Letters to the Editor
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Belichick worked for Walsh?
I thought Belichick was a Parcells protege, and he doesn't appear on that coaching tree at all, let alone on the top row. Did he used to hold the clipboard for him as a kid or something?
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Welcome back to Baghdad (by the bay).
I think King meant to write 'Brian Billick' instead of 'Bill Belichick'. For his part, Belichick told The Boston Globe, "One of the greatest challenges of my career was coaching defense against Bill Walsh." I believe him.
I've noticed lately that the sun has been shining a little brighter and air has seemed a little fresher in the Bay Area. I said to a friend (a Stanford alum), "I think King Kaufman is back from St. Louis." He said, "Who's King Kaufman?" July would have been much more entertaining if you'd have moved in May. Welcome home!
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It's really late, or really early in the morning.
To you grammar trolls, yes, I meant to write 'the air.'
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Brian Billick, not Bill Belichick
King Kaufman mixed up Brian Billick with Bill Belichick, which makes this column slightly amusing because while Brian Billick has won a SB, he only wore the mantle of genius briefly and is not in the same class as either Walsh or Belichick. Here's to Walsh and all his contributions to the game and to his family in dealing with their loss.
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A Leader
Bill Walsh should not be burdened with the term “Genius”. It is a demeaning term when related to football, primarily used by those who do not understand the football culture. Coach Walsh was an excellent leader of men. For him, this involved choosing which men to lead and the how best they should be utilized. He was perhaps, above all, a great communicator, who had a vision and convinced a community to share that vision.
Given all that, I, like King K., could not stand the team. But I never underestimated their shared drive and effort to win, which is what football is about.
Coach Walsh is surely a person who will be missed. He is an example of how a person’s will, hard work, and foresight can bring people together, while always acknowledging it’s just a game.
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Bill Walsh Was the Architect of Some of the Most Transcendent Moments of My Youth
I went to San Francisco State University in the 80s, and was (and remain) a rabid 'Niners fan. I will never forget "The Drive", and John Taylor's catch, and walking out into the neighborhood around UCSF (where I watched the game with friends), hearing people honking and crying out and blowing on horns. A whole city galvanized in an instant. My God, it was so sweet to be young.
And now Walsh is gone, and I'm middle-aged. I have never felt my age more acutely than today. May he rest in peace.
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How Many Coaches Would Be Geniuses
With Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, Roger Craig, Jerry Rice, and John Taylor?
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Plus
Those 49er champions had great defenses that went pretty much anonymous and unheralded.
My guess is the primary architect of that was someone other than Walsh.
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What great coaches do
I'm glad Kaufman made the very important point about what separates great coaches from average ones. Great coaches take the time to evaluate their talent, and build their system around using that talent properly. Average coaches build a system and then try to force their players into that system, whether they have the proper talent for it or not.
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Walsh
With the Billick/Belichick stuff out of the way (nice touch linking to something that refutes the statement its in), on to Wesley_Powell. Did you bother to read the post? Walsh took a weak armed cast off and turned him into a passing machine. He won his first Super Bowl without Rice. I couldn't stand the 49ers, and I didn't like his system, but there is no denying he was a great coach. He'd fit his system to his players and then draft to fit the needs of his team. He saw how LT changed before many others.
Oh, and the 2 super bowl winning coordinator of that defense went on to fame and glory as the head coach of the Carolina Panthers. George Seifert once had the highest winning percentage of any coach, until he decided to show he was more than the caretaker of Walsh's team. Then he proceeded to prove he was in fact the caretaker.
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Walsh the Genius
Wesley,
If you want to dispute Walsh the coach's bonafides that is one thing. But Walsh the GM drafted all of those guys in the 2nd round or later except for Rice, and Rice was the 16th pick in the 1st round and the 3rd WR taken.
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Walsh's True Genius
I never rooted for Walsh's 49'er teams (unless the were playing Sam Wyche's Bengals) but I have to give credit where credit is due. I think that Walsh's greatest "genius" was his adaptability. As King's story points out from his days as an assistant coach for the Bengals, Walsh was able to tailor a scheme for the players he had. The ability for a coach to put his players in a position to succeed is key to the overall success of the team. Walsh was never one to put a square peg in a round hole. He also had a keen eye for talent as Mike from Metuchen pointed out. He drafted all of those guys Wesley, he didn't inherit them. He did inherit a 2-14 team that won a Super Bowl two years later. And, I would note, after Jerry Rice came on the scene, the Niners did manage to throw the ball down field. Walsh adpated to take advantage of his guys. Too many NFL coaches to this day try to impose a system regardless of their roster. They should learn from a guy like Walsh. Walsh changed the game. There aren't many who could say that.
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Not just the offense
Wesley_Powell is right, the 49ers defense was often unheralded. But he's wrong to say that's a knock against Wash. Go back and look who drafted those guys. That first Super Bowl team had three rookies on defense -- all in the secondary, all chosen by Walsh.
But when you have an offense that is so head and shoulders above the rest for so long, I think it's natural that the defense gets overlooked.
Walsh was a great coach and made many of my Sundays growing up much more enjoyable than the probably would have been without him.