Joe Gibbs isn’t going anywhere this offseason but to scout potential first-round picks, meet free agents and watch game film.
Gibbs is not getting fired. He’s not quitting.
It doesn’t matter what sports talk radio is screaming. Media speculation, blogs, Web sites or anything else are irrelevant, too.
There are only two people that matter in deciding who the Washington Redskins coach will be next year — owner Dan Snyder and Gibbs. The man who signs the checks and the one who cashes them. Everything else is background noise.
Snyder isn’t terminating Gibbs with one season remaining on the latter’s five-year deal. Chances are Gibbs would be extended if possible.
Gibbs won’t walk away from the first failure of his career. Not in a season where injuries played a critical part. Glasses are half full to Gibbs. He sees a team that will win more games than last season. That has played the best NFC teams to nearly a draw before losing late. One with a rising young quarterback who next season plays behind a healthy offensive line and maybe gains another top receiver in the draft.
No, Gibbs may wistfully talk of spending more time with his family as he enters the final semester of his life. Serious health issues also loom if he doesn’t take better care of himself. But unless this season ends in a total collapse — 1-7 over the second half — Gibbs isn’t walking away.
Gibbs is not a quitter and the owner is not quitting on him. Snyder has learned some things over his eight years. Since stupidly firing Norv Turner during the 2001 playoff chase and Marty Schottenheimer the following year, Snyder has been firmly behind coaches. Snyder didn’t want Steve Spurrier to resign despite two bad years. Snyder won’t ever want to see Gibbs go because the latter is his boyhood idol. Given there is no financial pressure from fans in the sold-out stadium, Snyder isn’t forced to do it.
Spurrier’s departure serves a lesson on how coaches work independently of public opinion. Many of the sports talk generation said no way Spurrier would walk away from millions of dollars. The fatal flaw in this analysis was projecting their own values on a man they don’t know. Sure, most GS-er Joes wouldn’t leave such money, but they’re not already sitting on a mountain of gold like Spurrier. The Ol’ Ball Coach didn’t care about the money or what people thought.
The same goes for Gibbs and most successful coaches. They live inside the football building. They don’t have time to watch the news, listen to radio or read the Internet. They don’t rule by polls. Gibbs and his brethren are totally isolated so what the public thinks rarely reaches them aside boos from the stands.
Gibbs signed a five-year deal and it looks like he’ll finish it. Afterwards — who knows?
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Contact him at [email protected].
