A good weekend for one Joe Theismann, who watched alma mater Notre Dame lock up their spot in the College Football Playoff win a win over USC Saturday, then watched the Commanders dismantle Tennessee on Sunday – and the latter showed just what Dan Quinn has brought to DC, and harkened back to Theismann’s old coach and his approach to things.
“I think it speaks volumes for the players that have been chosen. This is where the term character gets applied,” Theismann said. “I asked Coach Gibbs many years ago what makes a championship player and team, and he said, ‘character, intelligence and ability.’ I said, ‘everybody wants those,’ but he told me that’s the order he looks for those traits in players – character first because we're gonna go through some tough times and we need the players to stay focused, intelligence because, well, look at the wristbands of these quarterbacks, and the last thing is how good are you? A lot of people in this league have ability, but what Dan Quinn has been able to do in Washington, he brings in the right kind of people in the beginning, veterans to have that positive character influence, and it’s all about the character and leadership of this team.”
Washington came out, off three straight losses, and took it to a Tennessee team they were ‘supposed’ to take it to – and to Joe, that’s just further proof of the brass building the right roster to be able to get things back on the rails.
“When we played, the locker room basically controlled the game and the team – what took place in the locker room is you had leadership there that could take care of any problem or situation, so coaches didn't need to intervene. I played for Coach Gibbs for six years, and I remember him walking through our locker room maybe five times,” Theismann said. “The locker room was ours, and this is what I sense here: this football team owns their locker room, they hold each other accountable, and there’s nothing like that. Veteran leadership is what makes a world of difference that way.”
BMitch gets it and agrees, and that setup ‘shuts down any BS immediately,’ and just like Gibbs, Quinn ‘allows the players to be who they are,’ and that’s why they’re thriving.
“I always describe particularly the ‘82 and ‘83 teams as a group of characters with character, because as you said, Joe allowed us to be us,” Theismann said. “That’s what this football team has become – everybody has their own little thing, but yet when it comes to playing on Sunday, they got everybody's back and there's no bickering. What happened the last three weeks were character-builders, a sample of what they’re going to face when they make the playoffs."
Take a listen to Theismann’s entire visit above, as he also goes into just how fantastic Jayden Daniels has been and how important Kliff Kingsbury has been to him, the running game’s importance, and more!