Had it not been for Bill Walsh, Broncos safety John Lynch would have been a washed-up pitcher by now.
“There isn’t much doubt about it,” Lynch said, laughing at what could have been. “He’s the reason I’m here.”
Walsh, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame after coaching the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl titles in the 1980s and credited for perfecting the widely used West Coast offense, died Monday in Woodside, Calif., after a lengthy battle with leukemia. He was 75.
Walsh left an enormous legacy that stretched throughout the football landscape, including with the Broncos. Indirectly, Walsh had great influence on how Mike Shanahan operates the Broncos. Walsh resigned after winning his third Super Bowl in the 1988 season, and was succeeded by George Seifert, who later hired Shanahan to become his offensive coordinator for three highly successful seasons from 1992-94.
“Bill was the first guy to practice without pads,” said Shanahan, who went from San Francisco assistant to Broncos head coach in 1995. “He was the first guy to work on timing, speed, quickness, and we adopted a lot of that philosophy.”
All those Broncos who don’t have to slug it out in full pads for 2 1/2-hour practices, two practices a day during training camp can thank Bill Walsh.
“He brought so much to this game besides just his offensive genius,” Lynch said. “The way so many things run in this league are a direct result of how he did things. He brought things to a different level.”
Walsh also brought Lynch to the NFL. After his junior year at Stanford, Lynch was a quarterback converted to defensive back and an outfielder who also became a part-time reliever. The expansion Florida Marlins liked enough of what they saw of the hard-throwing Lynch as a pitcher to select him in the second round of the 1992 draft. Florida gave Lynch a choice of two bonuses – $400,000-plus if he concentrated solely on baseball, and $100,000 if he continued with football on the side.
Great system evolves
Lynch was set to dedicate his athletic career solely to pitching, but before his senior year in 1992, Stanford made Walsh the Cardinal head coach.
“After I talked to Bill Walsh, he wound up costing me more than $300,000,” Lynch said.
Let’s just say Walsh’s wisdom paid Lynch back astronomically. This is Lynch’s 15th NFL season, and he has already been to eight Pro Bowls. He’s drawing a $3 million salary this year alone.
While Lynch might well have made it to the majors (he had a 2.15 ERA in his only minor-league season), it’s unlikely his career would still be going.
Lynch is just one of perhaps thousands who were either directly or indirectly influenced by Walsh. Any player who has played in the modified West Coast system came under Walsh’s genius.
In theory, the West Coast offense passes first and runs second. The passing plays operate on precisely timed patterns, short quarterback drops and, therefore, passes are completed at a relatively high percentage.
“I took pieces of that offense and utilized it with our system,” Shanahan said.
Interviewed several times by The Denver Post the past two years, Walsh was extremely proud of Shanahan, at one point calling him the NFL’s best coach.
“Mike is one of the great coaches of our time, and he’s bound to have a lot of people move on over the years,” Walsh said after Shanahan’s longtime assistant Gary Kubiak became Houston’s head coach last year.
Shanahan has a way to go before he matches Walsh’s coaching tree. Walsh assistants who became NFL head coaches are Seifert, Mike Holmgren, Dennis Green, Sam Wyche, Ray Rhodes and Bruce Coslet. Extend Walsh’s influence to head coaches developed by his former assistants and that adds Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Brian Billick, Andy Reid, Pete Carroll, Steve Mariucci, Jeff Fisher and Kubiak.
It adds up to 10 Super Bowl championships, 15 Super Bowl appearances (including Walsh’s totals) and an NCAA Division I-A championship.
“One of his techniques was he never really yelled at players, but he would just tear up his assistant coaches,” Lynch said. “That was his way to get to the players. They all loved him, but he was just a stickler for getting things done.”
After his coaching career in San Francisco, Walsh became a football analyst for NBC.
Backs each player
Walsh’s love for players went beyond Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. He never finished an interview with The Denver Post in recent years without asking about Nate Jackson, a backup Broncos tight end.
Walsh had become a frequent visitor to Division III Menlo (Calif.) College games when he noticed Jackson’s body control as a receiver. Walsh recommended Jackson to the 49ers and later the Broncos.
“He never had to do all the stuff he did for me,” Jackson said. “He didn’t have to go to the Menlo games, he didn’t have to talk to the reporters about me, he didn’t have to get me on the 49ers, he didn’t have to talk to Mike Shanahan and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to take a look at this guy.’ None of that he had to do, but he did because he cared.”
Walsh’s son, Steve, died of leukemia in 2002 at the age of 46. A Denver resident and journalist, Steve was married to Kathleen Walsh, the spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office.
“The world knew Bill Walsh as a football coach, I knew him as the head of our family,” Kathleen Walsh said. “He was the person at the end of the dinner table who would say grace for the family and make sure we were all together.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson contributed to this report.
Passing of a legend
Bill Walsh’s football career, by the numbers:
102 – NFL victories as head coach (102-63-1).
10 – playoff games won (10-4 record in the playoffs) with six division titles.
2 – NFL coach of the year awards, in 1981 and 1984.
2-14 – The 49ers’ record in Walsh’s first season. They won the Super Bowl two years later.
3 – Super Bowl titles, in the 1981, 1984 and 1988 seasons.
1993 – The year he was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame.
Honoring one man’s genius
Reaction to the death Monday of NFL Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh:
“This is just a tremendous loss for all of us, especially to the Bay Area because of what he meant to the 49ers. For me personally, outside of my dad he was probably the most influential person in my life. I am going to miss him.”
Joe Montana, Hall of Fame quarterback
“I always said that he was an artist and all the rest of us were blacksmiths pounding the anvil, while he was painting the picture.”
Mike Holmgren, Seattle Seahawks head coach
“What really made Bill special is that he understood that the game was bigger than him. His genius was not centered around X’s and O’s; it was centered around his ability to create a platform that made the game inclusive to others. He will forever be cemented with the likes of George Halas, Paul Brown and Vince Lombardi as the best ever.”
Ronnie Lott, Hall of Fame defensive back who played for 49ers from 1981 to 1990
“He was one of the most creative people in the sport. He was one of those unusual people who could say, ‘Here’s a play, it’s going to work, and here’s what’s going to happen.”‘
Joe Gibbs, Washington Redskins coach
“He was an innovative guy who brought his philosophy to the NFL, and he integrated the right people into it and allowed it to flourish. He is one of the very few people who really helped make the NFL what it is today.”
Bill Parcells, former head coach
“The essence of Bill Walsh was that he was an extraordinary teacher. If you gave him a blackboard and a piece of chalk, he would become a whirlwind of wisdom. He taught all of us not only about football but also about life and how it takes teamwork for any of us to succeed as individuals.”
Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner
(THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
