Joseph Erwin Jacoby (born July 6, 1959) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict in ...

. He played for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL), where he won three

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the gam ...

s during his tenure with the team.

College career

Jacoby started off as an offensive tackle for the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one ...

from 1978 to 1980. He was a three-year letterman, and the team co-captain in his senior season. Jacoby was inducted into Louisville's Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004. Still, the team achieved limited success with Jacoby, posting a 16-16 overall record in his three seasons, with only one season with a winning record and no Bowl game appearances.

Professional career

After college, Jacoby went undrafted. He signed a free agent contract with the Washington Redskins in 1981, where he embarked on an enviable career—four

appearances, of which his team won three (

XVII 17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. It is a prime number. Seventeen is the sum of the first four prime numbers. In mathematics 17 is the seventh prime number, which makes seventeen the fourth super-prime, as s ...

in 1983,

XXII 22 (twenty-two) is the natural number following 21 and preceding 23. In mathematics 22 is a palindromic number and the eighth semiprime; its proper divisors are 1, 2, and 11. It is the second Smith number, the second Erdős–Woods numbe ...

in 1988, and XXVI in 1992), plus four consecutive

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

selections from 1983 to 1986. Along with

Jeff Bostic Jeffrey Lynn Bostic (born September 18, 1958) is a former American football center who played for the Washington Redskins in the National Football League (NFL). College career A 1980 graduate of Clemson University, Bostic was named All-ACC in 1 ...

Mark May Mark Eric May (born November 2, 1959) is a former American college and professional football player who was a guard in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. May played college football for the University ...

George Starke George Lawrence Starke (born July 18, 1948) is a former American football offensive tackle who played for the Washington Redskins in the National Football League (NFL) from 1972-84. After graduating from Columbia College, Starke was drafted by ...

and

Russ Grimm Russell Scott Grimm (born May 2, 1959) is an American former professional football player who was a guard for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL). He has also served as an assistant coach for the Redskins, Pittsburgh St ...

, Jacoby was a founding member of the Redskins' renowned " Hogs" offensive line of the 1980s and early 1990s (deemed one of the best front fives of NFL history), which was a mainstay of the Redskins' glory years during the first

Joe Gibbs Joe Jackson Gibbs (born November 25, 1940) is an American auto racing team owner and former professional football coach. In football, he was head coach for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) from 1981 to 1992, and ...

era. Jacoby was the lead blocker on

John Riggins Robert John Riggins (born August 4, 1949), nicknamed "Riggo" and "Diesel", is an American former professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Jets and Washington Redskins. He played col ...

' famous touchdown run which ensured the Redskins'

Super Bowl XVII Super Bowl XVII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Miami Dolphins and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Washington Redskins to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

win over the Dolphins in 1983. In that game, the Redskins set a Super Bowl record for most rushing yards with 276. The Hogs helped the Redskins break that record five years later in

Super Bowl XXII Super Bowl XXII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Washington Redskins and American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

, in which Washington trampled over the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

with 280 rushing yards en route to the second of the Redskins' three championships.

Personal

One year after the Redskins' third Super Bowl victory in 1992, Jacoby retired, after which he became the owner of an auto dealership in

Warrenton, Virginia Warrenton is a town in Fauquier County, Virginia, of which it is the seat of government. The population was 9,611 at the 2010 census, up from 6,670 at the 2000 census. The estimated population in 2019 was 10,027. It is at the junction of U.S. R ...

. Jacoby became an assistant football coach at

Shenandoah University Shenandoah University is a private university in Winchester, Virginia. It has an enrollment of approximately 4,000 students across more than 200 areas of study in six schools: College of Arts & Sciences (including the Division of Education and ...

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the most north western independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester wit ...

. He began as a part-time volunteer in 2008 and was hired as a full-time employee in 2009. In 2014, Jacoby was hired as the offensive line coach for

Concordia University Chicago Concordia University Chicago is a private university in River Forest, Illinois. Formerly a college exclusively for parochial teacher education, Concordia-Chicago now offers more than 100 undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and enrolls more t ...

. Jacoby has a wife, Irene, and two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacoby, Joe 1959 births Living people American football offensive tackles Concordia Cougars football coaches Louisville Cardinals football players Shenandoah Hornets football coaches Washington Redskins players National Conference Pro Bowl players Players of American football from Louisville, Kentucky Sportspeople from Louisville, Kentucky Western High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni Ed Block Courage Award recipients