11/05/24
January 07, 2004
When all else fails turn to the past. The Redskins may look to Joe Gibbs (again) to return to their glory years.
I'm very excited right now. I just started a post here and was cut off in the middle by a phone call from a fellow Met fan excited about the possibility of Vlad. My post was going to say how there is "no way in hot hell that Gibbs will come back" and mention how much he loves his NASCAR gig. Well, well, well... I go to ESPN to check the Vlad news and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but an article confirming that this morning news may actually be true. Holy crap.
posted by 86 at 07:54 AM on January 07, 2004
It really depends how badly Snyder wants Gibbs. Given Snyder's reputation, I'm sure Gibbs would want full control over the team, including personnel decisions, and will want Snyder to fade into the background (as I think he should, if he knows what's good for his team). If wannabe Wünderkind Snyder wants to win bad enough, he'll swallow his pride and agree. (As rcade mentioned, it can happen.) As to whether Gibbs would be able to turn the team around, who knows? Of course, this is only if Gibbs decides he wants to give up watching cars drive around in a big circle and come back to watching men in tights fight for possession of a piece of leather.
posted by deadcowdan at 07:55 AM on January 07, 2004
Seriously... holy crap. For those of you who are not Redskins fans, you probably don't have the appreciation of Gibbs that we do. He is like a dweeby King to us. He was a legend before he left and like some sort of mythical figure since he has been gone. His heroic tenure, including three Super Bowls, was followed by filth and failure. The possibility that he is coming back is enough to send me into shivers. Please, please, please let this is true. God help me if it's not. Check here for a sample of the craziness this is causing.
posted by 86 at 08:02 AM on January 07, 2004
this is good.
posted by danostuporstar at 08:17 AM on January 07, 2004
This is just a desperate ploy on the part of the Indigenous Persons to overshadow the Giants' hiring of Tom Coughlin.
posted by rcade at 09:13 AM on January 07, 2004
Well, if it happens, it certainly should overshadow the Giants' doings. Gibbs is a legitimate HoF coach. All Coughlin will do for New York is get the trains to run on time.
posted by yerfatma at 10:04 AM on January 07, 2004
posted by owl at 10:10 AM on January 07, 2004
Seriously... holy crap. For those of you who are not Redskins fans, you probably don't have the appreciation of Gibbs that we do. I'm from VA and although I'm a not a Skins fan I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. I really doubt that many people who didn't grow up in D.C. watching the Skins have a good appreciation of Gibbs. He's good. Really good. Immediately best coach in the NFL good. I watched Gibbs' teams and he was downright MacGyver-esque. Gibbs could make a superbowl champ out of a stick of gum, a couple pieces of wire, and Mark Rypien. Plain spooky. What Gibbs did with the talent he had was simply amazing. You saw this the second he left ... the team collapsed. But somehow Gibbs was able to win with whoever he had. He could win with Thiesman or Rypien, he could win with Riggins or Timmy Smith (remember him ... a nobody who set the super bowl record for rushing) or Earnest Byner. Gibbs produced really good teams with average talent and great teams with good talent.
posted by Mike McD at 11:22 AM on January 07, 2004
Immediately best coach in the NFL good. Quite a claim. Guess we'll be seeing the redskins in the playoffs next year. If he is the best coach in the NFL it will be no problem. ;)
posted by justgary at 12:15 PM on January 07, 2004
I'd hold off on the "best coach in the NFL" talk until Gibbs proves that like Parcells and Vermeil, he can win in the salary cap era.
posted by rcade at 02:00 PM on January 07, 2004
This level of hype sounds familiar, like when they signed Spurrier, and when they signed Schottenheimer, and when...
posted by dusted at 02:05 PM on January 07, 2004
Unlike either of those two guys, he has three superbowl rings.
posted by trox at 02:48 PM on January 07, 2004
Dusted is right. Every freakin year, The Danny trots out someone and the fans start the Super Bowl chant. Deion Sanders! Bruce Smith! Schottenheimer! Spurrier! These guys win everywhere they go! Um, except when they go to work for The Danny. Don't even get me started on Jeff George ;) Don't get me wrong, I like Gibbs, and I think it will be fun to have him back in DC (I'm native even if I am not a Skins' fan), but until he actually puts on the headphones, and coaches a few games, I wonder if the Skins fans can hold off on their annual empty chant. Even more, I wonder how many losses they will allow him before they start the inevitable call for his head? ;) Trox: Chuck Noll has 4 Super Bowl rings. Do you think that if he came back he would "immediately [be the] best coach in the NFL good"? What about Bill Walsh and his 3? Jimmy Johnson and his 2?
posted by scully at 03:22 PM on January 07, 2004
Every freakin year, The Danny trots out someone and the fans start the Super Bowl chant. Deion Sanders! Bruce Smith! Schottenheimer! Spurrier! These guys win everywhere they go! Um, except when they go to work for The Danny. Spot on. The only hope is that Gibbs will have enough juice to keep Danny in his place. It's one thing to cross the Ol' Ball Coach, but crossing Gibbs in the Potomac Drainage Basin will be potentially life threatening.
posted by dzot at 04:19 PM on January 07, 2004
Chuck Noll had immensely talented teams. Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Swann, Stalworth and the Steel Curtain. Gibbs went to 4 Superbowls in 11 years with 3 distinctly different teams. Let me repeat, he made Mark Rypien and Jay Schroeder look freaking awesome. Gibbs won with teams that had some marginal talent. Look, I'm not a Redskins fan, I actually dislike the Skins, but objectively my opinion is that Gibbs is a brilliant coach.
posted by Mike McD at 05:02 PM on January 07, 2004
I don't think the Redskins are going to win the Super Bowl next year, but I'll be damned if I don't have a good reason, for the first time in recent history, to be excited about their future. The Redskins have been to the play-offs a grand total of one time since Gibbs last coached the team. I lived through that always hoping for the postseason, but never chanting anything about a Super Bowl. After Norv Turner, I was excited about Marty, but if you lived and died with Norv you know a jar of pickles and tube sock would have been a good replacement and generated enthusiasm. I was against letting Marty go and never really jumped on the Spurrier bandwagon. I certainly didn't expect miracles. I think my exact words were, "At least it'll be exciting". In the end, I just wanted a coach, any coach, to stick around long enough to make a difference. If that was Spurrier, I was fine with it even after two years of garbage. Again, I'm not predicting anything, but I look at it this way... If Danny gives him a chance, Joe Gibbs will return the Redskins to their winning ways. The game changes, but not enough to make one of the best coaches of all time suddenly look lost. I respect rcade's question about whether he can craft a club in the salary cap era and only time will tell. That said, the best teams Gibbs coached never had the most talent. They were like the teams that do well today, made up of good players who played their hearts out and were put in positions to win. The Bills should have cleaned their clocks with the talent they had assembled and the same can be said for the Denver Super Bowl, but someone did a damn good job of making sure that didn't happen. The man coached three Super Bowl Championship teams in less than a decade. These teams were peppered with greatness, but made up in most part of has-beens and never-will-be's. The teams were solid in fundamentals, disciplined and well prepared. Those are marks of a good coach. We'll see if he can create a winning team again, but I'm thrilled to have the chance to watch and see.
posted by 86 at 05:06 PM on January 07, 2004
SI Article: "Gibbs' old Redskins offensive line coach, Joe Bugel, will be his new offensive line coach. Bugel was on the radio in Arizona on Wednesday morning telling the story of a phone call he got at 1:45 a.m. that day. It was Gibbs, jacked to the ceiling, with just one comment: "What are you doing sleeping? We've got work to do."
posted by 86 at 05:09 PM on January 07, 2004
Snyder outright idolizes Gibbs, so I don't see how he's going to end up meddling. With Gibbs' title of President of Football Operations, the final decisions on players and personnel all come down to him as well. It's a wonderful, wonderful day in the Redskins nation. -s
posted by sashae at 05:18 PM on January 07, 2004
"What are you doing sleeping? We've got work to do." I like that guy. I wouldn't necessarily want a phone call from him at 1:45am, but it's hard to dislike his enthusiasm.
posted by yerfatma at 06:51 PM on January 07, 2004
terrapin, I was merely saying he's a damn sight better than the guys cited directly above my post. Chuck Noll was one helluva coach, among the all time best, but he's been out a bit longer and didn't really leave at the top of his game like Gibbs did.
posted by trox at 08:37 AM on January 08, 2004
Trox: Chuck Noll retired in 1991. If I recall that is one year earlier than Gibbs retired :) Noll's last year in the league (1991) his team finished 7-9. The year before that they were 9-7. Gibbs last year? 9-7 :) Not exactly going out on top ;) 86 made my point for me when he said "I just wanted a coach, any coach, to stick around long enough to make a difference. If that was Spurrier, I was fine with it even after two years of garbage." Most coaches would say (at least Dick Vermeil, Bill Parcells, etc) that it takes 3 years to turn a program around. Marty got 1 year. Spurrier got 2 years. Petitbon got 1 year. Robiski got 3 games. No one will win in DC if The Danny won't be patient enough to let a coach (andy coach) actually coach.
posted by scully at 11:32 AM on January 08, 2004
Who is this Andy Coach, and what does his resume look like?
posted by wfrazerjr at 03:31 PM on January 08, 2004
Dig up fucking Lombardi and get him reanimated, then you'll have a coach. But come to think of it, even he couldn't win in DC the last time around.
posted by billsaysthis at 04:35 PM on January 08, 2004
I can't see Joe Gibbs putting up with Daniel Snyder, but then again I couldn't imagine Bill Parcells working with Jerry Jones either. It would be great to have Gibbs back in the NFL -- I always figured he'd come back after leaving Washington in his early 50s.