COMMENTARY : 49ers Owe More to Walsh Than They’re Willing to Admit

Walsh-bashing has become a popular sport among the San Francisco 49ers. Most of the players don’t outwardly revile their former coach, who retired last year after winning his third Super Bowl. But they still get in their shots.

Bill was a good coach, they say, but he was difficult, not approachable. Bill was a good coach, they say, but he could be inflexible. Bill was a good coach, they say, but he wasn’t our friend.

It doesn’t take a college education to recognize that most of the team prefers Walsh’s replacement, George Seifert, who has coached the team back to the Super Bowl this season with a more player-friendly style.

“When you have a personable coach, you tend to feel closer to him and go out there and lay it on the line,” offensive lineman Jesse Sapolu said the other day. “A lot of players who were a little uncomfortable in the past are a lot more comfortable now.”

None have been bold enough to say it publicly, but you can tell they aren’t sure they would be back in the Supe this year if Walsh were their coach. They flopped trying to defend their first two Super victories. Had Walsh still been their coach, cornerback Eric Wright said, “We might have had to deal with more of a complacent attitude.”

All of which demonstrates that sustained success has indeed gone to the 49ers’ heads. Talk about a bunch of ungrateful millionaires. Walsh may well have been arrogant and sometimes difficult to play for, but the 49ers probably would never have won one Supe--and not been in contention this year--had he never come along.

You must consider the big picture. Walsh built the 49ers. From scratch, almost. When he was hired in January, 1979, he inherited a team that had been to the playoffs three times since 1950. They were coming off a 2-14 season. They were awful.

Walsh led them to a Super Bowl victory in three years, and they have since not fallen from among the NFL elite.

Please understand how this transformation occurred. Walsh made all the important personnel decisions. It was his idea to draft Joe Montana. (OK, he took a halfback named James Owens first, but he still got Montana.) It was his idea to trade up and get Jerry Rice. It was his decision-making that created the Great Draft of 1986, in which the 49ers selected six starters.

He found the players and built the system that turned them into champions. He designed a passing game calling for short, safe patterns. People said that it was “soft,” that it wouldn’t challenge defenses. But no one could stop it. A decade later, everyone is using it--those who don’t, lose.

Montana already possessed his famous, steely resolve when Walsh drafted him, but he wasn’t the most talented quarterback who ever arrived in the NFL. Walsh’s system made the most of his quick feet and short-pass accuracy. Not to denigrate Montana, but he was helped by Walsh more than most quarterbacks are helped by their coaches. The same can be said for the entire team.

Of course, Walsh did not throw up his hands in embarrassment when people called him a genius. He was a raving egomaniac, angrily defensive when criticized, consumed almost as much by getting the credit as by winning. A truly brilliant football man, he couldn’t understand imperfection in others. There are reasons why his former players have turned on him.

Things are just easier this year. Seifert, who ran Walsh’s defense for six years, is a far less combustible soul. He doesn’t mind being second-guessed. He doesn’t claim to have revolutionized the game. He is one of the guys.

Just as it is unfair to Walsh to speculate that he would have failed to lead this team back to the Supe--just because it happened twice before does not mean it would have happened again--it is unfair to Seifert to say that any coach could have taken such a talent-rich team this far.

What if Jerry Jones had bought the 49ers instead of the Cowboys and installed Jimmy Johnson as coach? What if 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo had, in a moment of insanity, replaced Walsh with strutting, posturing Jerry Glanville? Think the 49ers would be here in New Orleans preparing to do harm to the Denver Broncos? No.

So not just any coach could have led the 49ers back to the Super Bowl. Seifert is to be commended for the job he has done. He has a rapport with the players that seems to motivate them, and motivation is the gasoline that enables bountifully talented teams to run at full speed. Seifert has also made some prudent football moves, such as defusing the Walsh-created quarterback controversy by announcing that Steve Young had no chance of replacing Montana. Walsh had tinkered with the idea.

Mostly, though, Seifert has just left everything alone, a wise move considering that Walsh handed him by far the best team in the NFL.

Walsh is a broadcaster now, but his coaching legacy plays on. The 49ers are his team. He found the players. He designed the plays. His name shouldn’t be used in vain, as it has been lately. He made the 49ers champions. The least the 49ers could do, in return, is give him the respect he deserves.