Bill Walsh

Good story in Sports Illustrated this week on Bill Walsh, the former 49ers coach and his bout with leukemia. It had a little special meaning for me.
Way back in 1986 I was at a clinic in Chicago at the O’Hare Hyatt. Bill Walsh was one of the guest speakers and of course the room was full. He did a nice job speaking on the West Coast Offense but a little too sophisticated for most of the high school coaches (especially the ones with huge bellies who wouldn’t know a dig route from a stalk block). He thanked the audience and with Dennis Green left the podium stating he had to catch a plane back.
About 20 minutes later, after trying to explain some of what he said to a couple other guys, I was going back to my room. In a corner of the lobby were Walsh and Green, pretty much hidden out of sight, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because the free beer for the coaches was on another floor. I just wanted to go over, introduce myself, thank him for his insight and leave him alone. I pumped up, walked over, introduced myself as a HS head coach down in the Peoria area and so forth. It turned out that his plane was delayed and rather than waiting at the airport they decided to wait at the hotel.
I started to walk away and Walsh said, “Coach, if you’ve got a couple minutes I could go into a little more detail on the offense because with the time I had we just scratched the surface”.
'No Coach, I have to go drink beer with a bunch of high school guys up on level 3 can you wait'? He looked at me, saw that I was being my usual sarcastic self and started to laugh. So there I was in the seat next to Dennis Green and Bill Walsh in the time it takes to say, 'mother may I'. I was there for exactly 46 minutes--I know it was 46 because I looked at my watch and timed it. When a concierge came to tell them their car was waiting we got up, shook hands and he complimented me on the quality of my questions and my overall comprehension. Now he could have been lying through his teeth but I don’t think so, not at all. So here is what I learned (other than football X’s and O’s) from Bill Walsh:

--NEVER overestimate your opponent--not underestimate but overestimate. His theory was that too many coaches worry about situations that will probably never happen instead of practicing their own stuff to make the opposition burn practice time in needless preparation. Boy, is that one true. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen defensive coaches change everything they are trying to do so that they can “cover” your formations and motion. My defensive guys would always worry about motion here and motion there and I would tell them, “What do they run from all these motions?” And they would say, "the same stuff they always run." So what are you worried about? And they would always give me the, “what if”. Screw the what if--nobody has that much time to do all that stuff. Consequently I learned to use lots of formations and motion but very few actual plays. Worked for me and for Walsh.
--Never stop tweaking what you do, especially when you are successful; keep finding ways to disguise and misdirect.
--Attitude and effort are more valuable than talent. He said, 'now when you have Jerry Rice you have both which is ideal', but always take effort and attitude over talent.
--Just because no one is doing it, don’t be afraid to try something innovative and new because from that you get your best ideas. He made the comparison to surgery and told me that almost every major surgical procedure has come from what was learned treating the wounded in war. Interesting.
--Treat your assistants with respect and dignity and always help them to be upwardly mobile if that’s what they want to do. This line is the main subject in the article. No one in football history has had a greater influence on the number of coaches now working in the NFL and college.

Hortense