Having spent much of his life feeding one of Washington’s two passions — the Redskins — Joe Gibbs spent Friday feeding the other. Politics, of course.
The three-time Super Bowl champion coach and three-time NASCAR champion owner was a featured speaker at the conservative Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit at the Washington Hilton. And he spent much of his time hearkening back to a year ago. “Let me say I forgive you,” he opened. “All those names you called me on Sunday. I forgive you.”
He went on to note the pressure of following CNN’s Lou Dobbs, a Harvard man. After all, Gibbs pointed out, he majored in physical education at San Diego State. “That’s ballroom dancing and handball,” he said. “Anything tougher than that, I don’t get.”
Gibbs, a conservative Christian himself, spent much of his time drawing parallels between the game of football (where he was the coach) and the game of life (where God is the coach). Yet he kept stressing that he knew which was most important. Making the point that one day his football accomplishments wouldn’t matter, he said, “I’m gonna be sitting in an old folks home, and I’m gonna be sitting there saying [in a high-pitched voice], ‘I, I, I coached the Washington Redskins.’ The other guys’ll be saying, ‘Get this nut out of here, he thinks he coached the Washington Redskins.’ ”
Taking the stage later in the day was none other than actor Stephen Baldwin, the black sheep of the otherwise liberal Baldwin clan. “They’re all gonna kick my butt now,” he said of his brothers.
Baldwin discussed the, er, uniqueness of his high-profile conversion to Christianity, saying, “I told the Lord this: ‘Here’s the deal, dude. I’m a skydiver. I race motorcycles. I ride bulls. I’m nuts. And if this experience with you isn’t greater than anything I’ve experienced thus far, you’re gonna have a problem, cuz I’m Stephen Baldwin.’ ”
Later, after a loud noise startled the audience, he commented, “If someone rushes the stage, I’m knocking ’em out. … I’m my own security.”
Oh well. He has fittingly founded something called the Extreme Sports Ministry.
