Waiting in the Wings : Veteran Assistants Petitbon and Marchibroda Stand By as Younger Men Get Head Coaching Jobs

Those precocious 30- and 40 somethings may be the hottest things going among NFL head-coaching candidates, but Richie Petitbon and Ted Marchibroda, both on the hard side of 50, do not lose sleep over it.

Marchibroda, 60, the offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills, won’t even lose his shot at a top job because of it. He’s the Indianapolis Colts’ No. 1 choice to take over their barren franchise after Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Petitbon, 53, the wizened defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins, has watched eight head coaching jobs open and close while he helped put his team into the Super Bowl for the fourth time. He yawns and says that if teams don’t know what’s best for them, that’s their problem.

He and Marchibroda, the star coaches on their respective staffs, will match wits Sunday, much as they matched shots when they were tennis partners and assistants with the Redskins in the early ‘70s.

This time, it will be Petitbon’s impossible-to-figure-out Redskin defense and Marchibroda’s unconventional no-huddle Bill offense.

Marchibroda and Petitbon, still innovative after all these years.

“That doesn’t come as a surprise at all,” Petitbon said of David Shula, 32, Bill Cowher, 34, and Mike Holmgren, 43, becoming NFL coaches.

“Maybe if the young guys hang around long enough, they might get here.

“The only thing I could say about that is that I would like to play those guys’ teams. If we could schedule all of them, we’d be back here again talking next year.”

Petitbon has been Coach Joe Gibbs’ defensive alter ego for all 11 years of the Gibbs era, specializing in building defenses that aren’t studded with talent but always seem to finish near the top of the league statistically.

This year, with a revamped middle, the Redskins had the third-ranking defense in the league.

“Obviously, we work very well together,” Petitbon said of his relationship with Gibbs. “Joe is a great guy to work for, and he never really bothers you. He never really second-guesses us on defense. And being successful makes for happy relationships.”

Petitbon says his only disappointment is that none of the teams, save the Colts, waited until after the Super Bowl to hire their new head coaches. No coach can officially be contacted by another club until his own team is finished for the season.

“This year, I think it was disappointing that a lot of people didn’t wait until this thing was over,” said Petitbon, a Louisiana native who said the only job he ever campaigned for was the one Jim Mora got in 1986 with the New Orleans Saints.

“This year, I think this would’ve been a good time to move. It didn’t happen this year, but maybe next year.”

Gibbs said: “It surprises me that he doesn’t have a head job. I think there’s been some interest, but I think Richie’s probably looking for a specific job.

“I don’t think he’d just take a job. I think he’s sure of what he’s doing. I think he’s got a good setup where he is.

“I think his time is coming.”

Marchibroda’s apparently already has come, again. He had a five-year stint as head man with the Baltimore Colts in the ‘70s.

Marchibroda has tried to avoid discussing the situation with the Colts, but it is clear he has had unofficial talks with them and could be offered the job as soon as Sunday night.

And his quarterbacks don’t hesitate to ask him why he would consider leaving the Bills’ powerful attack to take over the woeful Colts.

Said Jim Kelly: “He said (in a meeting recently), ‘Wouldn’t you rather be a backup on a good team than a starting quarterback on a bad team?’ So we threw that right back in Ted’s face: ‘Wouldn’t you rather be an assistant coach on a good team than a head coach on a bad team?’ And he said, ‘You’ve got a point.’ ”

But Marchibroda said he cannot ignore the challenge of coaching again and wants one more shot at proving he can lead a team to the Super Bowl on his own.

He also said he will take the no-huddle offense to any team he coaches next year, even to the Colts, with at times befuddled Jeff George, heading into his third year, at quarterback. The quarterback calls the plays in the no-huddle scheme, one of the big reasons no other coordinator has yet committed to it.

Petitbon says it’s no surprise that the newfangled no-huddle would come from the mind of a 60-year-old longtime coordinator.

Until devising and sticking to the no-huddle full-game scheme in the middle of the 1990 season, Marchibroda had been known as a respected, but somewhat stuffy, play caller.

“Teddy’s always been successful,” Petitbon said. “People forget that when Teddy was at Baltimore, the only thing that stopped his Bert Jones teams from going to the Super Bowl was Pittsburgh, one of the best teams of all time.

“He’s a very successful guy, and I’m sure things just evolved naturally. He had a quarterback who could handle it, he saw the possibilities and it’s been great for him.”

The big thing about the no-huddle is that the Bills’ offense routinely gets off five to 10 plays more than their opponents, keeping the opponent’s offense off the field and giving Kelly and Co. the opportunity to work against a wearying defense.

Unlike the run-and-shoot offenses in the league, Marchibroda’s no-huddle employs a tight end, and this year, with Thurman Thomas doing the running, led the league in rushing offense.

“People have said I was extremely conservative . . . and maybe they were right,” Marchibroda said this week. “But probably I wasn’t as conservative as what they thought, and I’m probably not as radical now as what they think.

“I think when you’re in the league for 30 years, you’re going to get criticism, you’re going to get praise. . . .

“I think I’ve been in the playoffs something like 15 of the last 23 years, so the important thing in this game is winning. If you can win being conservative, you do it. You do whatever it takes to win.”