Gibbs Showing No Signs of Burnout

Remember the coaching burnout theory?

Dick Vermeil, who walked away from the Philadelphia Eagles coaching job after the 1982 season, virtually invented the syndrome, and Al Davis, the Los Angeles Raiders czar, was quick to jump on the bandwagon.

Davis likes to say that it’s very difficult for a coach to last longer than a decade these days in the pressure-cooker job.

Maybe it’s time for Davis to take a long look at Joe Gibbs.

The coach of the Washington Redskins shows no signs of burnout. Eleven years into the job at age 51, his competitive fires burn as brightly as ever.

Just look at his performance last week at halftime in Anaheim. His team was 11-1, leading the Rams, 7-6, and he had a chair-throwing tirade.

Sure, the team was lethargic, but the players had a seven-hour, cross-country flight the night before and were playing just well enough to stay ahead of a team they knew they could beat.

That wasn’t up to Gibbs’ standards, and he let them know it. The result was a 27-6 victory.

After the game, he brushed it off by saying it wasn’t up to the standards of the halftime tirade he had in Philadelphia five years ago, when he lost his breath while clearing a table of a bunch of oranges.

Joe Bugel, his former assistant coach who’ll be across the field Sunday in Phoenix, remembers that tirade.

“I mean, his veins were popping out. He went down for the count. He had to take an eight. That was scary,” he said.

After the Redskins had wrapped up the victory over the Rams and the division title, NFL Films had a cameraman in the locker room recording the scene.

After shaking hands with the players as they entered the locker room, he shouted, “Hey, next week now, next week, home field, huh, next week home field.”

He then said twice, “Good job, men.”

But before he saluted them for a good job, he reminded them of the next goal: getting one more win to get home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

That little speech shows how Gibbs always is looking ahead.

Of course, selling a game against sad sack Phoenix is a tough job, but Gibbs always comes up with something. He reminded the players this week that Phoenix upset Dallas coming off a bye week last year. It’s coming off a bye week Sunday.

Assuming the Redskins do win Sunday, they’ll have nothing at stake in their final two games against the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles.

It will be interesting to see if he plays Mark Rypien all the way in those two games despite the risk of injury. Don’t be surprised if he does, especially against two division foes. The message Gibbs will then be selling is pride.

It shows why Gibbs is in no danger of burning out. He always wants the next one.

In Anaheim last week there were signs pleading for Georgia Frontiere to sell the team. In Indianapolis last week, there were so many Cleveland fans in the Hoosier Dome that it seemed like a Browns home game. In New York this week, Baltimore, St. Louis and Oakland will be among the cities making pitches for expansion teams.

Those three events don’t seem to be related, but there is a thread running through all of them: They’re the legacy of the late owner of the Baltimore Colts and Rams, Carroll Rosenbloom.

More than a decade after he drowned, Rosenbloom still casts a long shadow over the NFL.

It was Rosenbloom who traded the Colts for the Rams with Bob Irsay in 1972. It was Rosenbloom who moved the Rams from the Los Angeles Coliseum to Anaheim, leaving the Coliseum empty and setting the stage for the Raiders’ bitter court battle and move. That court battle delayed expansion all during the 1980s. Once Davis pulled off his move, it opened the doors for the Colts and Cardinals to follow.

If it hadn’t been for Rosenbloom, it’s likely the Colts would be in Baltimore, the Cardinals in St. Louis, the Raiders in Oakland, the Rams in the L.A. Coliseum and the league probably would have expanded to Indianapolis and Phoenix in the mid-1980s.

Instead, Baltimore, St. Louis and Oakland will be among the nine or 10 (it’s uncertain whether Raleigh-Durham, N.C., will make an appearance) cities scheduled to make presentations in New York this week.

Each city will be allowed a five-member delegation except Baltimore, which will be allowed nine people because it has three ownership groups. Baltimore will have a three-man civic delegation including Herbert Belgrad, the chairman of the Maryland Stadium Authority, Matt DeVito, the chairman of the Greater Baltimore Committee, and Bruce Hoffman, the executive director of the stadium authority.

The three men leading the ownership groups, Malcolm Glazer, Leonard (Boogie) Weinglass and Tom Clancy, will be on hand, and each will be allowed to bring one colleague, although Clancy said he may go it alone. Glazer will be accompanied by his son, Bryan, and Weinglass by Mike Sullivan, the president of Merry-Go-Round, a nationwide chain of clothing stores.

Some of the cities are taking a glitzy approach. Jacksonville, Fla., will have a video narrated by actor James Earl Jones, and Memphis, Tenn., will have one narrated by baseball announcer Tim McCarver.

But Belgrad said the league isn’t looking for a Madison Avenue approach because it’s only a preliminary working session for Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and league executives. No members of the expansion committee will be on hand.

Baltimore’s presentation will include a short video with an unidentified narrator.

The NFL has left itself a loophole on expansion, saying it can delay its timetable if labor-management issues provide an impediment.

But it looks as if there will be no change in the labor picture before next summer. Judge David Doty, who had previously set a tentative date of Feb. 17 for the trial to begin in the antitrust case between the owners and the players, has pushed it back. He hasn’t set a new date, but only said he hoped to have it concluded by the start of training camp next July.

That means the expansion process should continue for at least several months. The next step will the cutting of the field to the finalists next March. The two teams are currently scheduled to be named by next fall.

There were two developments in the coaching derby last week. Jerry Burns of the Minnesota Vikings announced he’ll resign at the end of the season, and Chuck Noll of the Pittsburgh Steelers said it would be “no big deal” if the team asks him to step down at the end of the year.

Since Noll walked out of the room the last time his coaching future was even brought up at a news conference in 1986, the statement was an indication that he is resigned to the fact that team president Dan Rooney may decide it’s time for Noll to end his career.

Meanwhile, Lou Holtz took his name out of the NFL coaching derby when he signed a new contract at Notre Dame. Although his name had been mentioned repeatedly in connection with the Minnesota job, Holtz quit after 13 games as the New York Jets coach in 1976 and seems much more suited to coaching in college.

The NFL could become more interesting next year. Buddy could be back.

Yes, Buddy Ryan.

As many as nine teams -- Minnesota, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay, the Rams, Cincinnati, Seattle and Green Bay -- will be looking for coaches.

With that many jobs available, Ryan may start looking interesting to an owner willing to put up with his bombastic ways.

The Rams have been mentioned as a possible new home for Ryan, but he said, “I think it’d be a long shot to say that I’d hear from the Rams. I’m interested in any NFL job, but I think there are other teams more interested in me.”

Let’s hope so. With Ryan around, there’s never a dull moment.

The Canadian Football League has passed a new rule allowing each team to go over the $3-million salary cap to sign one star player.

It’s an obvious attempt to get at least one player a year to follow Rocket Ismail into the league.

Desmond Howard of Michigan, who has one year of eligibility left, is likely to be this year’s target.

The Calgary Stampeders own Howard’s CFL rights, and team owner Larry Rychman said: “Now that the Rocket’s done it, we feel Desmond would be the next in line. He’s at the top of our list.”