Victory Lap - Part One

Seventeen wins in 10 playoffs over 16 seasons, four Super Bowl appearances, three championships, that's a wrap

Today The Curly R begins a three part series on the sudden departure and celebration of the greatest Redskins coach of them all, Joe Gibbs. Most of us were not expecting Joe's second and final run as Redskins coach to end now and before we begin the next era in Redskins football join me as we take a look at the man, the media coverage at the end and what it means for the team, there truly is no one in the hearts of Washingtonians quite like Joe Gibbs.

Part One: Didn't See That Coming
Part Two: Resigned, Not Re-signed
Part Three: What Now?

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How much of a surprise was Joe Gibbs' resignation Tuesday? The Washington Post marshaled every writer for the Monday and Tuesday papers to put something up about Joe and his postseason plans. I read Tom Boswell's piece at breakfast Tuesday, before the announcement was public, the one that starts

Joe Gibbs not only wants to stay as Redskins coach next season, he wants a contract extension from owner Daniel Snyder. But he can't come right out and say it because they haven't had time to sit down and actually negotiate it.

I knew this would happen, it was foretold in the aftermath of the Vikings game, game three in the four game run to the postseason, Joe had to deny that a two year extension was offered. I thought of course that a two year extension was offered, Joe does not want to distract the team, it will get signed immediately after the season. There was NO WAY Joe Gibbs was going to walk away from this team, they played close with the best in the NFC, found their quarterback in Jason Campbell, progressed significantly from last year and Sean Taylor died, Joe would want to steer this team back to football, this team was going to turn over as little as possible, there was a real family sense of the team, that the players, the coaches and ownership, the fans and the punditry felt this loss together and were going to get kind of a 2008 do over on better terms.

It was all set, look at the list of free agents, it's a great offseason for the Redskins, they may be as much as 21 million over the salary cap but have few key free agents, the big challenge this offseason was going to be renegotiating of some contracts and at least one large cap number has already volunteered to restructure his deal to make it easier for the team to keep him and get some money to spend. Keeping Joe Gibbs was keeping Al Saunders was keeping Todd Collins.

In retrospect Joe's demureness was not humility, not his standard understatedness, it was a foreshadowing.

Monday WaPo Redskins beat writer and narcoleptic boozehound Jason La Canfora reported on the team's season ending meetings Sunday, the internal stuff that happens when a team disbands for the offseason. You will note in this piece that although Joe talked to the team about keeping the momentum of success going and that the team was positioning for a Super Bowl run that Joe did not 'speak explicitly' about his future with the team. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams and receiver Antwaan Randle El were quoted directly with high confidence about Joe's return. Owner Dan Snyder was said to be 'fully committed' to Joe, something that could not be said for then Redskins coaches Marty Schottenheimer after the 2001 season and Steve Spurrier after the 2003 season.

All the talk about 'whether' Joe was coming back was all CYA, everybody was certain it was a done deal. Michael Wilbon's Monday piece calls who will be coaching a team always 'the big question,' then segues right into how Joe built this team, how he is happy with the roster and how the loss of Sean Taylor may actually have connected the players in a way that for at least this one offseason could transcend the dollars and sense of signing and cutting players. I draw attention to Clinton Portis here, it was he that railed against the establishment all preseason, about how we don't love him no more, about how he gone keep to hisself and how his future may not be in Washington, well now Clinton, college friend of Sean Taylor, is talking about how he

think[s] as a team this organization turned from a team to a family. You found a lot of guys who developed a lot of love for one another. That's the best thing that can ever happen out of a season.

Sounds like someone is ready to put all the adversity and nonstop scrutiny that comes with being a Washington Redskin aside for the time being and concentrate on football, maybe even being smaller than life for once.

The next day, Tuesday, Jason La Canfora reported on Joe's season wrap press conference from Monday. Again there are explicit hints that Joe was on the way out though if you look at them with the blind adoration and slight bewilderment of a Redskins fan that just witnessed this whole season then they are easily couched in terms of Joe's humility and not wanting himself to be the principle story. Ryan O' Halloran at the Washington Times echoed Jason's impressions.

After reading these pieces and excerpts from the press conference itself I was still convinced we would hear about a minimum two year extension for Joe and his assistants as soon as later that day, you know, a little misdirection and then a surprise climax. I mean come on, he's not talking directly about coaching but he is talking about re-signing players and keeping the team momentum going forward.

That all changed at 9:30 Tuesday morning.


Joe Gibb's Victory Lap continues tomorrow with part two, Resigned, Not Re-signed.



Editor's note: I switched from this image of Joe Gibbs after seeing this one in this Bob Cohn Washington Times column, photo for Washington Times by Michael Connor.