Dick Vermeil came back in 1997 with St. Louis and again in 2001 with Kansas City. Bill Parcells came back in 2003 with Dallas. Now it's Joe Gibbs' turn, here in Washington.
It seems the great ones can't stay away.
Surely seeing Vermeil and Parcells enjoy success at this stage of their careers is something that intrigued Gibbs and helped motivate his return, announced by the Redskins on Wednesday.
The trend of veteran coaches succeeding in pro sports even transcends football: In Major League Baseball, 72-year-old Jack McKeon led the Florida Marlins to an upset victory over the New York Yankees in last October's World Series.
On Wednesday, Gibbs said coaching is something that has stayed with him even during his 11-year retirement.
"The desire to coach has always been with me, even after being away from the game for 11 years," Gibbs said on his web site, JoeGibbsRacing.com. "After speaking with my wife Pat, we both agreed it would be a thrill to go back. I appreciate Daniel Snyder giving me the opportunity to coach again."
It's a different league now, and surely the challenge of building and molding a team through free agency--and how he'll relate to today's player--is something that also intrigues him.
If anyone has the credentials, it would be Gibbs, the Hall of Fame coach who led the Redskins to three Super Bowl titles in the 1982, 1987 and 1991 seasons.
For the last two years, Gibbs has served as a minority owner of the Atlanta Falcons. Certainly being around the game again has whetted his appetite as well.
More intrigue? How about facing off again against Parcells, who coached the New York Giants during the 1980s and won a pair of Super Bowl titles himself.
Parcells, of course, coaches the Dallas Cowboys, the Redskins' long-time rival. The Redskins-Cowboys rivalry, which has been mostly one-sided for the last eight years, is truly back now.
In fact, the Redskins rivalries with the NFC East's New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles will also have a sense of renewal with Gibbs back on the Redskins' sideline.
During Steve Spurrier's two seasons as Redskins head coach, he was unable to establish a sense of the importance of NFC East games. In the last two years, the Redskins were 2-10 in the division--with a 27-0 loss to Dallas and a 31-7 loss to Philadelphia at FedExField last December.
Gibbs won't pay lip service to the history and tradition of NFC East rivalries, either. He knows how to get his teams motivated for divisional games.
Usually, divisional games are reserved for December--the Redskins played three NFC East games last month. December is when the playoff contenders typically make their push for the postseason and separate themselves from the pretenders.
As Redskin fans well know, there is a different tone to NFC East battles. The intensity level is a notch higher, the hits are harder--everything is magnified. After all, this is a division that has produced 17 Super Bowl participants and 10 Super Bowl champions--including three by Gibbs' Redskins.
For years, teams that successfully navigated the NFC East were always well-prepared for a post-season run. Simply put, winning the NFC East is the first rung in the ladder on the way to the Super Bowl championship.
Gibbs understands this.
That's one reason among many that he is the Redskins' new head coach.
