January 8, 2008

• Sadness

  Joe Gibbs To Resign From Redskins

  
  

  WASHINGTON -- Joe Gibbs resigned as coach and team president of the Washington Redskins on Tuesday, three days after his team's playoff loss concluded a season marked by the killing of safety Sean Taylor.

  
  

  Gibbs went 31-36, including 1-2 in the playoffs, after emerging from NFL retirement and his NASCAR career to sign a five-year, $27.5 million contract in 2004. He had always maintained that he intended to fulfill the contract, but the 67-year-old coach wavered from that stance Monday when asked if he would return for the final year of his deal.

  
  

  
  

  Gibbs' resignation brings an apparent end to a Hall of Fame coaching career in which he twice raised the Redskins from mediocrity into a playoff team, although he failed in his goal of bringing the team back to the Super Bowl during his second stint in Washington. Gibbs won three NFL titles during his first tenure from 1981-92; the second time around he took the team to the postseason in two of his four seasons.

  
  

  
  

  It also follows one of the best coaching performances of his career, his leadership helping the Redskins focus after Taylor's death on Nov. 27. Washington won its final four regular season games after Taylor's funeral, going from 5-7 to 9-7 to claim the final playoff berth in the NFC.

  
  

  
  

  The emotional run ended Saturday, when the Redskins lost 35-14 at Seattle in the wild-card playoffs.

  
  

  
  

  "It was the toughest (season) for me," Gibbs said Monday. "When you go through a season like that, for a while it's kind of hard to re-grasp reality."

  
  

  
  

  Gibbs has also endured a personal crisis for a year. One of his grandsons, Taylor, was diagnosed with leukemia last January at the age of 2. Gibbs frequently talks lovingly about his "grandbabies," and he made an overnight to North Carolina on Sunday to be with his family, interrupting the postseason routine of meetings that usually follow the final game of the season.

  
  

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  While the article goes on, the only thing that I can say is that our loss is his family's gain.  I think that Joe Gibbs got the team through this very tough year.  He is a man of great faith, who helped the guys deal with Sean Taylor's death.  He helped them to stabilize through that, and to also deal with a lot of other losses due to injuries, and showed them that they could play.  And now, he is going to take care of himself and his own family....and I think that is okay, and is actually best for him.  I KNOW that he is not being forced out.  As a matter of fact, the owner of the team offered him a contract extension, and he is staying on as a consultant.  So....  God puts the right people in the right place at the right time...even in football.  Anyway....I am sad today.... 

  
  

  Here is an interesting site, if you are interested.... http://www.joegibbsonline.com  Joe Gibbs has a website where he broadcasts a weekly devotional.  You can get it in audio or print, or even in itunes versions.  He hasn't started them up for 2008, but you can get the archives for 2006 and 2007. 

  
  

  peace....

  • 10:17 am
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