Maybe it was because the Redskins had won the previous season. Maybe it was because they’d won 14 games that year. Maybe he thought his team had matured enough to handle the situation.
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Whatever the reason, Joe Gibbs said his biggest mistake before Super Bowl XVIII in Tampa was not enforcing curfew, as he did before the three title games they won.
The year before, and in other years, Gibbs told ESPN that he would move the team to another hotel the night before the game.
“Where I could have a good night with them, we could be in meetings and keep everything quiet,” he said.
That changed in Tampa.
“It’s well-documented that Russ Grimm decided that he would turn the guys loose on the town,” Gibbs said.
Have we mentioned yet that this preceded a 38-9 loss to the Los Angeles Raiders?
“You need to have a bed check,” Gibbs said. “There’s times that you need to be totally isolated, studying the game plan, practice is very important.”
So maybe that’s why they lost. Or maybe the Raiders were just better. The Redskins had a number of colorful characters on their team from John Riggins to the Hogs and the 5 o’clock club. Numerous stories about this group involve one word: beer. They liked to have fun. They won a lot of games. It’s doubtful that this group lived as choirboys during the season.
“Anheuser-Busch was a friend to the guys on the line,” Joe Jacoby once said.
That’s why we’re also skeptical this was the reason they lost (a certain bad screen pass right before halftime didn’t help, either). Perhaps this played a factor — overconfidence as well? — but it might also have been a case of Gibbs being more aware of what his players were doing.
“During the week when you’re in your city, coaches don’t know what the players are doing Monday through Friday,” Fox analyst, and ex-Dallas quarterback, Troy Aikman said. “Then they get into this situation where you’re in the city the entire week and now coaches want to monitor it more. Maybe players aren’t typically at home at 8 at night. The key is allowing players to enjoy a certain element of it.”
