Bill Walsh

[Orton's Arm]

A few months ago, ESPN the magazine came out with an article about Bill Walsh. Below are a few quotes.

 

**************

The most influential head coach of the past 30 years hated his legacy. He hated it from the moment he retired at the age of 57. . . . That 1988 season had been the most wrenching of his career, because the 49ers were not a great team. They were a 10-6 team that happened to win it all, and the grind swallowed Walsh to the point that he was,, as his son says, "like a zombie." So he secretly decided to retire during the season, and in the whooping and wet locker room after the Super Bowl, Walsh wept alone, head in his hands. He wasn't happy. He was relieved. It was over. . . .

 

Pat McDermott has a dream: he wants to coach in the NFL. He is 26 years old, with bulky shoulders, a round face and an eagerness in his blue eyes that shines in the ravenously ambitious. . . . He is in his first job, coaching running backs at the Episcopal Academy in Newton Square, PA. . . . McDermott pulled up [bill Walsh's book] The Winning Edge and skimmed the reader reviews. "Walsh goes through football from A to Z. Everything, and I mean everything that you would ever want to know about football . . . Walsh fleshes out ALL o the details of all of his philosophies on how to run a football organization from management to players. . . . This book is [an] NFL Head Coach's blueprint, bible, and handbook." . . . Last August, interning for the Eagles again, McDermott dived into it, unaware that he had bought a manual for ruining his life. . . .

 

[Walsh's] colleagues recalled him as the most intelligent coach they'd ever seen, which Walsh not so discreetly agreed with. But he could be sensitive to the point of devastation, crushed by failures large and small. It began in high school, when his coach moved him from quarterback to running back. It continued when he wrote his master's thesis at San Jose State and the 192 pages on the evolution of the passing game in football was panned by professors. The only reason he graduated, according to biographer David Harris, was that his paper included only one footnote; he had done most of the original research himself. . . . In 1971 he took over [the Bengals'] offense, which had been limited by a weak offensive line. . . . Walsh devised a system of short, quick passes designed to pick up small chunks of yardage, the West Coast offense in its infancy. Over the next few years, as Walsh turned Ken Anderson into one of the league's most accurate passers, the system worked so well that Walsh began to think he could do something no coach had ever done: conquer the game itself. His offense became so precise that it couldn't be stopped when executed perfectly, so Walsh became obsessed with always executing perfectly. "It would grind on him," says longtime friend Dick Vermeil. "He was so perceptive and detailed and emotional, and he put so much of himself into a game plan, that he took it personally if it didn't work." . . .

 

By the late '80s, as Walsh's definition of success became so narrow as to be unattainable, the Walsh Way started to cripple the coach. He would sit dazed in his hot tub even after wins, despondent that he had miscalculated a play or two. . . .

 

Game day. McDermott wears a headset and sits in the coaches' box. . . . His copy of Finding the Winning Edge is at home, yet its blessings and curses hover. At halftime Episcopal Academy leads 35-0. But Walsh wouldn't be pleased, and McDermott and Fairlie aren't. . . .

 

The final score is 42-7. After the game, the coaches stand at midfield, waiting to address the players. Nobody is happy. . . .

 

Two hours after the game, the coaches sit at a bar, downing beers and wings. Any of half a dozen other patrons would assume that these coaches are there after a loss. In a way, they are. As one round of drinks becomes two and soon three, the coaches dwell on mistakes but not successes, what each player can improve on but not what he did well, as if they're trying to out-angst each other. . . .

 

Walsh mailed signed copies [of his book] to his friends and traveled around the country to discuss it with coaches and owners. But Walsh being Walsh, he couldn't bring himself to actually read it. He hated the book the way he hated his legacy--it wasn't perfect.

**************

Edited May 8, 2013 by Edwards' Arm

[Malazan]

Sounds like an interesting read. Nice to know the magazine still has some good content.

[bbb]

A few months ago, ESPN the magazine came out

 

Man, everybody is coming out these days!

[Buffalo Barbarian]

Man that's nuts, learn from your mistakes and move on, life's short enjoy it.

[eball]

Bill Walsh certainly wasn't perfect; he thought Trent Edwards would be a good NFL QB.

[KeisterHollow]

Bill Walsh certainly wasn't perfect; he thought Trent Edwards would be a good NFL QB.

 

And who knows - perhaps Edwards would've been the second coming of Montana had he been drafted into a Walsh run team?

[l< j]

Did you put Cleveland Browns in there or did the magazine? Should be the Bengals. If it was you no big deal. I just hope it wasn't the magazine.

[BuffaloBill]

Man that's nuts, learn from your mistakes and move on, life's short enjoy it.

 

Some people sadly are just wired differently. No matter how successful we would deem themselves to be they see their own shortcomings. I don't know if this is a biological condition or one of upbringing perhaps it is both.

 

To your point though life is short and sometimes it is too easy to miss the joy in it.

[4merper4mer]

And who knows - perhaps Edwards would've been the second coming of Montana had he been drafted into a Walsh run team?

 

And if my aunt had.....oh never mind.

 

Walsh was also a notorious practical joker and he went back years with Marv. Glove Wearing Mary was his coup de grace practical joke on Marv. It would have been funny if it was any other team.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

I don't understand how a guy like this could be successful. most coaches who aren't even keeled through the ups and downs flame out.

[K-9]

I don't understand how a guy like this could be successful. most coaches who aren't even keeled through the ups and downs flame out.

 

Walsh was very even-kieled. As someone noted upthread, he was notorious practical joker. He was, like most coaches, extremely driven and he surrounded himself with very good assistant coaches as well. And he also learned at the knee of two of the best in Paul Brown and Sid Luckman.

 

But even the best coaches burn out. It happens. Sometimes more than once. Walsh simply burned out.

 

I wish the author was a meticulous in his detail as Walsh, though. Confusing Cleveland with Cincinnati is no small error in the context of Walsh's great career.

 

GO BILLS!!!

[Orton's Arm]

Did you put Cleveland Browns in there or did the magazine? Should be the Bengals. If it was you no big deal. I just hope it wasn't the magazine.

 

The error was mine, not theirs. Thanks for the heads-up. I've now edited/fixed it.

[l< j]

The error was mine, not theirs. Thanks for the heads-up. I've now edited/fixed it.

 

I hope I was clear: it's a small thing for you to mix them up. I was just curious if the magazine did that.

 

Good story.

[Orton's Arm]

Walsh was very even-kieled. As someone noted upthread, he was notorious practical joker. He was, like most coaches, extremely driven and he surrounded himself with very good assistant coaches as well. And he also learned at the knee of two of the best in Paul Brown and Sid Luckman.

 

But even the best coaches burn out. It happens. Sometimes more than once. Walsh simply burned out.

 

I wish the author was a meticulous in his detail as Walsh, though. Confusing Cleveland with Cincinnati is no small error in the context of Walsh's great career.

 

GO BILLS!!!

Good post.

 

According to the article, Walsh was even-keeled and debonair when interacting with others. His private misery was something he kept carefully hidden.

[boyst]

I wish I was still a coach.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

Walsh was very even-keeled. As someone noted upthread, he was notorious practical joker. He was, like most coaches, extremely driven and he surrounded himself with very good assistant coaches as well. And he also learned at the knee of two of the best in Paul Brown and Sid Luckman.

 

But even the best coaches burn out. It happens. Sometimes more than once. Walsh simply burned out.

GO BILLS!!!

 

You meant to say Sid Gillman.

 

 

Good post.

 

According to the article, Walsh was even-keeled and debonair when interacting with others. His private misery was something he kept carefully hidden.

 

Yeah I agree with JR that it's amazing that he was able to function publicly and not let his neurosis defeat his success.

 

What an extraordinary person.

 

In recent years I've met a few high achievers who go through life effortlessly which is completely amazing to me. During the times in my life where I've achieved near my potential I'm usually accompanied by stress and hardship. I think most people are that way so it's amazing to meet people who can achieve great things without the accompanying costs.

[K-9]

You meant to say Sid Gillman.

 

 

I did indeed. Confusing Gillman with Luckman is even worse than confusing Cincinnati with Cleveland in the context of Walsh's career.

 

Man, just when my journalism career was beginning to take off, too.

 

GO BILLS!!!

[bbb]

You meant to say Sid Gillman.

 

 

 

 

Yeah I agree with JR that it's amazing that he was able to function publicly and not let his neurosis defeat his success.

 

What an extraordinary person.

 

In recent years I've met a few high achievers who go through life effortlessly which is completely amazing to me. During the times in my life where I've achieved near my potential I'm usually accompanied by stress and hardship. I think most people are that way so it's amazing to meet people who can achieve great things without the accompanying costs.

 

I know. I'm the same way as you - I hate those other people!

[26CornerBlitz]

A few months ago, ESPN the magazine came out with an article about Bill Walsh. Below are a few quotes.

 

**************

The most influential head coach of the past 30 years hated his legacy. He hated it from the moment he retired at the age of 57. . . . That 1988 season had been the most wrenching of his career, because the 49ers were not a great team. They were a 10-6 team that happened to win it all, and the grind swallowed Walsh to the point that he was,, as his son says, "like a zombie." So he secretly decided to retire during the season, and in the whooping and wet locker room after the Super Bowl, Walsh wept alone, head in his hands. He wasn't happy. He was relieved. It was over. . . .

 

Pat McDermott has a dream: he wants to coach in the NFL. He is 26 years old, with bulky shoulders, a round face and an eagerness in his blue eyes that shines in the ravenously ambitious. . . . He is in his first job, coaching running backs at the Episcopal Academy in Newton Square, PA. . . . McDermott pulled up [bill Walsh's book] The Winning Edge and skimmed the reader reviews. "Walsh goes through football from A to Z. Everything, and I mean everything that you would ever want to know about football . . . Walsh fleshes out ALL o the details of all of his philosophies on how to run a football organization from management to players. . . . This book is [an] NFL Head Coach's blueprint, bible, and handbook." . . . Last August, interning for the Eagles again, McDermott dived into it, unaware that he had bought a manual for ruining his life. . . .

 

[Walsh's] colleagues recalled him as the most intelligent coach they'd ever seen, which Walsh not so discreetly agreed with. But he could be sensitive to the point of devastation, crushed by failures large and small. It began in high school, when his coach moved him from quarterback to running back. It continued when he wrote his master's thesis at San Jose State and the 192 pages on the evolution of the passing game in football was panned by professors. The only reason he graduated, according to biographer David Harris, was that his paper included only one footnote; he had done most of the original research himself. . . . In 1971 he took over [the Bengals'] offense, which had been limited by a weak offensive line. . . . Walsh devised a system of short, quick passes designed to pick up small chunks of yardage, the West Coast offense in its infancy. Over the next few years, as Walsh turned Ken Anderson into one of the league's most accurate passers, the system worked so well that Walsh began to think he could do something no coach had ever done: conquer the game itself. His offense became so precise that it couldn't be stopped when executed perfectly, so Walsh became obsessed with always executing perfectly. "It would grind on him," says longtime friend Dick Vermeil. "He was so perceptive and detailed and emotional, and he put so much of himself into a game plan, that he took it personally if it didn't work." . . .

 

By the late '80s, as Walsh's definition of success became so narrow as to be unattainable, the Walsh Way started to cripple the coach. He would sit dazed in his hot tub even after wins, despondent that he had miscalculated a play or two. . . .

 

Game day. McDermott wears a headset and sits in the coaches' box. . . . His copy of Finding the Winning Edge is at home, yet its blessings and curses hover. At halftime Episcopal Academy leads 35-0. But Walsh wouldn't be pleased, and McDermott and Fairlie aren't. . . .

 

The final score is 42-7. After the game, the coaches stand at midfield, waiting to address the players. Nobody is happy. . . .

 

Two hours after the game, the coaches sit at a bar, downing beers and wings. Any of half a dozen other patrons would assume that these coaches are there after a loss. In a way, they are. As one round of drinks becomes two and soon three, the coaches dwell on mistakes but not successes, what each player can improve on but not what he did well, as if they're trying to out-angst each other. . . .

 

Walsh mailed signed copies [of his book] to his friends and traveled around the country to discuss it with coaches and owners. But Walsh being Walsh, he couldn't bring himself to actually read it. He hated the book the way he hated his legacy--it wasn't perfect.

**************

 

Genius is often both a blessing and a curse. R.I.P. Mr. Bill Walsh.

[Orton's Arm]

You meant to say Sid Gillman.

 

 

 

 

Yeah I agree with JR that it's amazing that he was able to function publicly and not let his neurosis defeat his success.

 

What an extraordinary person.

 

In recent years I've met a few high achievers who go through life effortlessly which is completely amazing to me. During the times in my life where I've achieved near my potential I'm usually accompanied by stress and hardship. I think most people are that way so it's amazing to meet people who can achieve great things without the accompanying costs.

 

> In recent years I've met a few high achievers who go through life effortlessly which is completely amazing to me.

 

Agreed. I think such effortless achievement requires a different mindset. Unfortunately, it's easy to say, "I need a new mindset," and very difficult to go about attaining one!