Joe Gibbs: Fourth and One

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, poorly planned memoir
Review: With the excitement of the return of Coach Joe Gibbs to the Washington Redskins, it would seem only natural that I bring out of mothballs Gibbs' book, "Fourth and One", which I was given as a gift more than a decade ago. One would think that this little memoir, which owes its title to that famous play in the Super Bowl when Joe Gibbs went for it on fourth and one and John Riggins scored the winning touchdown, would provide a keen insight into the mind and life of football's coaching legends and one of the NFL's true good guys.

Unfortunately, "Fourth and One" turns out to be a fairly disappointing book. Written during the latter portion of his first stint as the Redskins coach, "Fourth and One" is a poorly planned and poorly written book. It seems as if Gibbs (and co-author Jerry Jenkins) just sat down and wrote the manuscript in just a matter of days. Gibbs appears to be operating mostly from his own immediate personal memories of events and there seems to have been little research put into what really happened. While the earlier days of Gibbs life and the beginnings of his family and career are events that one would need rely solely on memory for, when it comes to Gibbs coaching career and exploits, there's no excuse for not providing at least a minimum of research into things that are public record. It's very disappointing when Gibbs is referring to particular moments in his coaching career and gets names of players and opponents wrong. He gets the scores of the games wrong; he gets the dates (even the years!) of certain games wrong; and that doesn't even cover the situations where he gets the overall story wrong in his dealings with players.

Another aspect of this book that is unfortunate is Gibbs constant need to invoke religion and his relationship with God as a cause or resource in every episode in his life. While there is something to be said for the spiritual guidance that can lead one to success, Gibbs really seems to be trying to force his spirituality onto readers who would prefer to know more about other aspects in his life, especially the football-related ones. It's not just the message that is off-putting, it's the manner in which it is delivered that disappoints, too. It's a bit jarring to be in the middle of a passage of some event that Gibbs is describing and then have Gibbs force a `God's will' type sentence in the narrative.

In addition to better research and planning, there need to be more of a focus to this book. If Gibbs wanted to write about his spirituality and how it has helped him in life, then he should have geared the book that way. As it is, it's trying to reach out to the football fans while also being heavy on the religious message. There was a better way to go with this book, and it's a shame that Gibbs and his co-author didn't do that.