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• john yun

  

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  April 8, 2023 9:34 AM EDT

  Tim Duncan Jersey Back in May the NFL writers and editors at CBSSports.com gathered together to discu s the key figures and moments of every NFL franchise in the Super Bowl era. Before long we were discu sing every team's best and worst moments, along with their most-hated players and coaches, as well as some of the more bizarre things each team has been involved in. That spirited discu sion produced this series -- the Good, Bad, Ugly and, sometimes, Bizarre moments for every team. We continue with the Washington Redskins. The Good The first Joe Gibbs era in Washington Not much was known about Joe Jackson Gibbs when he was plucked to take over coaching the Washington Redskins back in 1981. Jack Pardee had been fired after a middling stint, and mercurial owner Jack Kent Cooke was hell bent on hardware. He and general manager Bobby Bethard settled on a 40-year-old Gibbs, a bright but not exactly well-known member of Don Coryell's innovative staff in San Diego. It turned out to be the best decision the franchise has ever made. More Good, Bad, Ugly and Bizarre The glory days were just ahead, and it's difficult to think of any truly resonating moment in the Redskins' history that did not occur under Gibbs' hand, the first time around (we'll get to Gibbs 2.0 in a little bit). Think of the iconic moments in the Redskins' history. . Doug Williams becoming the first African-American quarterback to win a . One-hit wonder Timmy Smith setting the Super Bowl rushing mark. And then there's Gibbs being able to pull all of his starters and play backups in a blowout win over Drew Eubanks Jersey Buffalo for his third and final Lombardi Trophy. All of those championships point back to Gibbs. He is the constant that defines this greatest stretch of play by Washington in the modern era. Gibbs' run from 1981-92, culminating with what was seen at the time as a shocking decision to "retire," is as good as it gets for this franchise and ranks among the best for any team. It began with players unsure of what Gibbs was all about. It also began with five straight lo ses and growing turmoil around the team. But he rallied Washington to an 8-8 finish that first season and followed that with a shocking run to the Super Bowl in his second year at the helm. Gibbs was named the AP Coach of the Year in 1982 and 1983 (a 14-2 regular season record and a 51-7 smashing of the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs before the other L.A. team, the Raiders, defeated them in the Super Bowl). They won the NFC East again the following year, mi sing the postseason in 1985 despite a 10-6 record, lost the NFC title game in '86 and totally destroyed John Elway and the Broncos in the Super Bowl in 1987. They won it all again in 1991, with Gibbs the toast of Washington. His 24/7 work habits, however, were taking a toll on his family life. He grew more in touch with his spiritual side and began to feel both burned out and called in a different direction when he decided to leave the in 1993, a move that rocked the franchise. (He would go on to greatne s with Joe Gibbs Racing in NASCAR and eventually return to coaching in 2004.) Gibbs left after 12 amazing years on the job, making the playoffs eight times, suffering just one losing season and winning three titles with three different quarterbacks. He went 124-60 in the regular season and 16-5 in the playoffs. This franchise has never come close to the heights or consistency of the first Gibbs era or at any time since. The Bad The Daniel Snyder regime in Washington It takes a lot for an owner to become something of a national boogeyman, the personification of every bad stereotype about pro sports owners. For him to seemingly relish in playing the heel role along the way -- to actually elevate to a form of weird performance art (charging for parking at training camp, lusting after Jeff George, reveling in a controversial nickname, cutting down protected trees in his yard, threatening lawsuits here and there, alienating former players, I could go on and Keita Bates-Diop Jersey on) -- would be Vaudevillian were it not for the fact that Redskins fans have actually had to live through this grief. San Antonio Spurs Hats Oh, there were high hopes at the beginning when Snyder, a lifelong fan of the team from those Gibbs years, ended up with the team through some bizarre circumstances. There were the tales of him bonding with his family over the games and the lucky Redskins belt buckle he wore. But there were also horror stories quickly being told around the building about the kind of owner he was and the type of regime he would run. Fear and despair quickly outpaced any enthusiasm, and it wasn't all that long before Norv Turner was the first head coach to feel his wrath and the term "interim head coach" took on a familiar tone. Snyder turned the team into a full-scale marketing outlet, making sponsorship deals for seemingly everything but the Porta Potties at training camp. His meddling ways quickly turned off football people and his cronyism to certain uber-loyal employees would continue to divide the building for over a decade. From the moment he chose to bring back a banished executive who would come to embody the futility of this era (Vinny Cerrato) over coach Marty Schottenheimer despite an 8-3 finish with Tony Banks at QB, a decade of Redskins football was e sentially sent into the aby s, and they are still trying to crawl back to respectability. Oh, there was bombast and gluttony and le sons learned trying to win the offseason every winter -- from Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith to George (and Adam Archuleta and Brandon Lloyd and Albert Haynesworth and ... we could go on and on here, too). There was the constant public relations disasters and the revolving door of quarterbacks and coaches and coordinators. Dysfunction reigned for the better part of his tenure and even the second Gibbs tenure was a failure, with one playoff victory and another abrupt departure from the head coach with a year left on his deal. And don't forget the brief time spent with the Ol' Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier, who if nothing else further perfected his golf swing while in charge. There was the carnage of the Mike Shanahan tyranny that has basically all been sorted out by now, finally, with RG3 leaving Washington in the same ignominious fashion as did Shanahan. But oh the fireballs Shanahan threw on the way out making a charade out of that final lost season. Consider: Since 1999, the Redskins have five winning seasons and six seasons with five wins or le s. They are on their seventh coach in that span and have never won more than eight games in consecutive seasons. They have finished last in their division eight times. They have played two home postseason games and have one playoff victory total. Maybe, finally, with a real football man in charge of the roster (GM Scot McCloughan), the team is entering a stage of continuity and steady growth. If Trey Lyles Jersey so, it only took damn near 20 years under this owner to get there. The Ugly