Once Joe Gibbs was hired as Washington's head coach in January 1981, it didn't take long for him to understand there was a missing piece on his new team.

"During those first few weeks, people kept coming to me and saying, 'Hey it'd be great to get John Riggins back here," Gibbs said with a laugh on the latest episode of "Hail Tales: Stories from Washington Football History.” "I always tell the funny part of it. He sat out the year before and got everybody fired, so I didn't want to get fired."

Riggins was many miles away from the nation's capital at that point and had no plans of returning to the game. The running back, who was one of the team's best players from 1976 to 1979, had sat out the 1980 season due to a mixture of a contract dispute and feeling like he'd perhaps given all he'd had to the game.

Wanting to construct the best roster possible in his inaugural season in Washington, the first-time NFL head coach Gibbs was determined to get Riggins to return. His plan for convincing him to come back certainly conveyed that determination.

"Really without saying much to anybody, I just got a ticket to Lawrence, Kansas, and I just flew, and I made up my mind I was going to go see him," Gibbs said. "That enters into the first time I met John and this story."

It's a sort of famous story now with teammates Donnie Warren, Joe Theismann, then general manager Charley Casserly and more all able to recall their own versions. Gibbs didn't have an address when he arrived, but asking around gave him the information he wanted quickly: Riggins was a Kansas celebrity at this point, and people in the area knew where his house was. So, Gibbs was on his way.

"To this day I laugh when I talk to John, because the first time I lay eyes on him, he's coming across the courtyard," Gibbs said. "It's him and his friend, they both have a camouflage outfit on, they'd been hunting, and he had a beer can in each hand."

Amused but hospitable, Riggins invited the coach into his house.

"I say, 'Hey come on in, Joe. I've got one [beer] for you and one for me,'" Riggins recalled. "He goes, 'Oh, well I don't drink,' and I go, 'That's okay. I'll drink yours,' and I did."

Gibbs thought this first interaction was a little "unusual," and the two didn't exactly immediately fall into a rhythm of conversation.

"So, we go in and sit down at the table, and to be quite truthful, the first part of the conversation, I'm not getting anything back," Gibbs said. "It's not particularly friendly. I don't kind of know where I am. With that feeling, I just figured, 'What the heck.' I took off on my sales pitch ... I said, 'John, new offense,' talked a little bit about that. I said, 'Put you in the backfield.' I said, 'Hey, I'm going to give you the ball a bunch,' and so I get the sales pitch going … I'm not getting hardly anything back."

In the eyes of Riggins, Gibbs was just like any other coach, and he "wasn't moved one way or the other" by the shpiel. The "first meaningful thing" Riggins said in that conversation has become part of the lore passed on.

The running back leaned over the table and said, to some effect, that Gibbs needed Riggins a "heck of a lot more than" Riggins needed Gibbs. Theismann remembered hearing it as Riggins telling Gibbs: "I'll make you famous."

Upon hearing these words, Gibbs started to think he might be dealing with "an egomaniac." Would Riggins cause him problems if he came back? Maybe he could just get Riggins back and trade him? The coach started to run through the different scenarios. The two didn't come to any sort of agreement by the end of the conversation. They parted ways, and in the following days, Riggins started to seriously ponder a return.

"It wasn't hup to hup to for me at that point, because I didn't know exactly what I was going to do," the running back said. "But at the same basically from a financial standpoint, I looked and I really didn't plan that far down the road. I kinda think I gotta go back and play football."

So, Riggins gave Gibbs a call. He's ready to tell his future coach he's coming back. When Gibbs hears the news, he silently formulates a contingency plan if this potential egomaniac becomes a terror to coach.

"He goes, 'Hey Joe. I made up my mind. I'm coming back. I'm going to play next year,'" Gibbs said. "I went, 'Yes, perfect.' I get the guy back. I said, 'This is great.' I'm still thinking in my mind, 'Maybe it's something if he's hard to handle, I can trade him. You know, at least we got value here.'"

Riggins, however, was one step ahead.

"All of a sudden, he goes, 'The only thing I want put into my contract is a no-trade clause,'" Gibbs said with a laugh. "I'll always remember that."

Well, thank heavens for that. The two would be championship catalysts for the Burgundy & Gold. Only two seasons later, a legendary playoff performance from Riggins, including an unforgettable fourth-and-1 run in Super Bowl XVII, brought the first Lombardi trophy to Washington, D.C.