High times for Gilbertson

DETROIT – Keith Gilbertson’s working title with the Seattle Seahawks is “offensive consultant.”

It’s a fancy name for agitator and confidant of close friend Bill Laveroni, Seattle’s offensive line coach, and for pitching suggestions at head coach Mike Holmgren. Unlisted in the job description is his role as sage philosopher and coaching survivor.

Gilbertson’s rollercoaster career has taken a definite upturn as Seattle prepares to face Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XL on Sunday. It’s an opportune moment for Gilbertson to gloat just a little bit.

Don’t hold your breath. It’s not his style. If he’s learned anything in his 30-plus years of coaching, which includes two stops at Idaho, the USFL, three tours of duty at Washington, California and two stints with the Seahawks, it’s to savor the good times and fight with every ounce of energy to persevere the bad times.

He’s had his share of both, the most recent being the two tumultuous years he spent trying to clean up the post-Rick Neuheisel mess at Washington. He ended up resigning.

“I’ve had way more good than bad, way more,” Gilbertson said. “Every experience in life and athletics isn’t always going to be good. I’ve been really, really fortunate. It seems like every place I’ve been part of since high school I’ve been part of championship teams. When you’re developing young people, you take the good with the bad and fight through the tough times. If you do that long enough, something good will happen.”

See Gilbertson, Keith. What he won’t say outright, others will.

“In our business there are two kinds of coaches – those who are hired and those who are fired,” said Laveroni, who coached with Gilbertson at Utah State in the late 1970s. “I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. You have to keep struggling in this profession, but good things happen to good people. He deserves it, he really does.”

Gilbertson hooked on with the Seahawks after writing a letter to Holmgren in the off-season. Gilbertson, 57, assists Laveroni with the offensive front, which has three Pro Bowlers and is widely considered one of the NFL’s best units.

“We’re so close he can get after me and I can get after him,” Laveroni said. “He’s across the hall and he’ll say, ‘Lav, what do you think about this?’ or ‘Let’s try this.’ And I’ll say, ‘Yeah, let’s do that,’ or ‘No, we’re not changing the whole offense around.’

“He’s been a line coach, an offensive coordinator, a head coach. He’s got a great, multifaceted background.”

Gilbertson, who coached at Seattle under Dennis Erickson from 1996-98, knew Seattle was on the verge of something special early this season.

“The only thing I could compare it with was the three Seahawks teams I was with before,” he said. “I thought this offensive line was far superior. I thought the quarterback question was very settled. When I was here before we really had three or four starters in three years. And Mike is very experienced so there were some really settled things here.”

He relishes the fact that Seattle is being rewarded for displaying patience with Holmgren and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, both of whom survived bumpy stretches early in their Seahawks careers.

“You’ve got a guy like Mike who has been in this system a long time and he knows all the nuances,” Gilbertson said. “When people said Mike can’t get it done, you hang in and you look where we’re at. You look at Matt. There were people raising hell with that guy. Now, look what he’s developed into.

“There is still something in life, or athletics or business or whatever, where you just have to hang in there. That’s the lesson in the whole thing for me.”

Peering out over the thousands of media members prowling Ford Field on Tuesday, Gilbertson was seated comfortably in the stands, far away the swarm.

“It really hasn’t hit me yet, but I think it will once we get closer to the game,” Gilbertson said. “You get a sense looking out there (at the field) that this is a big deal, it’s a worldwide stage. It’s quite an experience.”

One worth hanging around for.