Redskins Fan Wants Uncle Joe

WASHINGTON —  Now we know what to ask Santa to bring Washington for Christmas. Dear Mr. Claus, could you just stuff Joe Gibbs into our stocking, please? If this means Sam Grossman gets to own the Redskins, so be it. We’ll dope out who he is later. As long as Gibbs gets involved in The Big Picture, what’s the worry?

“I am thrilled to announce my ownership involvement in Sam Grossman’s effort to acquire the Washington Redskins,” said Gibbs in a statement Wednesday night. “It’s extremely exciting to me.”

A lot of other people are excited, too. Washington has been a duller place to live since Gibbs decided in 1993 that spending time with his family and auto racing meant more to him than a fourth Super Bowl win for the Redskins.

If Gibbs would just come back as head of football operations, nobody would mind if he sat in the owner’s box on Sunday with aviator glasses, headphones and a Redskins baseball cap. The town’s had those Joe heirlooms stored in a vacuum-sealed vault for far too long. As for that huge video screen in Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, who says it has to be used for NFL highlights? If it’d make Joe happy, we could just run updated NASCAR results on the thing.

In the last six years, the only NFL teams that have not tried to lure Gibbs out of retirement have been those that misplaced his home phone number. When you say, “Who could turn our team around?” the first answer is “Gibbs.”

Grossman, a Phoenix real estate mogul who has bid $600 million for the Redskins, is believed to have offered Gibbs equity in the franchise. In return, he’d love it if Gibbs would agree to be in charge of football operations. That means setting the direction for the team, from long-term club strategy to having a major say in who coaches the team, to player personnel.

As a coach, Gibbs was brilliant at halftime adjustments, as well as a master of motivating players and fielding disciplined teams. A crisp communicator, he spoke in complete, analytical sentences, a hint of the organized mind at work. Presumably, he’d look for such qualities in a Redskins coach.

Through his work as a TV commentator, Gibbs has stayed close to the game. He’s also honest, industrious, well liked and trusted. Besides, Joe owes us. More than any one person -- and this isn’t a joke -- he’s responsible for the past six frustrating seasons. As great CEO’s attest, the last task of empire building is to manage your succession. For example, Jack Welsh at General Electric announced his retirement four years ahead of time. Joe gave about four minutes advance warning. “Hello, this is former-coach Joe Gibbs. I’m quittin’ to go racin’. Have a nice day. Click.”

Result? The Redskins collapsed immediately -- from 10 winning seasons out of 11 to 4-12, 3-13, 6-10. A lot of that is on Joe. If a CEO retires and the stock soon goes down 50 percent in the next couple of years, that’s part of his record, too. Not so pretty.

Now, Gibbs has a chance to get out a big erasure and improve the picture.