David Harris (2) (1946–2023)

It took me a while to get around to this book. And though I have read more than a few sports related I was a bit apprehensive as they can tend to get bogged down in the details of the games. This book offered more of the same but there were some good insights into what Bill Walsh the man was all about also.

I had moved to the Bay Area in 1980 just as Bill had gotten settled into the role of budding genius. It did not look that way from early on. It was truly a magical time to be part of the spirit surrounding the achievements of these 49er teams however.

I was hoping for more on the insights to the character of the man and in some respects got them. Really a tortured soul Coach Walsh was as his many disappointments on the way to ultimate success were relentless. Turning him gradually into a very thin skinned person particularly when it came to dealing with the press and his persecution complex. Eddie D. comes across and a major tormenter or Bill also like a spoiled little boy given the reins of a NFL franchise by daddy. Later he is forced to give up ownership due to his shading dealings involving bribery and gambling concession in New Orleans. He retreats from the scene a billionaire.

I had not been aware of his ongoing live in affair with a female sports reporter that prompted him to leave his wife for some time only to return before his untimely illness of cancer that led to his demise.

A reasonably good portrait of a man that did so much for the game of our true national pastime NFL football and the personal price he paid of his own doing.… (meer)

The title of the book implies that this is a feel-good happy story of Bill Walsh and the 49ers -- but that's almost exactly what this book is NOT. The book doesn't focus on X's and O's of football plays (probably want to see the appendix of Walsh's "Building a Champion" for a few), the technical aspects of coaching (see Walsh's "Finding the Winning Edge"), or even a game-by-game recount of the 49ers games (though this book does come close on this last mark).This book brings out the darker side of Bill Walsh -- the debilitating anxiety Bill Walsh suffered as a coach, the torment of losing games, the inter-personal relationship challenges with Eddie DeBartolo / Paul Brown / Ronnie Lott and others he eventually pushed to retirement outside of the niners / assistant coaches / local press.Having grown up as a wide-eyed kid on the sidelines of early 1980s training camps, I never paid much attention to any of that kind of stuff -- so reading about it now from an outside perspective (rather than rationalized or sugar-coated in autobiographies) is actually kind of a surprise. Who knew?… (meer)