Bill Walsh, RIP

So Bill Walsh, who surely will always be remembered as the cerebral, successful coach of the San Francisco 49ers, has died at the age of 75. When i think of him, I think of the crispness and efficiency with which his championship teams played. Walsh of course developed the "West Coast" offense; but what really made him great was that he found the perfect players and talents suited to run it, and run it almost perfectly, with Montana, Dwight Clark, Jerry Rice, etc etc. But people forget--he was a great motivator and psychologist, too. I'll always remember that, when his 49er team arrived in Detroit for Super Bowl XVI against Cincinnati in January 1982, Walsh surprised his team by dressing up as a hotel bellhop, and taking his team's luggage. He knew his team might be tight, in its first Super Bowl. His little joke, one had the sense, relaxed them; and when the big day came, they played their game and beat the Bengals. Walsh was a great coach, and influenced a lot of people in the NFL. He'll be missed.