Something to Chew On: Skipping Dinner With President

I run into Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan occasionally at the gas station. Has anybody ever seen Joe Gibbs at the gas station? I doubt it. I'm sure a football coach delegates that to somebody, like his wife. You could install three or four plays in the time it takes to pump gas.

Actually, Saban probably isn't as radically disconnected as Gibbs was in his first tour of duty as Redskins coach. Famously now, Gibbs missed so many evenings at home that his wife, Pat, would tape record conversations and send the tapes to Redskins Park so that the coach could listen to what was going on at home when he finally found time.

One of the endearing things about Gibbs is that eventually he came to realize how insane this was and told the funniest stories on himself . . . like the time he finally came home early enough to kiss his son Coy goodnight, then discovered, "Oh my goodness, the boy has a goatee and weighs 220 pounds!" Yes, apparently it had been awhile since Coach Joe tucked in young Coy.

Sometime in the mid-1980s when the Iran-contra scandal dominated the news, especially here in Washington, Oliver North visited Redskins Park.

Not recognizing North was one thing, but Gibbs had never heard of him.

That gave way to some rather funny pop quizzes in the coming months.

Q: "Joe, what do you think of Madonna?"

A: "Is this an Ollie North thing?"

There's a similar story about actors Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas going to Dolphins practice during the height of the much-hyped "Miami Vice" television series and meeting the great Don Shula . . . who thanked them for their courageous work. Shula thought they were Miami cops working vice.

What's terrifying is that there seems to be some correlation between how removed from reality coaches are and how much they win. Steve Spurrier having dinner with his family was akin, in the context of pro football coaches, to being a deserter at the office, to abandoning his team.

After the incredibly talented Bears teams of the mid-1980s won just one Super Bowl, it was sometimes said to be Mike Ditka's fault for having far too many dinners in downtown Chicago during the season. A head coach eating dinner outside the office is virtually irresponsible.

Gibbs, remember, has three times as many Super Bowl rings as Ditka.

Shula is on the Mount Rushmore of coaching. Saban, whose Dolphins won their final six games of the regular season, is one of those up-and-coming coaches that young coaches will emulate, for better or worse. Next time the president wants to have dinner with a coach, he might want to pick one from another sport.