All of them want to hear the words of wisdom the coach will pass along.
Their sons are paying as much attention as boys their age can, but words from one coach tend to sound the same as those from another. For most of the players, it will be years before they appreciate just who was coaching them.
Yes, he’s the grandfather of one of their teammates, and they’ve heard something about him
coaching in the pros and something else about NASCAR. But to them, at this stage in their lives, three-time Super Bowl champion and race team owner Joe Gibbs is just their Junior Eagle Football Association coach.
And that’s just fine with Gibbs, a 1996 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee.
“It’s just them being themselves,” says Gibbs, who posted a 171-101 record in two stints with the NFL’s Washington Redskins. “I love that part of it. They don’t care who I am.”
Gibbs and his son, J.D., Joe Gibbs Racing’s president, have been coaching in JEFA for four years now, since J.D.’s oldest son, Jackson, began playing. This year, Miller was the Gibbs boy on the field. There are eight Gibbs grandchildren, including seven boys, so grandpa’s coaching career may extend a few more seasons.
“I have a ball,” says Gibbs. “They’re absolutely great kids.”
SouthLake athletic director Rich Landis has gotten to know Gibbs well over the past few years, and says it’s been great having him around.
“You don’t really get used to it,” says Landis. “He’s very personable. Every time I see him, every time he walks away, I can’t help thinking about the things he’s been involved in.”
Gibbs’ JEFA teams have won two championships, including this year as the White Storm completed an unbeaten season (9-0) by topping the Red Tide 38-16 last Saturday. Gibbs wasn’t wearing his trademark “R” hat or a headset, but he still had the familiar focused sideline gaze captured in many photos over the years.
Afterward, he congratulated each player, posed for pictures, hugged them, led them in prayer and called each boy by name. There were no contract disputes discussed, and aside from one pesky journalist snapping photos, no media throng to deal with.
“It’s just great seeing young guys like this,” says Gibbs. “They don’t play any games, let you know what they are thinking.”
A few years ago, some of Gibbs’ players had a moment all those involved could only laugh about. A team mom had taken a team picture, had copies made and had Gibbs autograph each one. Each player received an autographed picture on the final day of the season, but after the game and receiving the signed prints, the players were more excited about their championship medals and celebrating. Many of the photos were tossed aside for parents to pick up and straighten out.
This year, parent Jason Long said his son, Jack, didn’t know much about Gibbs at first, but he used the Internet to research his coach. He found that Gibbs led the Redskins to titles in Super Bowls XVII, XXII and XXVI. In person, the Longs found the coach to be the person to match his lofty reputation.
“Lucky boys and lucky dads,” says Jason Long of the experience.
J.D. Gibbs wasn’t allowed to play football until the eighth grade, but because he saw JEFA as an instructional league, his dad decided to make an exception for the grandchildren and get involved. JEFA teams, which have eight players on the field at a time, practice two days per week, and despite their busy NASCAR travel schedules — and keeping tabs on the never-boring Kyle Busch — the Gibbses have been there for practices in left field of SouthLake’s baseball stadium as well as games, even if that has meant leaving the sideline to immediately board a plane bound for a race track.
“For the most part, it’s worked out pretty well,” says J.D. Gibbs.
The Gibbs family, which settled in the Lake Norman area 20 years ago when JGR was founded, wasn’t the only Super Bowl connection on the White Storm. Daniel Reeves, who played on the team, is the grandson of former NFL coach Dan Reeves, who coached the Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons in four Super Bowls. The elder Reeves came into town and stood on the sideline alongside Gibbs for one of his grandson’s games.
While those who have played for Gibbs in JEFA may have a hard time convincing others of that in the years to come — that’s where the pictures will come in handy — Long says Gibbs has picked up a fan or two, including himself, in the process. Not one to watch NASCAR, Long now follows all the JGR drivers. And he wasn’t a Redskins fan, either.
“I am now,” says Long.
