[3rd ID SOLDIER]

Although we've heard rumors that Redskins coach Joe Gibbs will pack it in after the 2006 season, a league source tells us that the Hall of Fame head coach is openly talking about plans for the 2007 season.

The source believes, based on Gibbs' comments, that the coach will stick around for at least two more years.

In 2004, Gibbs surprisingly emerged from retirement after more than a decade out of the game. At the time, there were rumors that Gibbs' wife nudged him back into coaching so that he could hire their son, Coy, as an assistant coach. Mrs. Gibbs, as we'd heard it, wanted to get Coy out from behind the wheel of the Busch car he had been racing as part of Gibbs' highly-successful NASCAR venture.

In Gibbs' second year back with the team that he led to three Super Bowl wins, the 'Skins qualified for the playoffs and won on the road at Tampa before losing at Seattle. Combining last year's success with a near-annual flood of big-name free agents and the hiring of offensive guru Al Saunders, the expectations for 2006 were sky high.

Like most Redskins teams over the past seven season that were saddled with high hopes, the 2006 version of the franchise has failed. But Gibbs apparently won't be slinking away with a potentially tarnished legacy; look for him to stick around for at least one more season, probably two.

Possibly, more.