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bill walsh battling lukemia


Bier Meister
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:D

 

 

my thoughts to him and his family. just amazing to watch his teams and see his influence on the game and league.

 

 

 

edit: looked for other threads, but didn't find any.

Edited by Bier Meister
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:D

my thoughts to him and his family. just amazing to watch his teams and see his influence on the game and league.

edit: looked for other threads, but didn't find any.

 

 

 

There were some, but are probably 2 weeks old.

 

I din't know he lost his son to the disease too. From a few weeks ago-

 

"I'm positive, but not evangelistic," the 74-year-old Walsh told former San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist turned Web blogger Ira Miller. "I'm pragmatically doing everything my physicians recommend, and I'm working my way through it."

 

Walsh said the cancer first was diagnosed in 2004, but indicated that he feels better since a series of blood transfusions in the past month.

 

"The worst phase was three or four weeks ago. I've come back dramatically since, and I'm better," he said.

 

Walsh lost his eldest child, Steve, to leukemia at age 46 in May 2002. Steve Walsh was an ABC News reporter who covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Columbine High School massacre and other major stories

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Bill Walsh on his most famous creation....

 

Blame the conceptual germ of the West Coast offense, however, on the dire need of Walsh to overhaul a Bengals offense that sorely required makeover when quarterback Greg Cook suffered what amounted to a career-ending arm injury in 1969.

Under the marvelously gifted Cook, who might long ago have been inducted into the Hall of Fame had his promising career not been cut tragically short, the Bengals were the consummate upfield team. Remember, Walsh had been on the Oakland Raiders staff with Al Davis and bought heavily into the ideal of the vertical passing game.

Cook averaged a gaudy 17.5 yards per completion in 1969. Bengals tight ends Bob Trumpy and Chip Myers averaged more than 20 yards per catch. Even a modestly talented wide receiver like Eric Crabtree averaged 21.4 yards in the bombs away attack that Walsh stewarded. Then came the injury to Cook and the end of verticality in the Cincinnati offense.

Forced to retool for Carter, who lacked Cook's superior arm strength, Walsh went horizontal. Three decades later, the West Coast offense has gone a bit ecumenical, with the glitzy name now a catch-all for any passing attack that is based on timing, multiple looks, variable formations and excruciatingly precise route adjustments by the receivers.

The initial Walsh concept was for a standard pro-set offense -- two backs in split alignment, two wide receivers and a tight end -- designed to get the ball quickly from the quarterback to the skill-position players. The idea was to release all five of the eligible receivers at the same time, relying on three- and five-step drops by the quarterback to compensate for most blocking breakdowns, and to throw the ball crisply and on the break.

 

Perhaps the most revolutionary twists: Despite being groomed by Davis in a vertical passing game, Walsh decided to stretch secondaries horizontally as well, forcing slower linebackers and safeties into coverages. He believed in throwing on any down, with the simple four-yard pass replacing many of the rushing plays, and he understood that if bigger receivers were able to break just one tackle, one of those four-yard passes could become a 20-yard gain.

Precision timing, with receivers running hard into and out of their cuts, was a key. From multiple formations, there were myriad possibilities, multiplied even more by motioning players before the snap.

"Those things were kind of the linchpins," Walsh said. "We demanded that everyone be a good receiver and that everyone have great discipline. I think those are still the foundations of the offense."

 

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