Skins coach goes extra mile for his players - and fans
Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:31 am
Another example why Coach Gibbs is suce a class act ... and why we admire him ...
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/pr ... ran=249145
[quote]Skins coach goes extra mile for his players - and fans
By JIM DUCIBELLA, The Virginian-Pilot
© January 21, 2006
Last updated: 11:34 PM
]
Skins coach Joe Gibbs signs autographs during training camp in August. He did it again early last Sunday, in freezing cold, after fans met the team upon its return from a season-ending loss in Seattle. Gerald Herbert/associated presT
ASHBURN, Va. — In a callous world where fans are fleeced at the ticket window and players are tossed aside like pawns on a chess board, Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs treats everyone like a king.
It’s a major reason Gibbs was able to effect a remarkable turnaround in Year 2 of his return to coaching, taking the Redskins from 6-10 to 10-6 and into the second round of the playoffs.
Gibbs, 65, appears as indefatigable as when he ruled the team from 1981-92. He wasn’t joking when he said Monday that he couldn’t wait to start his offseason work of making the Redskins stronger. A few days later, he lured Kansas City’s highly regarded offensive coordinator Al Saunders from a possible head-coaching job with the Oakland Raiders to an assistant’s position with the Redskins.
An annual salary of $2 million helped greatly, but even new Chiefs coach Herman Edwards, aware Saunders was the frontrunner in Oakland, admitted that Saunders’ move to Washington was wise.
When Saunders arrives at Redskin Park, he will discover that his parking space is near the back of the lot. That’s because, except for three spaces reserved for owner Daniel Snyder, Gibbs gave the prime spots normally reserved for coaches to the offensive, defensive and special-teams player voted Redskin of the game following each victory.
Once the space is awarded, workmen spray-paint the player’s number in gold. A plaque is erected with the player’s name, and it remains his for the rest of the season.
Corny? Yes. Meaningful? You bet. Safety and special-teams stalwart Pierson Prioleau valued his space so much that when he left Redskin Park on Monday he took his name plate as a keepsake.
“It’s an honor for a guy of that caliber, a Hall-of-Fame coach who has seen a whole lot of athletes, to say something like that about you,” Prioleau said. “I feel special, privileged, that I could impress a coach of his stature.”
Such treatment by Gibbs isn’t reserved for players and coaches.
The temperature had plunged below freezing as nearly 300 fans shivered behind restraining ropes at the entrance to Redskin Park around midnight last Sunday. Three frigid hours later, bus es carrying players and coaches rolled in from Dulles Airport, where the Redskins landed following their 20-10 playoff loss at Seattle.
Gibbs planned to remain just long enough to drop off his briefcase before heading back to Dulles for a private flight to Charlotte, N.C., and a day with his family. But he hadn’t expected this kind of reception — or any reception, really. Not after a season-ending loss, not in such bitter weather, not in the middle of the night.
Removing his gloves, Gibbs told the driver to stop. For more than an hour, he chatted, posed for pictures and autographed everything placed before him. Witnesses said they didn’t know who appreciated the moment more, Gibbs or those inspired to greet the team after what they considered a speed bump in the road to restored glory.
“I don’t know anybody in professional sports who’s done more in team-building skills than he has in two of the most popular team sports out there,” assistant head coach Gregg Williams said. “People trust him because they know he truly cares about them.”
Walking a few extra yards to work or signing autographs, no matter the time, isn’t what sets Gibbs apart. But it speaks to something larger: a value system that has paid great dividends.
“If you’re in this profession, you look at people like Joe Gibbs and say, 'That’s the way to do things,’ ” Seattle coach Mike Holmgren said.
Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was enraged when Gibbs released his brother Tim last offseason. One phone call changed his perspective.
Four days before last year’s draft, Tim Hasselbeck re-signed with the Redskins after Gibbs agreed to give him a chance to compete with Mark Brunell and Patrick Ramsey. But about two weeks later, after the Skins had drafted Auburn prospect Jason Campbell, he told Hasselbeck that he could no longer honestly fulfill that promise. He was going to release him immediately so that he’d have a full chance to catch on elsewhere.
“That’s a class move by coach Gibbs ...” Matt Hasselbeck said, “to not suffocate someone’s career. Honesty and integrity aren’t something you always find in the NFL, unfortunately. If you ask my brother, he would say that Joe Gibbs stands for both of those things.”
Gibbs has long maintained that the difference in success and failure in the NFL isn’t strategy or work ethic. Practically everyone in the league now adheres to Gibbs’ once-unique regimen of sleep deprivation. Scouting staffs have never been more sophisticated, spent more money or been more adept at evaluating talent. The salary cap creates a more level playing field.
Even Gibbs would concede that luck played a role in this year’s turnabout. In the season opener against Chicago, Ramsey’s touchdown pass to Chris
ey was nullified by a penalty. One play later, Ramsey was sacked, fumbled and injured his neck.
Off the bench came Brunell, 35, a disappointment as a starter last year because of injuries and Gibbs’ surprising lack of a suitable offensive scheme. This time, however, he reacted better than expected. Against Dallas the following week, Brunell launched two long scoring passes in the final four minutes to beat the Cowboys 14-13 and spur an amazing reversal of fortune.
Brunell finished with 3,050 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and a QB rating of 85.9. It wasn’t always pretty — and Brunell slowed noticeably at the end of the season — but when Washington won, he invariably contributed the key plays.
But what ifey hadn’t been penalized and Ramsey’s TD pass had stood?
Aware that such twists of fate can be common in sports, Gibbs preached that trust and character were the real keys to success.
The contract extension recently signed by Williams and Saunders’ arrival are testimony to the trust Gibbs places in his staff. That both have multi-million dollar contracts certainly helps, but Williams has said he values having as much autonomy as any head coach in leading the defense.
And while Gibbs certainly will have a major role in the offense, there’s little doubt Saunders will be its guiding light. He will bring an aggressive style that Gibbs was unable or unwilling to embrace the last two years.
Character is a more dicey issue. The Redskins no longer routinely sign players like defensive tackle Darrell Russell or tight end Byron Chamberlain, whose myriad off-field problems with other teams were well documented.
At the same time, Gibbs did draft safety Sean Taylor, a guy with plenty of image problems and who goes to trial on March20 for felony assault charges incurred last offseason.
What’s become clear over the years is Gibbs’ dogged determination not to call out a player in public, which he admits makes him seem weak.
The most Gibbs would say publicly about Taylor’s spitting incident against Tampa Bay is that “if” it happened, he understood Taylor’s being ejected from the game.
What’s said behind closed doors can be withering, however. As Williams hinted later, Taylor heard an earful.
“He’s the father who allows his children to grow up,” Williams said. “But if you cross the line, you don’t want to see the stern Joe Gibbs. There have been some people behind the scenes the last two years who have seen the stern Joe Gibbs. Not pretty.”
But the results are. [/quote
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/pr ... ran=249145
[quote]Skins coach goes extra mile for his players - and fans
By JIM DUCIBELLA, The Virginian-Pilot
© January 21, 2006
Last updated: 11:34 PM
]
Skins coach Joe Gibbs signs autographs during training camp in August. He did it again early last Sunday, in freezing cold, after fans met the team upon its return from a season-ending loss in Seattle. Gerald Herbert/associated presT
ASHBURN, Va. — In a callous world where fans are fleeced at the ticket window and players are tossed aside like pawns on a chess board, Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs treats everyone like a king.
It’s a major reason Gibbs was able to effect a remarkable turnaround in Year 2 of his return to coaching, taking the Redskins from 6-10 to 10-6 and into the second round of the playoffs.
Gibbs, 65, appears as indefatigable as when he ruled the team from 1981-92. He wasn’t joking when he said Monday that he couldn’t wait to start his offseason work of making the Redskins stronger. A few days later, he lured Kansas City’s highly regarded offensive coordinator Al Saunders from a possible head-coaching job with the Oakland Raiders to an assistant’s position with the Redskins.
An annual salary of $2 million helped greatly, but even new Chiefs coach Herman Edwards, aware Saunders was the frontrunner in Oakland, admitted that Saunders’ move to Washington was wise.
When Saunders arrives at Redskin Park, he will discover that his parking space is near the back of the lot. That’s because, except for three spaces reserved for owner Daniel Snyder, Gibbs gave the prime spots normally reserved for coaches to the offensive, defensive and special-teams player voted Redskin of the game following each victory.
Once the space is awarded, workmen spray-paint the player’s number in gold. A plaque is erected with the player’s name, and it remains his for the rest of the season.
Corny? Yes. Meaningful? You bet. Safety and special-teams stalwart Pierson Prioleau valued his space so much that when he left Redskin Park on Monday he took his name plate as a keepsake.
“It’s an honor for a guy of that caliber, a Hall-of-Fame coach who has seen a whole lot of athletes, to say something like that about you,” Prioleau said. “I feel special, privileged, that I could impress a coach of his stature.”
Such treatment by Gibbs isn’t reserved for players and coaches.
The temperature had plunged below freezing as nearly 300 fans shivered behind restraining ropes at the entrance to Redskin Park around midnight last Sunday. Three frigid hours later, bus es carrying players and coaches rolled in from Dulles Airport, where the Redskins landed following their 20-10 playoff loss at Seattle.
Gibbs planned to remain just long enough to drop off his briefcase before heading back to Dulles for a private flight to Charlotte, N.C., and a day with his family. But he hadn’t expected this kind of reception — or any reception, really. Not after a season-ending loss, not in such bitter weather, not in the middle of the night.
Removing his gloves, Gibbs told the driver to stop. For more than an hour, he chatted, posed for pictures and autographed everything placed before him. Witnesses said they didn’t know who appreciated the moment more, Gibbs or those inspired to greet the team after what they considered a speed bump in the road to restored glory.
“I don’t know anybody in professional sports who’s done more in team-building skills than he has in two of the most popular team sports out there,” assistant head coach Gregg Williams said. “People trust him because they know he truly cares about them.”
Walking a few extra yards to work or signing autographs, no matter the time, isn’t what sets Gibbs apart. But it speaks to something larger: a value system that has paid great dividends.
“If you’re in this profession, you look at people like Joe Gibbs and say, 'That’s the way to do things,’ ” Seattle coach Mike Holmgren said.
Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was enraged when Gibbs released his brother Tim last offseason. One phone call changed his perspective.
Four days before last year’s draft, Tim Hasselbeck re-signed with the Redskins after Gibbs agreed to give him a chance to compete with Mark Brunell and Patrick Ramsey. But about two weeks later, after the Skins had drafted Auburn prospect Jason Campbell, he told Hasselbeck that he could no longer honestly fulfill that promise. He was going to release him immediately so that he’d have a full chance to catch on elsewhere.
“That’s a class move by coach Gibbs ...” Matt Hasselbeck said, “to not suffocate someone’s career. Honesty and integrity aren’t something you always find in the NFL, unfortunately. If you ask my brother, he would say that Joe Gibbs stands for both of those things.”
Gibbs has long maintained that the difference in success and failure in the NFL isn’t strategy or work ethic. Practically everyone in the league now adheres to Gibbs’ once-unique regimen of sleep deprivation. Scouting staffs have never been more sophisticated, spent more money or been more adept at evaluating talent. The salary cap creates a more level playing field.
Even Gibbs would concede that luck played a role in this year’s turnabout. In the season opener against Chicago, Ramsey’s touchdown pass to Chris
ey was nullified by a penalty. One play later, Ramsey was sacked, fumbled and injured his neck.
Off the bench came Brunell, 35, a disappointment as a starter last year because of injuries and Gibbs’ surprising lack of a suitable offensive scheme. This time, however, he reacted better than expected. Against Dallas the following week, Brunell launched two long scoring passes in the final four minutes to beat the Cowboys 14-13 and spur an amazing reversal of fortune.
Brunell finished with 3,050 passing yards, 23 touchdowns and a QB rating of 85.9. It wasn’t always pretty — and Brunell slowed noticeably at the end of the season — but when Washington won, he invariably contributed the key plays.
But what if
ey hadn’t been penalized and Ramsey’s TD pass had stood?
Aware that such twists of fate can be common in sports, Gibbs preached that trust and character were the real keys to success.
The contract extension recently signed by Williams and Saunders’ arrival are testimony to the trust Gibbs places in his staff. That both have multi-million dollar contracts certainly helps, but Williams has said he values having as much autonomy as any head coach in leading the defense.
And while Gibbs certainly will have a major role in the offense, there’s little doubt Saunders will be its guiding light. He will bring an aggressive style that Gibbs was unable or unwilling to embrace the last two years.
Character is a more dicey issue. The Redskins no longer routinely sign players like defensive tackle Darrell Russell or tight end Byron Chamberlain, whose myriad off-field problems with other teams were well documented.
At the same time, Gibbs did draft safety Sean Taylor, a guy with plenty of image problems and who goes to trial on March20 for felony assault charges incurred last offseason.
What’s become clear over the years is Gibbs’ dogged determination not to call out a player in public, which he admits makes him seem weak.
The most Gibbs would say publicly about Taylor’s spitting incident against Tampa Bay is that “if” it happened, he understood Taylor’s being ejected from the game.
What’s said behind closed doors can be withering, however. As Williams hinted later, Taylor heard an earful.
“He’s the father who allows his children to grow up,” Williams said. “But if you cross the line, you don’t want to see the stern Joe Gibbs. There have been some people behind the scenes the last two years who have seen the stern Joe Gibbs. Not pretty.”
But the results are. [/quote
Doh!!!!