Craig Peters

After a decade and more than 100 NFL games Joe Webb is back near where his dream began.

Webb has returned to the Ensley community of Birmingham, Alabama, and has completed one season as the head coach at Jackson-Olin High School.

The 2010 sixth-round pick of the Vikings is well-positioned to pass along football knowledge, but his delivery style built on his authentic care for young people is the most important part.

When Webb took the job, only three players were attending football workouts. But students quickly learned about "The Joe Webb Energy," an infectiously uplifting and seemingly endless positivity that provided a magnetic attraction. More than 60 students wound up coming out for football.

The effort resulted in a 1-9 record, but the experience provided growth opportunities impactful moments that sprung forward within the youth from Webb's belief in them.

"The Joe Webb Energy" is chronicled in a video feature that debuted on Vikings.com and the team's YouTube channel on Wednesday. The feature film takes viewers to practices and Webb's first game on the Mustangs sidelines, illustrating the meaningful connections the former quarterback and receiver is developing.

"I wanted to make a difference in my community. I wanted to be the guy to help change it not just the football program but in general, just to have some kind of positive light in the community," Webb explained.

"The area our kids come from is very poor. Buildings are burned down, a lot of them are abandoned. When you drive through, you say, 'This is a tough place to be, a tough place to live,' " Webb added. "A lot of these kids, their situations at home, they're pretty much the adult. This is at 14, 15, 16 years old, and they're having to live that 24, 25, 26 life."

The documentary includes interviews with Webb's high school coach Henry Pope, Jackson-Olin running backs coach Josh Stillings, former Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway and others to help tell the story of Webb's impact.

"The kids here will respond to you, but you can't be fake with them," Stillings said. "If you're fake, they're going to see through that.

"In this area, that's what they needed. They needed a Joe Webb," Stillings added.

Greenway tells viewers how much Vikings teammates loved Webb.

"You walk into an NFL locker room, there are these personalities that just draw people to them and an energy and enthusiasm about them that you can't make up, you can't fake, and that's Joe," said Greenway before recalling Webb leading the Vikings to an upset of the Eagles.

The Dec. 28, 2010, contest was played on a Tuesday night because of weather delays in Philadelphia. It was Webb's first of two starts in place of Brett Favre, whose streak of consecutive starts ended.

"I always think about that game in Philly. We're a double-digit underdog, bad weather, we're on the road, that's a lot stacked against you," Greenway said.

But Webb completed 17 of 26 passes for 195 yards and rushed six times for 31 more, highlighting the effort with an elusive 9-yard touchdown run in the third quarter of a 24-14 Vikings victory.

"My pipes don't bust under pressure. I'd rather be in a pressure situation than a confidence situation," Webb said when asked about the game.

"For him to play well on the road, tough environment, get the dub but just then to see the team on the sidelines so fired up for him specifically, very few teammates over my 11-year career had the pull that Joe did in that way to where everybody wanted him to have that success. Yeah, for the team, but for him," Greenway said. "When you look back at Joe's career, it's hard for a guy who can maybe not have one standard position but make it for a long time. Those guys are kind of one-and-done. His ability to withstand and stay is hard to do but more importantly talks about him as a person and a man, so to me, when you live in this world of egos and a lot of selfishness, he's the opposite of that. He's the antithesis.

"He's the guy that like, 'What do you need?' because I'll try and help any way I can, and that to me is why a guy like him lasts so long because he's willing to say, 'Yeah, Coach, whatever you need, I've got you,' " Greenway added.

Webb played quarterback and receiver, staying with Minnesota through 2013 before joining Carolina for a three-season run that included playing in Super Bowl 50. He also appeared in 16 games for Buffalo in 2017 and 16 for Houston in 2018. In 2020, Webb played two games for the New York Giants to close his career.

After playing football for so long, Webb began searching for the next challenge. He tried boxing for a bit and now has landed in the spot where he can deliver his biggest impact.

"It's my job to change the way they look at coaches by me coming in and letting them know I am here and I am committed," Webb said. "I'm committed to change this program, and I'm not going anywhere until it happens.

"I want them to feel the love when they leave, so if they don't have love at home, they know they can come back to have love at football," he added. "I don't think I've heard 'Coach' so much in my life, so it's very exciting to be that person who they can call and lean on in tough times. Wins and losses are just two columns but where is your column for life?

Pope described the drive to achieve that Webb showed during his high school years, a passion that resulted in achieving dreams. He envisions that passion opening pathways for others.

"We want to bring kids back to Birmingham," Pope said. "We want parents who want to stay in Birmingham, so imagine you have a coach like Joe Webb, a coach these kids can believe in, who they've seen do it, who they know can do it, and if you ever get in a room with him, I keep saying it, you'll believe you can do it, too. All of a sudden, the great things that can happen at Jackson-Olin? Limitless."