It was a bolt out of the blue. The Redskins were looking for a coach to replace the disappointing Steve Spurrier. It appeared that the choice was going to come down to one of three coaches, all of whom had been fired at least once. Then, late in the evening on Tuesday, January 6, reports started to circulate that there was a new name in the mix, a magical name: Joe Gibbs. Internet boards buzzed and phones rang late into the very early hours of the next morning. There was utter disbelief at first-Gibbs turned down countless attempts to lure him back into coaching. Besides that, it's just way too good to be true. Then there was a scramble for more information. What's ESPN saying? Does the Post have anything new? After sunrise, as many bleary-eyed fans made their way to work, the various news services started confirming the story. As much as everyone wanted to believe it, there were still doubts, still fears that the deal would collapse at the last minute. Then, early in the afternoon, came a statement from Gibbs saying that he was returning to coach the Washington Redskins. Yes, Virginia-and DC, and Maryland and everywhere else on the planet where Redskins fans reside-there is a Santa Claus. There wasn't a buzz about the developments around town, there was a roar. The local media went to an all Joe Gibbs, all the time mode. People were walking the area just smiling for no apparent reason. At his introductory press conference he was treated like royalty. It was Hail to the Redskins, Hail to Joe Gibbs. In the days that followed, Gibbs continued to be the topic of conversation. One thing that many wanted to know was, "What were things like the first time around?" In the 11 years that had passed since he suddenly resigned as the Redskins coach, many new fans had begun to follow the team. Others had only dim memories of the glory days from 1981 through 1992, having lived in other areas of the country at the time-there was no Internet to allow them to follow the day to day developments, no satellite dishes to watch more than a handful of games a season. Still others were too young during all or part of Gibbs Era I to remember much of it. There are many fine books out there in which one could find out a lot about those Redskins teams. One is my book, the Redskins From A to Z, Volume 1: The Games, which has accounts of every game the team played from 1937 through 2001 including, of course, the Gibbs years. But, like most Redskins history books, there is a lot of information about the team before 1981 and more than a decade's worth of games and events since recounted. There was nothing on the market that was one-stop shopping for everything you wanted to know about the Joe Gibbs Redskins, no easy way to either get up to speed on, or refresh your memory about, the golden era of Redskins football. Instead of looking around for a resource for those starved for Gibbs information, I decided to create one. So was born Gut Check: The Complete History of Coach Joe Gibbs' Washington Redskins. Starting with the game accounts, annual statistical leader tables and annual player rosters that I had created for The Redskins From A to Z, I went about adding elements that would give the reader a solid notion of what those Redskins teams were about, what kind of character those layers had and what made Joe Gibbs tick. I had already been working on compiling information on every player in Redskins history for my second book (which will now end up being my third). Here, you get the profiles of every player who appeared in at least one game for the Redskins under Joe Gibbs. The basic information was obtained from Total Football, a giant reference book that's packed with excellent data. Details in the player profiles came from a variety of sources, including some of the excellent Redskins history books mentioned above.
All it took was one game. On October 8, 1967, my father took me to a Redskins game against the Cowboys. And even though the Redskins lost I was hooked. To say that I've followed their every move with a passion since then would be a huge understatement. Quite simply, the Redskins have been an obsession for over 40 years.
I attended Virginia Tech in the early 1970's and developed an obsession with Hokie football that endures to this day.
I am currently a freelance writer and publisher and I have the longest-running Redskins blog on the Internet. Check out RealRedskins.com
I live in Midlothian, Virginia with my wife Andrea, who will certainly be nominated for sainthood for her patience with all of the things that have gone undone around the house during the long gestation period for these books, and daughter Katie and son Patrick. And, oh yes, our dogs Zoe and Daisy won't stop barking at me unless I mention them, too.
