Vision Quest: Leave Joe Gibbs Alone

At Monday’s Press Conference Joe Gibbs once again had to answer the question he had answered a million times. Even though his answers have always been the same and always been consistent, the press corp. and talk radio have always asked the same question like nervous parrots. The question “When are you going to leave?” This is the same press corp. who peppered Gibbs about immanent return questions during his 11 year hiatus from our sport. So that is how much the press corp. has changed in 15 plus years. They have learned to replace “come back” to “leave” and that is all they ask.

Why am I so mad about this particular subject? Well you have to understand who I am. I am a life long Redskin fan who grew up in Upstate NY. My Dad was from Detroit and followed the lions and my younger brother eventually became a Giants fan. But I, I just liked football without any particular team in mind. That is until the 1982 season. Michelangelo used to say that his sculptures were always in the marble and he just brought them into the world. I was always a Redskin fan waiting for Gibbs to win my heart.

I was in the 5th grade and in the hospital with a major bone infection. After a long struggle and several scary moments I was finally starting to recover, right before the Super Bowl. I immediately liked, and started to root for the Redskin players without knowing that much about them. Art Monk was a Syracuse graduate and doing well with his new club. Riggins was, well, Riggins. What 5th grade boy could not delight in his rare sense of humor? They showed highlights of his “Ballroom Comedy Show” during the pre game. And there was something about Joe Gibbs. He was 0-5 the year before; many wrote him off as a rookie coach. But now after a strike torn season he was in the Super bowl. I was fighting at the time so I decided to root for the fighters during the bowl.

I don’t need to recap the game for you fans here. Miami got up early and it looked as though my scrappy fighters weren’t going to fight. However back they came, clawing and scratching and, yes, fighting their way back. Then Riggins went off tackle, running 43 yards, dragging Dolphins with him, and sealing the victory. And this humble little man accepting the Lombardi trophy. Last year he almost lost his job before it started. Now he is king of the world.

So maybe I am still that 5th grader screaming “Don’t hurt my Coach!!” Or maybe I am a little insecure at the questioning; hoping Gibbs won’t hear the idea of quitting and decide to take it. Or maybe I am like many Redskin fans, acting like ex-wives who have recently re-married their husbands who left them before, obsessed on when he will leave again. Or maybe I am afraid the answer is “soon”.

Or maybe the press and radio talk show hosts are peddlers of controversies and not actual journalists. Gibbs reiterated in his press conference that he intend to serve out his contract, AT LEAST!!! This is the same thing he has said for the last year. But you would never know it if you read the papers or listened to talk radio. He made a simple joke that his time in football might be short if he doesn’t win games (a joke my 15 year old daughter who HATES football gets) and the Washington Post writes an article about “switching gears’ insinuating Gibbs is giving up on football. Talk radio is calling him greedy and lazy, postulating that not only did he come back for the money but he is wasting time on his NASCAR business while he should be concentrating on football.

I am not for Capital Punishment but how about we ship that radio host to Abu Ghairab for some special photos with the artist known as Lindsey England. This is ridiculous and Coach Gibbs spent 20 minutes saying just that in his press conference. If I see one more report how Gibbs will not serve out his contract then I point to this quote:

“I signed a 5 year contract when I came here. Most people sign a three year contracts, I signed a five year contract. My commitment to the Redskins is I want to do every single thing I can to restore the Redskins to winning football games. And I would say my commitment is a minimum of 5 years.” Joe Gibbs 1-31-05

Enough said. Now let’s talk more about how we are going to get back to winning football games instead of questioning the word of one of the most respected coaches the NFL has ever known.

hailRedskins.com Fan Board

I have been positng on the hailRedskins.com Fan BOard lately and the owenrs have extended to me an offer of becoming a Staff Writer for the board. I have accepted and this last blog post has been posted by them online. I post over there as CNYSkinFan and it is a great community. The site itself has one of the longest running and most active forums on the net and I look forward to posting there often. I will still post here if only for keeping an archive of all my posts.