He was stoic in the face of adversity this year and led the team through an amazing near-turnaround in December, but Joe Gibbs has retired from football – apparently for good this time.

The stated reason is to spend more time with his family, although he does not really need a reason: The NFL is pretty tough sledding these days, a fairly unpredictable venue in which to try and achieve success no matter how much time you sink into it, and he has given enough of his life to the sport. Since his first run with the Redskins ended, his racing team has been about a million times more competitive than he was able to get the ‘Skins during the second tour.

As my wife noted, now it will be a little bit easier easy to simply hate the Redskins again. Before, you had to add that qualifier “but I DO like Joe Gibbs.”

Daytona speed week is only about a month away. I bet we will be seeing a good amount of Coach Joe at the track.