and I just have to believe that there's something out there in the Gibbs-McCants relationship that I don't know about.
Right. Gibbs follows the Godfather approach: "Sonny, don't
ever let anyone outside the family know what you really think".
We know that only a few things lock a player in Gibb's Chateau-Bow-wow (and, sorry, GF, I had the title wrong. That was in "Howliday Inn"...just to be threadly obscure). He laughed along with John Riggins, and he worked with Dexter Manley until Dexter destroyed himself.
The only player I remember, meaning that we read about later, that Gibbs tossed away was Stan Humphries. That was special. Once more for those who couldn't follow the '91 Skins closely: Gibbs was ready to give up on Mark Rypien, much as he respected Rypien's willingness to jump into the fire -- no preparateion -- when Doug Williams went out two years in a row. Rypien kept fumbling when he was sacked...he seemed to have no sense when the green-shirted monsters like Reggie White were about to hit him; he didn't cover the ball properly and take the sack. Gibbs was losing patience.
Humphries had a stronger arm than Rypien, which is saying something, and Humphries could move, plant, and release quickly. Humphries could even duck and dodge the rush somewhat, although he was no Randall Cunningham scrambler.
Humphries split time with Rypien in '90, and showed an unfortunate tendency to throw hard passes into triple coverage for interceptions. By the way, my guess is that Gibbs and Breaux and Bugel studied the films, and wondered if Ramsey might have Humphries judgement with Rypien's footwork.
Rypien finished the season as starter because Humphries was banged up. See the "body bag" game.
We read later that Gibbs went to Humphries at "locker cleanout day", and said, Doug, I want you to lead the team. Go home, study the play book, and take us to the Super Bowl.
Rypien, meanwhile, signed a medium-sized one-year contract, and went home with some of the same feelings, I think, that Ramsey had last year.
In camp, Rypien showed up in top shape, and he had studied the playbook so much that he knew it as well as Gibbs.
Humphries showed up twenty pounds overweight, and had studied nothing. Humphries spent the camp partying, while Rypien spent it studying.
Early in pre-season...maybe before the first game, Gibbs promoted Jeff Rutledge, a mediocre QB and decent holder, to second string. Rypien won the job, and was MVP of the Super Bowl. I'm not sure that Humphries played a regular-season down, and he was immediately traded.
So...a player has to behave like Stan Humphries to get frozen out by Joe Gibbs.
**
Back to the topic. I think McCants can make the team next year. He probably needs to block and tackle, and there may be other things Gibbs wants but don't give up on McCants.
(For my part, even when I watched those excruciating Spurrier games, I would think, hey, McCants stands out.)
ey has the best hands on the team. If he continues to catch the ball the way he did all this season that is. I only saw him drop one catchable ball the whole season, and even that one was pretty high.
