Owner, NFL head coach: ‘You’re never quite sure’ how an athlete will respond
RELATED: Timeline of Busch’s wreck and recovery
Following Kyle Busch‘s second win in three races since returning from a compound fracture of the right lower leg and a left mid-foot fracture, the No. 18 team owner said the comeback was “a great sports story.” The three-time Super Bowl winner as head coach of the Washington Redskins elaborated Monday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and recalled another leg injury — one sustained by Joe Theismann, who led Gibbs to his first Lombardi Trophy.
A three-time winner of the Sprint Cup Series championship, Gibbs compared his NASCAR and NFL experiences with injury, noting he’s a fan who likes a great comeback story. But a return to competition isn’t always in the cards.
Thirty years ago, Theismann suffered an open fracture of the tibia, or shinbone, while the fibula broke through the skin when New York Giants linebackers Lawrence Taylor and Gary Reasons connected with the quarterback and snapped his right leg.
When Busch had a compound fracture of the right lower leg and a left mid-foot fracture during February’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway, the coach turned owner wasn’t certain what the prognosis would be for his driver.
“I knew that the surgery on the bigger bone in his right leg, we probably would be OK with that,” Gibbs said. “What you worry about is a foot like that, which had the broken bones in his foot … because we know how much pressure and everything (that takes) … We all felt from the very beginning that was going to be the injury that was going to be the hardest to come back from.
“So anyway, you see that in sports. I’ve had Joe Theismann’s injury in the NFL that ended his career. You’re never quite sure. Is there an injury that would take somebody years to come back from or maybe end their career?
“So all those things are kind of going through your mind. Then the second thing is how does an athlete deal with a severe injury like that?Does it make him become more cautious? Is he apprehensive about getting back in the car?”
Gibbs said any fears he had were eased quickly when Busch was off of pain medications and trying to exercise in bed after surgery on his foot. But the team was still concerned about the road course at Sonoma Raceway being Busch’s biggest challenge once he got back behind the wheel.
“It’s rare that you see somebody with a severe injury, like Kyle had, that we all witnessed and we all saw, and then to have him, four months later, come back in the race where we were the most concerned about him, being a road race, and to have him win the road race,” Gibbs said. “And then to come back two weeks later and win the race (at Kentucky), it’s a great comeback story. It’s got all the things we love about sports in that you get to see somebody’s life, how they deal with real adversity.”
As a team owner, Gibbs witnessed how his team dealt with the uncertainty of racing without its quarterback for the first 11 races of the season.
“Our race team dealt with the adversity of having Kyle out for 11 weeks,” Gibbs said. “Think about the guys going to the race track. They’re going over the wall. They’re doing all these things. The crew chief is working on things knowing that we’re in a big hole, and we don’t even have our driver so for 11 weeks they went through all that and then for us to be able to bounce back and get a couple wins. I just think it’s a neat story, and I think it’s one that kind of captures people.”