Team owner Gibbs resigns as head coach of Redskins

WASHINGTON -- Joe Gibbs resigned as head coach and team president of the Washington Redskins on Tuesday.

The Redskins said in a statement that Gibbs will remain part of the Redskins and serve as a special adviser to owner Dan Snyder.

Gibbs

The Redskins will begin a search for a new head coach immediately. Among the certain candidates are two former head coaches on Gibbs' staff, Gregg Williams and Al Saunders.

Gibbs went 31-36, including 1-2 in the playoffs, after emerging from NFL retirement and his NASCAR career to sign a five-year, $27.5 million contract in 2004. He had always maintained that he intended to fulfill the contract, but Gibbs, 67, wavered from that stance Monday when asked if he would return for the final year of his deal.

Under Gibbs' ownership, JGR has won three Cup Series titles, the 1993 Daytona 500 with Dale Jarrett, the 2000 Brickyard 400 with Bobby Labonte, the 2005 Brickyard 400 with Tony Stewart and more than 45 Cup races.

Interstate Batteries has been the primary sponsor for the No. 18 car since the team's first race in 1992 and the relationship is one of the longest running team sponsorships in the Cup Series. Driver Kyle Busch and sponsor M&Ms have been added to the car for the 2008 season.

Home Depot came on board as a primary sponsor in 1999 when the team expanded to a two-car effort with Tony Stewart. In 2005, JGR expanded to three cars with the No. 11 FedEx Chevrolet, now driven by Denny Hamlin.

Gibbs' resignation brings an apparent end to a Hall of Fame career in which he twice raised the Redskins from mediocrity into a playoff team, although he failed in his goal of bringing the team back to the Super Bowl during his second stint in Washington. Gibbs won three NFL titles during his first tenure from 1981-92; the second time around he took the team to the postseason in two of his four seasons.

Gibbs' resignation comes after one of the best coaching performances of his career, his leadership helping the Redskins focus after the death of safety Sean Taylor on Nov. 27. Washington won its final four regular season games after Taylor's funeral, going from 5-7 to 9-7 to claim the final playoff berth in the NFC.

The emotional run ended Saturday, when the Redskins lost 35-14 at Seattle in the wild-card playoffs.

"It was the toughest [season] for me," Gibbs said Monday. "When you go through a season like that, for a while it's kind of hard to re-grasp reality."