Walsh’s Genius Evident From His Days With 48ers

Even geniuses sometimes have a little trouble with math.

Football mastermind Bill Walsh was lecturing 1,000 Texas high school coaches the other day using a huge overhead screen when he marked positions for four defensive backs, three linemen and three linebackers.

Say, you don’t have to be Joe Montana to find a way to beat that defense.

Despite some stirring in the audience at the Texas High School Coaches Assn. lecture, Walsh never added the 11th man.

“Unfortunately, we run that defense sometimes too,” said Greg Jacobs, a defensive coach at Texas’ Crawford High.

*

Trivia time: How old was Pete Sampras when he won his first major championship?

*

Sampras sighting: Sampras wasn’t at the latest Davis Cup match--hope no one’s holding his breath waiting to see that happen--and he pulled out of this week’s Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA because of an injury.

But you can catch Sampras modeling fall’s “8 essential outfits” in the August GQ magazine.

*

Instant garage sale: With a private jet and a lot of time on your hands, you could have your pick of the following at major league ballparks this week: an Arizona Diamondback beach towel and McDonald’s yo-yo, a Lucky the Ladybug Beanie Baby from the Minnesota Twins, a Peanut the Elephant Beanie Baby from the Oakland Athletics, an Angel sports bottle, a Chicago Cub key chain, a Florida Marlin duffel bag, a Milwaukee Brewer thermal travel coffee mug, an Atlanta Brave poster, a Marlin bat, and to tie it all up, some Pittsburgh Pirate kids’ shoelaces.

*

Not exactly: In a story on the maneuverings of opponents Michael Ovitz and Edward P. Roski Jr. as they try to secure an NFL team for Los Angeles, GQ’s John Brodie writes that one problem with Ovitz’s proposed stadium site is that “a Carson stadium would also draw the same fair-weather Orange County fans who turned their backs on the L.A. Rams when they moved from the Coliseum to Anaheim, dropped from a .647 to a .517 winning percentage and, in 1995, fled to St. Louis.”

Funny, the way we remember it, the Rams were doing fine until they went looking for a better stadium deal and then undermined attendance by sabotaging the team’s competitiveness on their way out of town.

*

Trivia answer: Sampras, who will turn 27 Aug. 12, was 19 when he won the 1990 U.S. Open.

*

And finally: Arizona Cardinal holdout Andre Wadsworth said he didn’t need camp as much as an offensive player.

“If I was a quarterback, I’d be kind of antsy,” said Wadsworth, a defensive end from Florida State who was the fourth pick in the draft. “I have a good grasp of the defense. I feel comfortable with it.”

Coach Vince Tobin wouldn’t hear any of that.

“They all have a good grasp of the defense until they start playing it,” he said. “You learn the defense by being on the football field; you don’t learn it by looking at it in the playbook.”