18 years ago, my bride, Susan and I were fortunate to strike up a friendship with Jim and Joy Zorn. The Zorns had moved to Boise just a little bit before we did. When Focus on the Family asked Susan and me to start up a group called the Idaho Family Forum, Jim and Joy met with us to talk out becoming Board Members. We asked and they accepted. That started a long friendship. We home schooled our kids together. Jim had a very positive influence on my son, Nate. My daughter, Meg, and Jim's daughter Sarah, were close childhood friends.
In 1992, when I decided to organize the first Promise Keepers held outside of Colorado, I asked Jim to speak at it. He and then-little known speaker (and future Wild at Heart author) John Eldredge were hits! Both have now touched many, many people with their lives.
So, as the years moved on and the Zorns moved away to other college towns and then the NFL, it has always been fun to see how Jim and Joy have been used to touch peoples lives.
Here's an interesting article that might give you a little deeper background on the man who replaced Joe Gibbs as head Coach of the Washington Redskins.
Den
Zorn brings zany style, faith in God to Redskins
Friday, Nov 14, 2008
By Joshua Cooley
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Washington Redskins coach Jim Zorn has led the Redskins to a surprisingly good season thus far.
- Photo by Washington Redskins
|
WASHINGTON (BP)--Jim Zorn has always been a little … different.
He
once skinned a coyote. Not just any coyote, mind you – a roadkill
coyote he picked off the road near his old Lake Washington home in
Seattle. How, you ask, did he know how to skin it? Because, he’ll tell
you, he used to work on cadavers in his college human anatomy class.
Duh.
Other
fun facts about Zorn: Previous hobbies include skydiving, kayaking,
mountain-climbing, BMX-racing, Zamboni-driving, ice-dancing, DJ’ing,
ukulele-playing, pottery-making, model shipbuilding and competitive
badminton. He can perform parlor tricks with a football and has gone
mountain-bike riding several times with President Bush.
These
eclectic interests might not be surprising if Zorn were that odd
next-door neighbor of yours – you know, the guy who gets the paper each
morning in fuzzy slippers and boxers. But Zorn is not your peculiar
neighbor. He’s a rookie head coach in the staid and starched NFL who
has led the surprising Washington Redskins to a 6-3 record entering
this Sunday’s big NFC East showdown with rival Dallas (5-4).
“When
he was here, he had this weird hairdo where his hair went straight up
four inches,” said former Boise State University football coach Skip
Hall, who gave Zorn his first coaching job in 1989. “He used to call it
‘high and tight.’ I used to kid him about it. For his first national
coaches convention, before we went, I called him and said, ‘Jim, there
will be about 4,000 coaches there, and they don’t wear their hair like
that.’ We went and later he told me, ‘You’re right, Coach. They looked
at me like I was a weirdo.’”
Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Gibbs has officially left the building.
Gibbs,
the Washington icon who stunned the D.C. area when he announced his
second Redskins retirement last January, and Zorn seem to be polar
opposites. The old-school Gibbs, 67, fashioned a Hall of Fame career
out of the Hogs, John Riggins, counter-treys and well-worn clichés
like: “They fought their guts out.”
Zorn, meanwhile, is a quirky
former-player-turned-coach who came out of nowhere to replace Gibbs in
one of the NFL’s crown-jewel franchises. Among other changes, the
55-year-old brought a West Coast offense, a sharp-witted candor and a
goofiness heretofore not seen in the stuffy nation’s capital. You can
bet your last dollar that Gibbs never led his team in chants of “Hip,
hip, hooray!” like Zorn has done.
Zorn and Gibbs do have this in common: They both love Jesus Christ.
“He
is a biblicist,” said Seattle Seahawks chaplain Karl Payne, who has
known Zorn for years. “In other words, if the book says it, you need to
deal with it. He is far more concerned about being biblically correct
than politically correct. He’s not ashamed of Christ.”
Zorn grew
up in a family that thought Christianity consisted of doing good and
attending church on Easter. As a high school junior, his perceptions
were rattled when his girlfriend dumped him, citing the desire to date
a Christian boy. Before long, Zorn started attending a Youth for Christ
club.
“I realized I had no idea what Christianity was all
about,” Zorn said. “I had a decision to make about the info I had. It
wasn’t about saying it; it was about believing the info I had about
Jesus and if he is the Messiah. I decided for Christ early in my senior
year.”
Undrafted out of Cal Poly Pomona, he signed with the
expansion Seahawks before the 1976 season. While the fledgling
franchise only made the playoffs twice during Zorn’s nine years there,
the shaggy haired Southern Californian left an indelible mark. With
future Hall of Famer Steve Largent as his main target, Zorn won the
1976 NFC offensive rookie of the year award and threw for 20,122 yards
and 107 touchdowns in his Seattle career. He is one of only eight
players inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor.
“I played with some great men and had a pretty significant time of life,” Zorn said.
After
bouncing around the NFL and the Canadian Football League for his last
three years, he retired after the 1987 season and began coaching two
years later. For 19 years, he worked as an assistant coach – never even
reaching offensive coordinator status – for Boise State, Utah State,
the University of Minnesota, the Detroit Lions and the Seahawks.
His
big break finally came on Jan. 25, 2008, when Redskins owner Daniel
Snyder hired him as offensive coordinator. Then, in a shocking move,
Snyder promoted him to succeed Gibbs on Feb. 10. The long wait to be a
head coach was over.
“I didn’t try to be disgruntled or complacent about it,” Zorn said. “I was aggressive in my coaching and I still am.”
The
national media generally dismissed the Redskins as an NFC East
afterthought in the preseason, but with a 6-3 record, they are smack
dab in the middle of the playoff hunt. Zorn is now the toast of the
town, having won over even the cynical Washington press corps – no
small task.
This doesn’t faze Zorn, according to his friends.
“I don’t think he’s up in the morning reading the newspapers thinking, ‘What are they saying about me?’” Payne said.
Zorn
coaches the way he played quarterback years ago – with brashness,
creativity and a twinkle in his eye. He seems to have channeled all
those delightfully improvisational scrambles of yesteryear (marvel at
them online) into his new job. His players have described his
play-calling as “aggressive,” “exciting” and “relentless.” He attacks
more than the conservative Gibbs ever did.
Could this hot rookie
coach lead Washington to its first NFC East title since 1999 and its
third playoff appearance in the last four years? Or could he even
(whisper now, for fear of Redskins sacrilege) usher in a new dynastic
era to rival that of Gibbs and his three Super Bowl championships from
the 1980s and early ’90s?
Zorn doesn’t allow himself such comparisons.
“[Gibbs]
has been a tremendous influence, not only with the Washington Redskins,
but in the National Football League,” Zorn said. “I’ve already decided
not to try to fit into his shoes. They’re a few sizes too big.”
Zorn’s
faith has been an anchor throughout his career. He has been outspoken
about his faith for decades, from the way he and Largent shared
Christ’s love with the greater Seattle community in the early years to
his current involvement with Pro Athletes Outreach.
“He knows
the book – that’s the key,” Payne said. “You could say he’s a teacher,
he’s an exhorter – there are a lot of things you can say like that –
but he knows the book and he applies the book. He’s obedient.”
Despite
his Sunday morning limitations as an NFL coach, Zorn actively pursues
personal spiritual growth. He takes part in a Redskins coaches Bible
study and a fellowship group of other NFL coaches on the phone. He is
happily married to Joy, his wife of 29 years, and has four children
ages 13 to 28.
“I’m encouraged by my own personal time I take to
do things necessary to grow as a believer,” Zorn said. “A tremendous
encouragement has been my wife. We are continually challenging each
other.”
Zorn and the Redskins have already exceeded many
expectations, and it won’t be long – with a playoff berth on the line –
before the NFL finds out how good a shot-caller he truly is. But for
now, the adventurous, eccentric former quarterback is making this
coaching thing look as easy as … well, skinning a coyote.
“He’s
a tremendous character guy with leadership capabilities who cares about
people and relates well to people,” Hall said. “And obviously, he
understands football.”
--30--
Army needs a BSU "Coach Chris Peterson" type and a blue-collar crew of football players that want to go play their hearts out to win.
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