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CNN Live Today

Joe Gibbs Only Person to Win Super Bowl and Winston Cup

Aired May 03, 2002 - 11:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: There is life after the NFL. Joe Gibbs is the only person to win a Super Bowl and the Winston Cup, NASCAR's championship trophy. He has written a new book, "Racing to Win," filled with a guy's favorite things, cars and football. Can't go wrong with that.

Coach Gibbs joins us this morning. He's in New York.

Good to see you. How are you?

JOE GIBBS: Leon, how are you doing?

I'm a little disappointed I'm no on, because I'm one of the 50 most beautiful list. But, hey, you got to take what you can get.

Daryn, might have voted for me, not you.

HARRIS: We are still taking e-mails, coach. It ain't over yet.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Coach, see, that could be you.

GIBBS: I don't think I will make it list. It doesn't look like my silhouette on there.

HARRIS: Let's see how good you do at the interview, OK. It might change things.

Listen, first of all, I've got to ask you this question. I know have you been asked a ton of times. I don't think I've heard the answer. Between winning a Super Bowl and winning the Winston Cup, which one was more difficult and which one was more rewarding?

GIBBS: I think they as far as rewarding, they were both a thrill. When I was in football, Leon, I was a technical person, kind of made it happen, made the calls on the sideline. I go over to Motorsports and I'm not. I became the owner. There is a different thrill there. You got to pay the bills.

So in any case, I think there are both a thrill. It's just as exciting. And I think it's the people that go with you to win the championship on both of those, and so I think as far as hard, we were fortunate enough to win three super bowls in 12 years in football, and Winston Cup, it took us nine years to win one. But they are both a thrill, and both extremely hard to do and rewarding. HARRIS: The reason that occurs to me, is because as a former player, I understand how football works. There are so many different people, more balls to have in the air. I wonder which one would be the biggest challenge for you. Now you are publishing. What is it have you in this book right now that you have taking away from both of those worlds?

GIBBS: Leon, I think what's important, the message is in the book is that I discovered a gameplan for success in life that anyone can follow. And the reason why I say anyone, if I can have some small amount of success, anybody can do this. You are talking about...

HARRIS: That's easy for to you say.

GIBBS: No, you are talking about a P.E. major. I majored in ballroom dancing and handball. If I can do it, anybody can do it. I think the message is really that anybody can follow this game plan. And for me, I started out if life following the wrong game plan. I thought if I made enough money, and won enough football games, I was going to be happy. And I made some discovers along the road, one of them, is that if I did all that and had nobody to go with me in relationships, that would be awful, ruin my life.

I saw some other people be successful in those areas and make bad moral choices an ruin their life and then of course team building for me has been big, in family, sports, motorsports and business, and of course, you can do all those things and make some bad health choices and wind up ruining your life. That's what the book is about.

HARRIS: You mention all that and I see the title, "Racing to Win." First of all, you must be telling people what it is they want it win. Some people would rather win at business. They don't care about family. They don't care about the spiritual stuff.

GIBBS: I think what happens is I sat across from someone who is a billionaire, one of the most successful people in the world, and I saw tears in his eyes and he said, Joe, I've had the biggest failure in my life because of my relationships. And so I think that's the message for everyone. If you want to be successful in life, the further we go, Leon, I think it takes all six of these things for you to be successful in, to be successful.

Now what the book says, what the book's about, is my struggles in all those areas, and finally, finding a gameplan, and this gameplan, amazing enough, people for thousands of years have been following this gameplan, and it comes from god's word.

HARRIS: That's what I was going to ask you about. You got a healthy does of religion in every single one of these points that you mention. How much of the balance would you attribute to your success, the talent, and knowledge and hard work, and how much of it would you attribute to the religion angle.

GIBBS: Well, I actually think for me as I look back in my life, God, I really felt like it's directed my life. I mean, here is a guy, like I said, basically a physical education major, not probably equipped to do many things, and I wind up getting to coach the Washington Redskins, one of the greatest jobs in the world.

Besides, as I look back in my life, I can really attribute it to God guiding, leading, directing, but see the book tells the story, I think what's important here, this could be the same for everyone. You can be successful in life if you have the right gameplan.

For a certain part of my life, I was playing the game, and I wasn't following the game plan, and that's what is noted in this book, is all of those struggles in those six different areas.

HARRIS: Follow the gameplan, you might even make the list of the 50 most beautiful. We'll find out about that in a minute coach.

Joe Gibbs, thank you very much. Appreciate it, coach. Good luck to you. Take care.

GIBBS: Thank you, Leon. Thanks for having me on.

HARRIS: Thanks, much, coach. See you later.

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