Bill Walsh, 1931-2007
He was a true football pioneer, following in the footsteps of Paul Brown, Sid Gillman, and Al Davis. The Belicheck Patriots draft on intelligence. Most of your teams draft players, raising and lowering stock, based on their intelligence, and that all started with the great Bill Walsh.
"[I]ntelligent players have an infinitely better chance to succeed. On offense, they have to cope more and more with things like the no-huddle and quick snaps. In a few years, who knows? Maybe there won't be huddles. On defense, they have to cope with different schemes and all the substitution. When I look for players now, even at Stanford, I can rule out a lot of people fast. They have to have above-average intelligence combined with the ability to function under stress.” (read the rest here, thanks to Peter King)
If that doesn’t sound like a Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, or the antithesis of MIchael Vick, nothing does. I won't go so far as to say there's no one like Bill Walsh, but only because EVERYONE these days is trying his damnedest to be like Bill Walsh.
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