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<\/a>Gibbs is living proof of the athlete who compensates with heart and hustle whatever he lacks in athletic ability. After a successful college career as quarterback for San Diego State University, Gibbs says he had to accept the truth that he wasn’t good enough to play pro football.<\/p>\n
So, he focused his love for the game on coaching. Perhaps it was that personal disappointment \u2013 accepting that he\u2019d never be an NFL quarterback \u2013 that drove his coaching style. Sports filmmaker Steve Sabol says Gibbs built \u201cchampionship teams with many players who have had mediocre to average careers while playing for other NFL teams.”<\/p>\n
He saw something in them that they couldn\u2019t see. And he inspired them to greatness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came out of school, I wanted to play pro sports,\u201d he recalls. \u201cBut I wasn\u2019t good enough. So, I said \u2018Hey I\u2019ll volunteer and start coaching.\u2019 I felt like I\u2019d probably end up coaching junior high.”<\/p>\n
Instead,\u00a0his longtime coach and mentor\u00a0Don Coryell\u00a0assigned him to help a then-unknown assistant coach \u2013 John Madden, who went on to coach the Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl and provide\u00a0several decades of TV sports commentary before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
Under Coryell and Madden, Gibbs became an effective offensive line coach at San Diego State, then was recruited to work at Florida State. Then, he served under John McKay at the University of Southern California and\u00a0Frank Boyles at Arkansas. After that, Coryell recruited him to help out with the St. Louis Cardinals. Then McKay\u00a0called\u00a0him\u00a0to come be\u00a0an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Then, Gibbs rejoined Coryell with the San Diego Chargers, but in 1981, Redskins’ owner Jack Kent Cooke asked him to become head coach in Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly through a miraculous set of circumstances did I get to coach in the National Football League,\u201d marvels Gibbs. \u201cI\u2019ve been blessed beyond belief. Most people never get to live one dream. I\u2019ve gotten to live two” — NFL football and NASCAR.<\/p>\n Given his ability to pull the best out of mediocre players, does he ever wish he\u2019d had a coach who could have done the same for him?<\/p>\n Almost indignantly, Gibbs disputes that any of his players were ever mediocre. Then, he applauds Coryell for inspiring him to coach.<\/p>\n \u201cI had probably one of the\u00a0best coaches who\u2019s ever been in any kind of sports. He belongs in the Football Hall of Fame. But physically I was just an average athlete. I wanted it and went after it hard. I was coachable, but I was limited, so Don inspired me to put my love of football into coaching.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s where the Lord wanted me to be \u2013 and that started my journey.\u201d<\/p>\n As a college player, was Gibbs a Christian?<\/p>\n \u201cI gave my life to Christ at 9 years old,\u201d he remembers. \u201cThe first big decision I had in life came when I was in the third grade at a small elementary school in Sand Hill, North Carolina. I can remember in school being told that two amoeba happen to hit in a muddy puddle of water two billions years ago and I was the result.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were saying I was an accident. I was looking at that and now my grandmother had told me something completely different. In church, the pastor had told me something totally different, too \u2013 that there is a loving God who is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving who knit me together in my mother\u2019s womb \u2013 who made me special and different.<\/p>\n \u201cGod put this whole world together and He wanted to have a personal relationship with me. So, it was an easy decision.<\/p>\n \u201cIn life, that\u2019s probably the decision almost every single one of us is going to make it at some point.<\/p>\n “Do you want to believe you are an accident? This world was created as marvelous as it is by a great and loving God. We can\u2019t find another world like this anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n So, having become a Christian, was he pure and holy his entire childhood and as a teen and a college student?<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d admits Gibbs. \u201cI veered away from God for periods in my life. But I was put around a number of godly guys such as Head Coach Frank Broyles at the University of Arkansas, or schoolteacher Raymond Barry, and, of course, Don Coryell. I could see these guys were living for God.\u201d<\/p>\n Did his faith change the way he coaches?<\/p>\n \u201cIt obviously changes you and your life and the way you look at things. I think in the coaching world, it changed my outlook on things.”<\/p>\n \u201cIt does influence every part of your life and it influences every decision you make.\u201d<\/p>\n So, once he submitted to God\u2019s game plan, his life an easy, fulfilling road to success? Not at all, admits Gibbs. “We\u2019re all human. We don\u2019t stick to the plan. There are several different periods in my life where I wasn\u2019t listening to God.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I got the job in 1981 with the Redskins, I looked at my life and said \u2018Well, I could get fired at any time, so I will use this platform, coaching the Redskins, to become financially successful.’<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I ventured off without studying God\u2019s game plan for me, the Bible, and wound out getting into a financial disaster. Everybody else involved filed bankruptcy. It was a monumental mess. If I\u2019d only followed a very important principle in God\u2019s Word, never co-sign other people\u2019s loans!<\/p>\n \u201cI let a lot of other people sign me to loans without me even being there, that\u2019s how foolish I was.”<\/p>\n When coaching, did Gibbs ever pray for a win? \u201cThat\u2019s always an interesting question,\u201d he said with a chuckle. \u201cI always pray that He will help us to be at our absolute best. I ask Him to help me be the best coach I can be.”<\/p>\n Is it fair to put God on the spot \u2013 since the other coach is probably also praying for a win?<\/p>\n \u201cI think all of us in sport are probably guilty of that at some point,\u201d said Gibbs. \u201cI think I used to feel guilty about being a coach, too. It\u2019s almost like \u2018Hey, why don\u2019t you get a real job?\u2019 but I came to the conclusion that God makes football players, racecar drivers, owners and, yes, coaches. I think God made me to be a coach and he\u2019s blessed me with opportunities. My goal is to try and be the best coach that I can be.<\/p>\n What should a coach\u2019s highest priority be? Winning? Developing character? Making a name for himself?<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I\u2019ve pondered that a lot and my answer is, for me, number one in my life should be my relationship with God. Second in my life should be the impact that I\u2019m having on others. That can be my kids, my wife, my friends, business people that I\u2019m around, my grandkids \u2013 the influence I have on others.<\/p>\n \u201cSo where does that put my occupation? Third.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if God has given you great gifts to do certain things, then you don\u2019t want to waste them. If your occupation is the third most important thing in your life, you are going to be successful.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of the other two priorities, you are going to get there early, you are going to stay late, you\u2019re going to put everything into your job.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it was long hours with the Redskins. It was sleeping at the office three nights a week. It was getting after it.\u201d<\/p>\n Gibbs says that coaching can be one of the most important jobs anybody ever undertakes.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think about where we are currently in America, coaching is one of the few places that\u2019s left where we have discipline. Youth coaches have a huge impact on those young people he or she\u2019s working with.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the people who had the most impact on me were my coaches.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat kind of an impact do you want to leave on this earth? It\u2019s not going to be the money. It\u2019s not going to be football games \u2013 who won or lost. It\u2019s not going to be NASCAR, how many races we won.”<\/p>\n NASCAR? Yes, once Joe’s football coaching years drew to an end, his good friend Don Meredith suggested he look at the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Joe Gibbs Racing was launched in 1991 with major sponsors Home Depot, FedEx, Mars Candy, Coca Cola and, later,\u00a0Toyota eager to join a proven winner.<\/p>\n At last count, the Gibbs racing team has won three NASCAR Cup championships.\u00a0In the\u00a0Sprint\u00a0series, the\u00a0team includes driver Denny Hamlin’s #11 FedEx Toyota Camry, Kyle\u00a0Busch’s\u00a0#18 M&M’s Camry and\u00a0Joey Logano in\u00a0the #20 Home Depot Camry. They also field\u00a0Brian Scott in the\u00a0#11 Dollar General Camry, the #18 Sport Clips\/Pizza Ranch Camry\u00a0driven by\u00a0Hamlin, Michael McDowell and Mark Martin as well as\u00a0the #20 GameStop\/Sport Clips Camry for Logano and Hamlin. The team’s research and development\u00a0department recently won the East Division of the NASCAR Camping World.<\/p>\n Gibbs Racing is no small project — the main race shop is in Huntersville, North Carolina, has 450 employees working at a 250,000-square-foot facility.<\/p>\n Racing hasn’t been without its challenges. After Michigan’s 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR did a spot check using a dynometer to test the horsepower of randomly selected cars. They found throttle pedals on two Joe Gibbs cars had been manipulated illegally using magnets. Gibbs immediately announced “we will take full responsibility and accept any penalties NASCAR levies against us” and “we will also investigate internally how this incident took place and who was involved and make whatever decisions are necessary to ensure that this kind of situation never happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n NASCAR then made a regulation change specifically to Toyotas which mandated them to run a smaller restrictor plate to cut horsepower by estimated 15 to 20 horsepower. Interestingly, after the rules changed, Toyotas went on to win 20 of the 35 races in the season. All but one of those wins were by Joe’s cars.<\/p>\n Gibbs says there’s an important lesson here: integrity. <\/em>“What kind of an impact do you want to leave on this earth?” he asks. “I\u2019ve made mistakes — financially, occupationally, health-wise but that\u2019s reason why I wrote my book \u2013 to lead people to realize that if we have a game plan for football and a game plan for NASCAR and if we have a game plan for business, then shouldn\u2019t we have a game plan for life, too?<\/p>\n \u201cTo me an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving God wouldn\u2019t leave us here without a game plan. I look at life as a game and God is our head coach. He left us with a game plan and the question is \u2018Are we studying it?”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2012\/08\/21.jpg\" "\\"2\\"")
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<\/a>\u201cThose times when I veered away from God\u2019s playbook, the Bible, I got in trouble. But when I followed the game plan I had some measure of success.\u201d<\/p>\n