The Cowboys and Redskins have one of the most heated rivalries in the NFL, so some heads definitely turned when one team’s legend gave the rival squad a pep talk on Saturday.
Joe Gibbs, the former Redskins coach and three-time Super Bowl champion, spoke to the Cowboys on Saturday night at the request of Dallas coach Jason Garrett, according to an Associated Press report.
“He was saying to us that when they called him and asked him to speak he was like, ‘Are you crazy?’,” said Cowboys linebacker Dan Connor, according to the report. “He said when you’re in a situation, you think it’s the worst thing ever, but you have to have faith in God and push through it. That was the message. He was unbelievable.”
Unbelievable, indeed. Even more unbelievable is the apparent connection shared by Gibbs and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. According to the report, Jones used Gibbs as a consultant when looking for a replacement for Barry Switzer following the 1997 season.
Gibbs also spoke about some errors he made while on the sideline, something that Garrett had been experiencing in recent weeks and Jones has been critical of.
“He came into chapel and talked about some of his low times,” Jones
said. “He spoke about some of the coaching errors. He wasn’t directing
it to the team at all, relative to our criticism this week of our
sideline coaching decisions, but he talked a little about a couple that
bit him.”
Garrett took a lot of heat following the Cowboys 31-29 loss to the Ravens in Week 6. But the speech must have worked because the Cowboys pulled out a 19-14 win over the Panthers on Sunday.
Gibbs photo via Flickr/Hans J E
