The Passing of a coaching legend-By Dr. Bill Chachkes

I just couldn't not say something about one of the greats in the game.

It’s been well documented that Coach Walsh has been sick for quite some time, and that he was losing his fight to Leukemia. Everyone focuses on the “Walsh” tree or the “Parcells” tree of coaching. Walsh came from a tree as well. He was a student of the late Paul Brown, who led the Cleveland Browns to numerous Titles during the “Golden Age” of pro football. One of Brown’s assistants for a short time at the end of Brown’s career, another assistant on the staff had an impact on Walsh. He was Blanton Collier. Never heard of him you say? Well, you have football highlights and game study footage because of Blanton Collier. Walsh took much of Collier’s development of film study and molded it into his own planning. Walsh was a master of planning going back to his days as head coach of the Stanford Cardinal. Walsh served as an assistant with Brown in Cincinnati before resigning to become an assistant to Tommy Prothro in San Diego. Then it was on to Stanford for Walsh, where he made wine out of water, until the NFL came calling again.

Walsh would say years later that he never wanted to come back to the NFL, but he loved a challenge, and the 49ers were just that. He was 47 when he took over in the bay area, and in just a decade the Niners went from the bottom to the top, winning 3 superbowls, including two over one of his pupils, Sam Wyche in Cincinnati. His Quarterback in San Francisco was Joe Montana, who would say, “outside of my own dad he was the closest person to me, the most influential person in my life. I am going to miss him.” Another football man who asked to remain nameless told us late monday night, " He was the Kindest gentleman i ever met. I was truly blessed to know him even briefly."

The most prolific quote however comes from Seattle head coach Mike Holmgren who says, “He was an Artist, the rest of us were Blacksmiths.”

Some had said the Walsh was falling behind the times when the 49ers lost to the Giants 49-3 in a 1986 playoff game. Attending that game in person i watched the opposing sidelines for any sign of anger fron Coach Walsh. There was none. Walsh Just shrugged it off and reloaded the Niners again. Many will miss him, but all loved him.

Monday was a really big day for Eagles fans, and a Bigger one for their "embattled" starting QB Donovan McNabb.
After individual drills, it was expected that McNabb would return to the trainers table.

Surprise surprise! There is Old #5 in a red practice jersey taking snaps from center and moving around on the knee a bit. Seems the doctors felt he was further along then expected, and even though his status is still "Day to Day" for the rest of the Mandatory Mini Camp, Donovan wanted the shot to see how his knee and leg felt. " It was good to get back out there with the guys" Donovan said. "It's just part of the rehab process." After he took about 20 snaps, he headed back inside to the ice tub. McNabb worked very hard this off season after another disapointing injury ended his season early for the third out of five seasons.

It looks as if McNabb will be ready to go at 100% when the Eagles open their training camp on July 27th. Not that we are really looking that far ahead to training camp already, are we? Of course we are! We all Know for the Eagles to be a success in the NFC East, they need McNabb at 110%. He may still be a bit stung by the drafting of Kevin Kolb with the 4th pick in round two. He has also spent the off season trying to repair his image. He hired a former Eagles PR staffer to be his Public Relations person, and has given several one on one interviews away from the Eagles complex in recent weeks.

Is it possible that McNabb might have rediscovered himself? Let's see what happens between now and laborday. Someone once told me that the term "Chicken Legs" was used to refer to players who had multiple lower extremity injuries, as if to say they are brittle. Hopefully that isn't Donovan's problem

When the Kansas City Chiefs step on their practice field for training camp at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls on July 27th, there are going to be some big changes. I'm not just talking about Trent Green being a Miami Dolphin.

Coach Herm Edwards has always been "quite quotable" to say the least.
One Veteran NY Jets Beat writer once told me how every day he would check his notes to see how much of Herm's presser was quote-worthy, because if he missed something he'd get chewed out by his editor.

People could complain about his clock management skills, but there are coaches in the NFL that are much worse overall then Poor Herm and his "you Play to win the game" quote. Indeed lots of K.C. fans are already complaining, and he's only been there one year. Well, now we will all get to see just how good or bad Herm really is. The HBO series Hard Knocks will start it's third season August 8th. The first two years the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens were the stars of the show. So have you already guessed who is the subject of the 3rd season of Hard Knocks??

I'm really looking forward to this, as I kind of relate Herm to another prior ex-Jets Coach who went on to have success elsewhere. No, Herm is Nothing like Bill Parcelles. I mean Ex-Jets and current USC Head Coach Pete Carroll, who it seems had several chances after the last two seasons to come back to the NFL, and chose to stay in Southern California. I remember when Carroll left the Jets (after Rich "Keep it Tight" Kotite went 3-13 and 1-15 in back to back seasons, Carroll was brought in because Prior team owner Leon Hess and team President Steve Gutman Thought they needed someone "looser"), and Parcells came in, the first thing he did was have the Basketball Backboard torn down.

Herm was known for running "soft" workouts while in NY, like Carroll. Mangini, from the Parcells / Belichick tree, Runs one of the most difficult workouts I have ever seen, both early in camp and at the end. Hey, No one ever said the NFL was easy. It seems the Jets are moving in the right direction, so what about the Chiefs? We will have to see if Herm's good guy act gets them a shot at a Superbowl, For me, Herm's greatest claim to fame will never be any of his quotes. It will always be a cold day in 1978 when I still sat in Giants stadium's section 311 and saw the Joe "parkway" Pisarchick fumbled hand-off that Edwards Picked up and returned for a Touchdown. That day marked the beginning of the end of the Giants "15 lousy years of NY Football- we have had enough" era. Just like Herm's "clock" issues marked what many Jets fans call the end of the Mr. Softie
Era.
I wonder if they have Mr. Softie trucks in Kansas City like we do here in NY??

(music in the background from an ice cream truck)