Hall of Fame NFL Coach passes away at 75
Even though I am not a 49ers fan (I am, in fact, a fan of a rival team), I still think this is a sad day for the NFL at large.
On Monday, Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh, famous for coaching the 49ers to three Super Bowl titles, passed away at the age of 75. He had been battling leukemia for the last three years.
If one were to ask me right now what his greatest contribution to the game was, I would easily say the West Coast Offense.
I also like what he's done in terms of building the team, especially through the draft. For instance, he got a steal out of Joe Montana, used his first three picks in the 1981 draft to majorly upgrade the 49ers secondary (the first of which ended up being Ronnie Lott), successfully traded with "the Yucks" to grab Tampa Bay bust and future Hall of Famer Steve Young (which started what was, in my opinion, the greatest quarterback controversy of all time), and traded up with the Patriots to grab Jerry Rice (the only other team even interested in drafting him was the Dallas Cowboys).
Walsh also has one of the most extensive coaching trees in NFL history. I will go down the list of his coaching tree, whether they were his own assistant coaches, or assistant coaches of his assistant coaches, and so forth.
The Bill Walsh coaching tree (active NFL head coaches in italics):
Mike Holmgren
-Mike Sherman
-Andy Reid
--Brad Childress
-Ray Rhodes
-Steve Mariucci
--Marty Mornhinweg
Jim Fassel
-John Fox
Paul Hackett
-Mike McCarthy
-Jon Gruden
--Bill Callahan
Sam Wyche
-Bruce Coslet
-Mike Mularkey
George Seifert
-Mike Shanahan
--Gary Kubiak
-Jeff Fisher
Dennis Green
-Brian Billick
--Jack Del Rio
-Mike Tice
--Scott Linehan
-Tony Dungy
--Lovie Smith
--Mike Tomlin
--Rod Marinelli
