."
Sunday morning, Gibbs divided his time between his motor home in the Daytona infield, the garage and a reception held by Shell Motor Oil, an associate sponsor of Gibbs' Winston Cup racing team.
Gibbs was dogged by Florida football fans, who shouted "Jaguars! Jaguars!" as he rode a golf cart through the Daytona infield on his way to the reception, where he signed autographs, posed for pictures and talked about football and racing.
Gibbs has enjoyed the year away from football, friends say. He has lost about 15 pounds and is training to run a marathon in April with son J.D., who works on his race team.
He also has taken up racquetball again, a sport in which he claims a national age-group title. During the winter, he went snow skiing in Vail, Colo., and water skiing in Marco Island, Fla., and has a scar on his face as proof of a Jet-Ski encounter with a sand bar.
Gibbs said he'll keep his home in the Washington area, but is going ahead with plans to buy a home in North Carolina, near his Charlotte-based racing team.
"I'm just going on with my life," he said, "and we'll see what happens."
Repeating as Daytona 500 champion, however, didn't happen. Gibbs' No. 18 Chevrolet lost a motor in the qualifying race; Jarrett had to take a provisional start. Jarrett started slowly, start, picked his way through two bad wrecks before burning a piston on a restart, which ended his day early.
by CNB