PHILADELPHIA (KRT) – Joe Gibbs wrote another chapter in that familiar sports series “I’m Un-Retiring” on Wednesday when he confirmed that he will go back to being head coach of the Washington Redskins, the team he left in 1992 after 12 seasons and three Super Bowl titles.
Gibbs, 63, agreed to a five-year contract, according to the announcement on his NASCAR racing team’s web site. His salary reportedly will be $5 million a year.
“The desire to coach has always been with me, even after being away from the game for 11 years,” Gibbs said. “After speaking with my wife, Pat, we both agreed it would be a thrill to go back.”
In returning to the NFL, Gibbs joins coaching colleagues Dick Vermeil and Bill Parcells, each of whom retired from one NFL team only to resurface with another after a long hiatus.
But unlike coaches and players who have found retirement a bore, Gibbs is coming back from a highly successful stint in NASCAR, where his teams won two Winston Cup championships in the last four seasons.
Gibbs will find today’s NFL different and far more difficult than the league in which he achieved repeated success in the 1980s.
This time, he will have to deal with free agency and the NFL’s salary cap, neither of which will allow him to keep a core of talented players on the Redskins roster for a decade or more. That kind of continuity is long gone.
Gibbs is the fifth head coach hired in the five years that Daniel Snyder has been the Redskins’ owner.
He replaces Steve Spurrier, who resigned Dec. 30, with three years remaining on his $25 million contract.
Spurrier, a coaching legend at the University of Florida, was a colossal bust in the NFL, posting 7-9 and 5-12 records in his two seasons with Washington.
The Redskins were hardly such pushovers under Gibbs, who guided them to the playoffs eight times in 12 seasons. He compiled a 124-60 regular-season record and went 16-5 in the playoffs, including Super Bowl victories after the 1982, `87 and `91 seasons – each with a different quarterback (Joe Theismann, Doug Williams and Mark Rypien).
“Joe Gibbs helped define what the Washington Redskins stand for – integrity, hard work, determination, winning and championships,” Snyder said. “Who better to set our strategy and lead the Redskins back to championship glory?”
Gibbs’ .683 winning percentage ranks him No. 3 in NFL history. The five coaches who followed him in Washington after his retirement had a combined record of 74-101-1.
Gibbs was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996. Over the last decade, he had repeatedly said that he did not want to return to coaching.
But he retained NFL connections and was involved with a group that attempted to buy the Redskins after the death of owner Jack Kent Cooke in 1997.
With two partners, Gibbs bought 5 percent of the Atlanta Falcons for $27 million in 2002, a stake he will have to give up to take the Redskins job.Gibbs’ hiring came as a delight to the Skins’ players, who had been disappointed with the downhill course the team was traveling.
“You can just walk through this building and look at those Super Bowl trophies and that will tell you enough about him – even if you were too young to watch the guy coach,” tackle Chris Samuels told the Associated Press.
Gibbs’ signing could be the first move that Snyder has made that will help turn the Redskins around. Snyder has been a master of the big off-season splash.
For instance, signing defensive end Bruce Smith and cornerback Deion Sanders as free agents – but his efforts have done little to help the team win.
The Redskins interviewed at least three other candidates, Dennis Green, the former Minnesota Vikings head coach, who reportedly has reached an agreement to coach the Arizona Cardinals; Jim Fassel, the former New York Giants head coach, and Ray Rhodes, the Seattle Seahawks’ defensive coordinator and a former Eagles head coach. The job also was discussed with Jimmy Johnson, the former Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins head coach.
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c 2004, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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