’)Ex-Redskin Doc Walker sums up the literal ups and downs of the Skins’ season to date in an unusually sympathetic Michael Wilbon column (Wilbon has it in for the ‘Skins).
Doc Walker, who played for Gibbs and who has covered his former coach as a member of the media, said: “I don’t want to be insensitive, but Atlanta lost one player, Michael Vick, and the entire program collapsed. Not only did the Redskins have a player die during a season, which is unthinkable, but look at all the other things that have happened that would derail most teams:
“They lost the guys who were supposed to be the right side of the offensive line, Jon Jansen and Randy Thomas, essentially for the entire season. Shawn Springs’s father is in a coma and he’s traveling back and forth to see his dad. You’ve got a free agent rookie [Stephon Heyer] starting at right guard. You’ve got the whole team flying to a funeral and playing the Bears three days later. You’ve got your franchise quarterback going down in that very game, then you’ve got the backup quarterback’s wife giving birth . . . on the eve of his first start in 10 years, then coming out and going 0 for 8 but steadying himself to win the game. It’s a movie. We can’t imagine how difficult it is to manage all that. But Joe knows how to manage in the chaos. Go all the way back to his 0-5 start in his very first season as head coach. That was so chaotic. But he believed. Even if you don’t believe initially, he does. And he just doesn’t waver.”
Win and they’re in. Win, and they’re in.
As a Redskins fan living in Atlanta, I’ve been telling my buddies here the same comparison between the Redskins and the Falcons. Coach Gibbs may be older and mismanage time management, but the team believes in him and he has their back.
After the Vikings game, London Fletcher and Todd Collins remarked that Coach Gibbs has emphasized a measure of greatness is perserving and rising from adversity.
Men know when coaches are sincere and care for them not just as football players.
All I can say is Beat Dallas! and we will see all the Redskin fans in Arizona after their fantastic run to the Super Bowl.