Joe Gibbs Players Quotations

I'm just happy for him that he is playing well, ... A lot of times up here you go through tough things. At any one time in the NFL, you're going to have a number of players on a team who are going through tough situations. A lot of times the way they handle it is a measure of someone's character. I think that was Mark's situation last year and Patrick's situation now. The way you go through the tough times leads you to improvement and great performance in the future. It's a test of character when you go through that.

If I'm somebody that says the team is important and the players and coaches need to sacrifice and I then see an opportunity to help the football team and don't do it -- I would be going against the basic principal of what I preach.

I told our players I couldn't be prouder of them. We fought extremely hard all year. I really appreciate them taking me with them.

Our heart goes out to everybody down there, ... They've got to do whatever they've got to do. We're all praying for everybody down there. There's been a number of our players affected by it, and you just hope that somehow such a tragedy somehow we'll get that all squared away as quick as we can. So I would say whatever they've got to do, the Saints . . . I just feel bad for them.

We looked at everything that happened in the preseason, ... and let all of our players look at it and try to learn from it. We're taking a different approach on some of those things now in practice, and, film-wise, we're trying to put a real emphasis on penalties. And somehow we've got to get it across to ourselves on the turnovers, too, because that just kills you.

Right now, for anybody in this organization - I would hope in the entire town - to be focused on anything other than Philly would be ridiculous. We're getting ready to play the most important game that a lot of our players will play. ... If we lose the game, we're not going anywhere. So my mind-set is on one thing, Philadelphia. That's the way I feel about it.

Right now, for anybody in this organization -- I would hope in the entire town -- to be focused on anything other than Philly would be ridiculous. We're getting ready to play the most important game that a lot of our players will play. ... If we lose the game, we're not going anywhere. So my mind-set is on one thing, Philadelphia. That's the way I feel about it.

There are players there that you wished you could have on your squad. . . . I had some tough conversations today,

My commitment to the players was to try to keep this whole group together and hopefully improve and step up again next year.

You never know what's going to happen, but our goal is to keep everything together. We have a lot to do trying to get ready for next year and continuing to add to our team and continuing to build something. I know we have the right kind of character and right kind of players to build around.

We'd had three tough losses in a row and everybody was down. I think our players said to themselves: 'Our backs are up against the wall and we've got no other option other than just to win, and if we lose another game we're probably out.' So they kind of took it as this last stand, and it was that way every week . . .somehow we found a way to win those last five.

We think that right now we got a core group of players that are extremely hard working. Now, how good we're going to be, how many games we're going to win? That remains to be seen.

There have been a number of times where this team could have said we're out of it and given up. It got to the point where our backs were against the wall and the players responded. That's says a lot about their character.

It's exciting to me, ... because we're getting back some high quality players that have been missing for a while.

We felt like we had some other players that fit the role for us and do a lot of things for us. It was a competitive thing.

Whatever your business is, we all have a drama going on in our own lives. We're all unhappy about something. You have sickness, marital problems, a myriad of things going wrong in everybody's life. You have to deal with those things right away. You have to get their full concentration on football. I'd like to be able to communicate even more with my players when things aren't going bad, but it's just like everything else in life. The problems take over, and you wind up chasing the problems. I'd say handling people is the most important thing you do as a coach. Dealing with people, really, is all football is.

I think any of us, including Coach Parcells, would say that it's players that win games. You have to have great players.

We have great chemistry, great character. Our goals would be to keep everybody -- the coaching staff, the players -- together and hopefully improve next year. We all feel like we've got something going here.