http://p.castfire.com/oYeso/video/227295/redskins_2010-01-13-141553.flv
Usually when I post these press conferences, it’s not because I think it was such a fascinating experience that it deserves rewatching. I think of it as … as a Redskins community service, for lack of a better phrase. A chance for people who don’t trust transcribed quotes or excerpts to see how it actually went down.
That’s not the case with this one. Joe Bugel’s retirement presser was something to behold, a football lifer speaking from the heart without notes or a microphone, and it was a legitimately riveting spectacle.
“I think I’m ready to block for Joe Bugel,” the Washington Post’s Rick Maese tweeted after about ten minutes of Bugel’s speech, to general agreement.
Rich Campbell of the Free Lance-Star was even more blunt: “Listening to Bugel right now is as close as we’ll get to hearing an NFL locker room speech first hand.”
Even Bugel’s players agreed. Sort of.
“Nah,” original Hog George Starke said, “he used a different language in the meetings for us. He had a different way of talking to us. He had a certain amount of style [with his cursing], I think he had his own style. He’s a blue collar guy from Pittsburgh, and it’s a good thing.”
“That was very, very mild,” Randy Thomas agreed. “I think he was respecting, ’cause a lot of women were in the meeting room, but he would’ve gave us a little bit. Even that speech had me kinda fired up. I was almost like we were gonna go to practice or something.”
At the very least, though, Thomas and the other players weren’t surprised by the terms Bugel did use. For example, when discussing owner Daniel M. Snyder, Bugel was emphatic in declaring his love for the man. Like, really emphatic. “I learned a long time ago from some great coaches,” he said, “they said, ‘Never be ashamed to look somebody in the face, and tell them you love them.'”
Thomas had heard that before. “He would tell us he loves us in the meetings,” Thomas said. “So we’re not not used to … we know Buges. You guys were kinda like, ‘oh, okay, this is a little Buges,’ but nah. That’s just … there’s a lot more to Buges.”
One of those things, apparently, was a dedication to loyalty, passion, and friends. Bugel brought it up himself, discussing his return to the Redskins in 2004. “We always used these three rules: loyalty, passion, and friends,” he said. “That has never changed in our philosophy here – loyalty, passion, and friends.”
And each of his players echoed it, not as if they were parroting something they’d learned by rote but as if it was something that had become ingrained in them by listening to Bugel.
Here’s Randy Thomas, getting sidetracked on a question about Bugel cursing: “He was all about friends, passion, loyalty. I mean, he really stressed that. And he loves family.”
Chris Samuels brought it up while discussing the differences between the press conference today and a typical Bugel team meeting. “[We] actually saw the sensitive side of Buges today,” he said, “so that was a good thing. But you guys really didn’t get the real taste of Buges.” I joked that he didn’t talk about love quite that much in a film session, and Samuels was quick to correct me. “Oh, he says love. ‘Passion, loyalty, and friends‘ and ‘I love you guys,’ but he never really tears up that much. It’s more brutal than that.”
Derrick Dockery was right onboard with that, describing a team meeting with Bugel as like the press conference “but more swear words. He’s very passionate about what he does, and he’s loyal, and he’s a great friend, man.”
Bugel owned up to the swearing thing during the press conference itself. “I’m not an easy guy to get along with,” he said. “I don’t have a big vocabulary and they will tell you that. I know every swear word you want to know – every one. “
Asked about the specifics of Bugel’s cursing, Randy Thomas could just shake his head in awe. “His wife has to have the same mouth,” Thomas said, with a certain amount of admiration. “I mean, they have to be compatible, know what I mean? Just imagine them two at breakfast? Beep beep beep cereal? Beep beep?”
“I’m gonna miss the feisty little guy,” Thomas added later, and also, more wistfully, “I sure wish he had one more year.”
Bugel, for his part, seemed at peace with his decision, if a little melancholy and reflective. “It’s tough to walk away,” he said. “After 32 years it’s been a privilege to coach in the National Football League – FIFTEEN of them as a Redskin. I love this organization. I will always love this organization. We have a lot of fond memories.”
