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Gibbs warns of Super Bowl 'turmoil'
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The venerable Joe Gibbs, sporting a knit sweater and his trademark glasses, did not particularly fit in with this collection of younger men in sweat suits and Tommy Bahama shirts. But then, that's OK, because Gibbs has a different view of the game than most of them, given his vast experience and the universal respect he has earned in amassing a 140-76 career record that includes Super Bowl titles in 1982, 87 and '91.
Early yesterday, the 65-year-old coach of the Washington Redskins had some interesting things to say about the "turmoil" -- his word -- that accompanies a reigning Super Bowl champion (See: Pittsburgh Steelers, 2005).
"You have a number of problems," Gibbs said at a coaches/media breakfast, pulling no punches. "No. 1, the season goes a lot longer, and, when you take your break, you've probably lost six weeks on everybody else. Another big part of it is the way everybody looks at you. You're not going to have to tell your team anything when it's playing Pittsburgh. You just gotta say, 'Hey, we're playing Pittsburgh.' So I think that's a real problem."
In the years after Gibbs won Super Bowl titles, his teams were 14-2 (losing to the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl), 7-9 (missing the playoffs) and 9-7 (a wild-card postseason berth). In the past 12 years, there have been only two back-to-back Super Bowl champs (Denver and New England).
"It's just not that easy to do," Gibbs said.
There are a number of reasons for this, including complacency, external demands on players' time, a shortened offseason and the desire by opposing teams to knock off the champion.
Gibbs has seen it all -- first hand.
"I think getting everybody settled down is one of the hardest things I had to deal with," he said. "Getting all the coaches back in position, getting the players re-focused. You normally have a lot of problems after the Super Bowl."
Although that was the case with Gibbs, Mike Shanahan found a way to lead the Broncos to back-to-back titles in 1997 and 1998. He was fortunate to have a team full of veterans -- including a quarterback in his late 30s in John Elway -- and just enough breaks to pull off the rare exacta.
"You have to understand how special it is and want to get back there," Shanahan said. "But it takes a lot of energy to keep everybody right, to keep everybody in the same direction."
Keeping everybody right, as Shanahan put it, is not always easy. Gibbs believes some players gain a false sense of worth after a Super Bowl season. Others focus more on money and less on winning games, he said.
Consequently, the chemistry of a winning locker room can be fractured, undermining a team's bid for a second Super Bowl run.
"I think, obviously, you got to have a great core group in order to get there," Gibbs said. "But there's always a little bit of that, 'Hey, I'm not happy with the contract. I'm not happy with this.' So you go through a natural process there of trying to get that settled down. I think there's a little bit of turmoil after a Super Bowl year, which hurts you."
Cleveland Browns coach Romeo Crennel owns five Super Bowl rings, two of which he earned in back-to-back seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Patriots in '03 and '04. The Patriots are the exception rather than the rule when it comes to modern-day dynasties -- they won three Super Bowls in four years -- and their path to success also featured challenges.
"Human nature says you should exhale (after winning a Super Bowl)," Crennel said. "That's why coaches say, 'Hey, we're starting over. We haven't done anything. We're at the bottom, and you have to work your way up.' You have to preach that to them and preach that to them, and get them to play and not to relax.
"The challenge is that everybody's gunning for you now, and everybody brings their best game to you, and, even though you're the Super Bowl champs and you're supposed to be the best, you have to elevate your game, because you're getting everybody's best. And sometimes the schedule you're playing is the best, and you're on national TV games more. You're playing Sunday night. You're playing Monday night. Those are things that interrupt your schedule a little bit."
In the case of the Steelers, they played four prime-time games last season. They also faced their share of adversity entering the postseason, given they needed to win four in a row to get into the playoffs, then win three on the road as a sixth seed in the AFC to reach the Super Bowl.
Having gone through such an experience, coach Bill Cowher believes his team already has the mental toughness needed to overcome a Super Bowl hangover.
"We've gone through the disappointment, we've gone through the expectations," said Cowher, who lost running back Jerome Bettis, wideout Antwaan Randle El, defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen and free safety Chris Hope from last season's team. "We've gone through the three-game losing streak in the middle of the season. We've done some things no one has ever done, so I think there is proper perspective."
There is also a marquee quarterback in Ben Roethlisberger. NFL analyst and former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, who was on that '83 'Skins team that could not repeat, sees the third-year Steelers quarterback as a difference-maker.
"Ben is like Tom Brady (of the Patriots)," Theismann said. "They both embrace the opportunity to be special, and, now that they got it, they're not going to give it up. They're not going to sit on their laurels. Ben's not going to sit back and say, 'Wow, I went 15-1 my rookie season. I got a world championship ring my second season. What's out there for me?'
"Joe Montana won four Super Bowls. Tom Brady's won three. That's what's out there for him. That's what will be driving him every single day."
