RIP Coach  

I just wanted to echo the big man's words on Coach Walsh. As a kid, I worshiped Joe Montana and the 49ers. I loved Coach Walsh, and was crushed when he walked away from the game.

It was only fitting that in retirement he was a teacher. He was one of the first to look at the game in a serious, rational way, and find flaws in the way things had always been done. He was an innovator, a mad scientist, a scholar. He was "Moneyball" before there was such a thing. He was so far ahead of his time that it's only now that anyone is catching up to him. Football, all of football, is the way it is today because of his influence. That's why, even though we focus on college football, we know how important Coach Walsh was. He was a thinker, and a schemer, and at the same time he coached from the heart.

Like all great coaches, football wasn't just a pastime. It was a life.

I am definitely a little more upset at his passing than I probably should be. But something happens to you when a little part of your childhood dies.

I guess, in a way, Bill Walsh was a part of my life.

Thank you, coach.