I believe I’m on record as being a fan of Roger Goodell. If I’m not, then let the record now show that I’m a fan of Roger Goodell.
I know that I’m on record as not being a fan of Michael Vick. A few weeks ago, when Vick had been indicted on dog fighting charges, the talking heads of sports seemed in a tiff about why Goodell hadn’t come down on Vick like he did on Adam “Pacman” Jones. I snorted to myself “Goodell isn’t doing anything because for once, he doesn’t have to. The Feds are going to tieVick up pretty well in red tape and court appearances for the forseeable future, and in light of what is this? The fourth time Vick has been in trouble in the last 12 months? Goodell knew that Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank would do the right thing and sit Vick down while this gets sorted out. Plus if convicted, Vick would be too old to make a comeback, even if he got out in 5 years.”
And then Goodell and I both realized - crap! This is Arthur Blank. Like the absentee parent who can’t accept the idea that his child may actually be the bad apple in the bunch, Blank was going to have his franchise QB’s back. No matter what.
Not wanting to allow Blank’s bad decisions put more egg on the face of the NFL, Goodell told Vick to grab some pine.
You go, Judge Dredd.
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I was pretty surprised when I’d heard that Bill Walsh had died of Leukemia. When I’d heard the story about him being ill in late 2006, it had sounded like he had had some dark days, but that he’d turned a corner and was getting much better. It was even reported that he’d told Dick Enberg (a former broadcast partner with Walsh) that the cancer was in remission. There’s even an entry on a slightly creepy artist’s blog that seems to show he’d been conducting normal business up to just a few days before his passing.
Like me, he had the nickname “genius” (except that for me, I’m having to go around demanding people call me by that nickname, kind of like Kevin Federline with his “K-Fed”). But with Walsh, the nickname was certainly deserved, as about half of the NFL’s franchises owe their current direction directly or indirectly to the work of Bill Walsh.
You don’t need to go any further than Lambeau Field to find Walsh’s fingerprints.
There’s the obvious: Mike Holmgren, former Head Coach of the Packers, leading the Pack to two Superbowls and one Lombardi Trophy. There’s also Ray Rhodes (okay, not a great head coach, but he did pretty well when his role was a smaller one), and QB coach Andy Reid, who’s done well for himself in Philadelphia. And then in our division, there was Denny Green, Tony Dungy, Steve Mariucci, Marty Mornhinweg, Mike Tice and Rod Marinelli. All told, 29 current and former head coaches can trace their coaching lineage back to their daddy, Bill Walsh.
I’ve heard that Walsh needed a small dump truck to carry around his ego. While that may be true, if you’re smarter than everyone else and you know it, how’s that wrong? I tell people I’m smarter than them all the time. I mean, I regularly beat the neighbor’s 4 yr old at checkers. And I make sure she knows it.
And an excellent evaluator of talent? There were none better than Walsh. Just today I was listening to 107.5 fm The Fan, and I believe it was Schmoopy who’d said something about how if you’re relying on your third string quarterback, you’re in trouble. Then I remembered when Joe Montana was playing for the Niners and got hurt. Steve Young stepped in and did pretty darn well, until he was hurt either in the same game or a game or two later. What now? Oh yeah, we have this third-stringer, Steve Bono. The Niner machine kept rolling on like the Patriots of today, never missing a beat. I can count on one hand the number of teams that could ever have had 3 legitimate starters at QB (The Packers being one; Favre, Brunelle, Pederson, Detmer…).
I wish the Walsh family and the Walsh football family my condolences. He’s had an important impact, either directly or indirectly, on hundreds if not thousands of football lives. And without him, we may not have had Holmgren in Green Bay, and not enjoyed the nearly decade-long run of Superbowl-caliber play.
Technorati Tags: Bill Walsh, Leukemia, Head Coach, San Francisco 49ers, Thanks for the Memories
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