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Vintage Coach Leads a Return to Old Form
In the second season of his return, Joe Gibbs, right, gave owner Daniel Snyder what he wanted: a playoff team.
(By Toni L. Sandys -- The Washington Post)
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Players and coaches followed his lead.
"We would do anything for him because we know that he is never -- it sounds trite -- but he is never going to ask us to so anything that he doesn't do first," said offensive coordinator Don Breaux, who, like Bugel, was on Gibbs's first Redskins staff when he coached the team from 1981 to 1992. "We're not in here working our butt off, and he's over there playing golf or something. He's in here."
Gibbs added drills to address the team's lopsided turnover differential. Players who under-performed were summoned for one-on-one talks in his office -- never embarrassed in the media or in front of teammates. And he huddled every few weeks with his veteran players to take the team's pulse, responding to their concerns when possible.
On the eve of last Sunday's game against the Philadelphia Eagles, the one that clinched a playoff spot and sent the Redskins into the postseason with a 10-6 record, Breaux couldn't contain his excitement and happiness for Gibbs.
"We hadn't done anything yet," Breaux said. "But I went to Bubba [Tyer, the team's director of sports medicine] and I said, 'Bubba, this is why Joe came back! What's taking place right now. The feeling that we have right now! To start winning games in the NFC East!' "
In the process, Gibbs has changed the culture at Redskins Park. From groundskeepers to front-office staff, they've been talking this week about wishing that football could go on forever. It's a sharp contrast to the waning months of so many losing seasons, when players hung their heads and glowered as if they couldn't start packing their belongings soon enough.
"There's no history of success for a lot of these guys," said Brown, 43. "But it's a different environment now because guys are believing; guys are trusting that it's going to work out."
Gibbs, who is two years into a five-year, $25 million contract, is slightly more cautious, calling the 2005 Redskins "a work in progress."
"The past is fantastic for me because it gives me great memories of all the fun things I've been a part of, so you can never take that away," he said. "But I think the players want to do something today."
