ASHBURN, Va. — Antonio Gibson is entering his third season in the NFL. Last season he rushed for more than 1,000 yards and solidified his role as the Commanders top running back. He came to camp this year battling a minor hamstring injury, but quickly recovered, and is ready to make an even bigger name for himself this upcoming season.
WUSA9'S Sharla McBride sat down with Gibson earlier this week after practice, and before the official interview began, conversations turned to jewelry, namely Gibson's known bling. He came off the field wearing diamond stud earrings, and when asked if he wears those during games he said, "Yes, but I have to stop. I’ve spent hella money on earrings and lost them, so I’m done wearing them in the games. I’m done with it. I’ve spent too much money on earrings."
But what about the famous grillz he sports over his smile? "That’ll stay, that'll come out some games. I got the grillz for myself if I go out, and then Alvin Kamara started the trend of wearing them in a game, and everybody was telling me to wear them in a game, so I started wearing them every now and then," Gibson said.
Now back to football. When asked what a successful season looks like he said, “A winning season. I’m tired of all the talk about us and the negativity. I’m just ready to change that and move on, and give the fans something to talk about that’s not negative. So I definitely just want to win next season."
Ron Rivera has spoken on numerous occasions about winning back the fanbase this season, and Gibson is onboard. "You start winning, everything else goes out the door. Hopefully it gets us to where the media is talking positively about us, the fans want to come and support us, and we have a packed out stadium," he said. "There’s no feeling like that when you got the fans behind you."
Gibson has struggled with some leg injuries in the past but that happens in this league. Right now he says he's feeling 100% healthy. But when he or others go down, it's all about next man up mentality. "It’s a tough league, it’s a long season. We’re always hitting and banging. It’s tough but at the end of the day, it’s always next man up. That’s when people get the opportunities and you got to step up and play. [Taylor] Heinicke is the biggest story for that, and everybody loves him," Gibson said.
"Coach [Randy] Jordan tells us every week to focus on one thing and that’s what I’ve been doing my last year. I always just focus on one thing. Sometimes, some weeks, I would focus too much on it, and I'd be working on that one thing and then the next week I would work on something else and finally put it together in the game,” he said.
Gibson is the team's solid top running back. If he stays healthy in camp, he'll start game one. “It feels good, coming in with that confidence and getting those reps in year one and year two and learning from it, the confidence is there. I just got to get back in the rhythm of things," Gibson said.
“The team, we are going to fight regardless of the situation, and that’s one thing I love about this team is we are going to fight to the end and I feel like we have something special," Gibson said. "We are very young, we got a lot of learning to do, all we have to do is put it together.".
Gibson adds that he's not a guy to get too amped up about certain games, but the Dallas Cowboys did a lot of trash talking last year and Gibson has Oct. 2nd's game circled on his calendar. "Cowboys did a lot of talking last year. I never liked the team anyways. After year two and all the talking, I take that personally now," Gibson said.
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