Why are we giving Gibbs a pass?

[70Chip]

I do cut Gibbs some slack. He's earned it. It's not like he's some yahoo that just fell off the turnip truck.

When Gibbs won a Super Bowl in his second year, that was extraordinary. I didn't expect it to happen as quickly this time. Three points I would make not as a defense but as context:

1. The Redskins were worse than people realized when Gibbs took over. A lot of the blame landed on Spurrier because it was the easiest story for the press to write, but those teams had horrible players. Bruce Smith? Unbelievable. If you want to bitch about a front-office, that was the time to do it.

2. The Redskins improved in 2005 but then took a step backwards. I think the reasons are two in number. Clinton Portis being injured and poor play by Greg Williams' defense owing mainly to bad personell moves. I think Williams has to take some of the blame there. His stock was high enough after 2005 that he would have gotten the players he wanted.

3. The Mark Brunell signing was a mistake. I don't want to kill Brunell. I don't think it represents a vast conspiracy that he was signed, blah, blah, blah, but looking at it overall I have to say we shouldn't have done it. That one's on Gibbs.

I think we would all do well to remember that things are never as bad or as good as they seem.

So, Joe will coach one or two more seasons and let's hope he has healthy Portis and Campbell turns out to be awesome and some of these coaches earn their money and we will have a definite chance. One thing I do know is that Joe Gibbs is a singular figure in Redskins history and nothing that happens would make me regret the fact of his return. I think he would say the same from his end.