Pro Football : Walsh Give the Fans Their Quarter’s Worth

Of the many things it takes to win a National Football League championship, one of the most important is superior coaching.

That seemed as obvious this winter as it has for most of the 1980s, in which two teams have won 5 of the last 8 Super Bowls.

They are the San Francisco 49ers, coached by Bill Walsh, and the Washington Redskins, coached by Joe Gibbs.

Although no champion has been able to win in successive years in a decade of parity, the 49ers and Redskins have both made the Super Bowl 3 times since 1981.

No other team in that spell has been there more than twice.

This has been a decade in which either Walsh or Gibbs usually had his players peaking at just the right time to sweep the 3-game playoffs.

Walsh’s 1981 team made the first sweep.

Then Gibbs’ 1982 team won it.

Next, Walsh’s 1984 team.

Then Gibbs’ 1987 team.

In Sunday’s Super Bowl here, Walsh’s 1988 National Conference champions made it 3 for the ‘80s, coming from behind in the fourth quarter to beat the Cincinnati Bengals with a 92-yard drive, 20-16.

For the NFL, it was a season in which the Buffalo Bills peaked on Nov. 14, when they won their 11th straight, after which they finished 12-4.

The Bengals also peaked at mid-season. Their pass offense didn’t do much after Thanksgiving, although, by then, Boomer Esiason had the momentum to earn all-pro.

The 49ers were 6-5 on Nov. 21. They improved after that, peaking in January for the third time in the 1980s.

Asked to explain it Monday, Walsh said: “We lighten up the workload later in the season. Some frustrated teams start to work harder--too hard.”

But that can’t be more than a partial answer. The real answer has to be Walsh’s secret. And Gibbs’.

The only visible thing is the result.

This was the fifth straight Super Bowl triumph for the National Conference, but the first in years that wasn’t a blowout. Is the AFC beginning to send up tougher champions?

It didn’t seem so.

The 49ers just couldn’t get started this time.

They drove repeatedly through the Cincinnati defense but mixed in so many misplays with their big plays that they scored only a field goal in the first half.

The Bengals, thankful for the reprieve, took the second-half kickoff and made a game of it.

So will Super Bowl XXIII be remembered for the 49ers’ mediocre performance in the first 3 quarters or for the brilliance of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig and their sidemen in the fourth quarter?

The history of these games suggests that only the glitter is remembered.

One of the most memorable of all NFL title matches was won by the Baltimore Colts over the New York Giants in 1958 in sudden-death overtime, 23-17.

Early in the era of television, it was the game that led the NFL to national prominence.

And it was as full of misplays as Sunday’s Super Bowl.

What’s remembered, however, is the glitter of John Unitas, who guided the Colts to victory with two key drives--first in the fourth quarter, then in the fifth.

What’s remembered are comebacks.

One difference between Walsh and, at the moment, other coaches, seems to be the skill that he has developed as a talent scout.

In Washington, General Manager Bobby Beathard is in charge of the draft.

On other NFL clubs, the chief of personnel is sometimes a draft specialist, sometimes a coach, sometimes a general manager.

But few get Walsh’s results. In part this is because, as both coach and chief scout, he is uniquely in position to bring in just the players who best fit his philosophy.

“We weren’t all the best in college,” Jerry Rice said. “But Bill saw something in all of us that he wanted.

“He took me in like a son, and developed me into the player I am.”

Rice was a first draft choice of the 49ers, as was Pro Bowl safety Ronnie Lott. But most of Walsh’s starters were second- or third-round choices.

Montana was a third. Roger Craig was a second. Fullback Tom Rathman was a third, as was John Taylor, the wide receiver who scored the winning touchdown Sunday.

A second-round choice has to be passed over by 28 personnel departments in the first round, and, usually, by a few in the second. A third-round choice is passed over at least 56 times.

The 49ers, in other words, have proven that high choices can be overrated as a championship precondition.

It can be a cop-out to say, as many have said, “We’ve won so much that we’ve been drafting too low to keep winning.”

Championship players can be found in the second and third rounds, and lower, for those who have the skill to find them.