Hear, hear, re the Giants. As to Joe Montana, things were a little different in his case. He was a quality, savvy albeit
less than spectacular college player at Notre Dame (led a fantastic finish in the Cotton Bowl his last college game).
Joe was drafted in Bill Walsh’s inagural season when the 49ers went 2-14 for the second straight year–but at least
looked like they had some idea what they were doing. Joe played hardly at all that year but took over the reins midway through the next (1980) season when Walsh’s revolutionary new system (now known as the West Coast Offense) showed it could score readily but the 49ers defense was so poor they finished 6-10. The next season it shockingly all came together when 3 rookie defensive backs (including Ronnie Lott) and a quality pass rush resulted in their first Super Bowl. Walsh focused an unprecedented amount of attention grooming Montana to his system right down to how to position his hips after a 5 step drop to best check-down his 4 or 5 receivers in progression and then choose and hit the correct one. Joe would have been a good quarterback in any system but Walsh made him a superstar.
Don (a.k.a. Dad):
October 6th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Hear, hear, re the Giants. As to Joe Montana, things were a little different in his case. He was a quality, savvy albeit
less than spectacular college player at Notre Dame (led a fantastic finish in the Cotton Bowl his last college game).
Joe was drafted in Bill Walsh’s inagural season when the 49ers went 2-14 for the second straight year–but at least
looked like they had some idea what they were doing. Joe played hardly at all that year but took over the reins midway through the next (1980) season when Walsh’s revolutionary new system (now known as the West Coast Offense) showed it could score readily but the 49ers defense was so poor they finished 6-10. The next season it shockingly all came together when 3 rookie defensive backs (including Ronnie Lott) and a quality pass rush resulted in their first Super Bowl. Walsh focused an unprecedented amount of attention grooming Montana to his system right down to how to position his hips after a 5 step drop to best check-down his 4 or 5 receivers in progression and then choose and hit the correct one. Joe would have been a good quarterback in any system but Walsh made him a superstar.