Saturday, December 23, 2006
PALO ALTO, Calif. - Six weeks ago, Bill Walsh was near death. He
couldn't eat and barely had the strength to speak. Leukemia had ravaged
his body and left him hospitalized at Stanford University Medical
Center, where doctors urgently filled him with chemotherapy drugs to
fight the cancer and antibiotics to control his raging infections.
Walsh, 75, who coached the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl
championships from 1979 through '89, has been battling the disease
since being diagnosed in 2004. It is an illness he disclosed only last
month.
In early November, he was convinced his life was close to an end.
"I was really down," he said. "The doctors were talking in terms of
days or weeks."
But his cancer is unpredictable, and he has stabilized and improved in
recent weeks. He still spends three days a week at the hospital
receiving intravenous treatments, and wears a catheter implanted in his
forearm for injections. He is pale and not as sturdy as he was a few
years ago, yet he hasn't allowed the disease to dominate his life.
In a wide-ranging discussion with the Los Angeles Times this week on
the Stanford campus where he still maintains an office, Walsh talked
about his legendary career, his triumphs and regrets, his feelings
about today's NFL, how a fellow Hall of Fame coach tried to keep him
out of the league, and the difficulty of confronting his own mortality.
Asked if he fears dying, Walsh said he doesn't, "but the last thing you
want when you're dying is to be suffering. I've discussed that with my
physicians. ... I just don't want to cling to some form of life."
The disease and treatment have sapped Walsh's energy, so much so that
when he stands he often seeks something to lean against. And while his
voice is weaker than in the past, his mental energy is undiminished.
His greatest worry throughout the ordeal, he said, has been the
well-being of his wife, Geri, who suffered a major stroke seven years
ago. In recent weeks, Walsh and their children, Craig and Elizabeth,
have planned out the details of her care in case he's not around. More
than anything, that has helped put his mind at ease.
"Once that was resolved," Walsh said, "then I sort of resolved in my
mind to whatever happens is certainly acceptable to me. I've lived a
good life. A lot of wear and tear, a lot of disappointment in my life,
but now that it's in my last cycle, I feel OK about it."
On his best days, he holds out hope he'll one day return to the golf
course or spend some time at his beach house near Monterey. On most
days, he's simply happy to be alive.
The interview was conducted in a conference room in the Stanford
athletic department, a place Walsh knows well. Twice the school's head
football coach, Walsh served as interim athletic director last year. He
also had significant say in this week's hiring of Jim Harbaugh as new
coach.
In the NFL, what was once a Walsh coaching tree of disciples is now
closer to a forest. Among those who worked under him: Mike Shanahan,
Mike Holmgren, Andy Reid, Tony Dungy, Marvin Lewis, George Seifert,
Dennis Green, Ray Rhodes, Brian Billick and Jon Gruden. A coaches who's
who. But his reach extends well beyond that.
"You can go through this league and almost every corner of every team
is touched by Bill Walsh," said Eddie DeBartolo, former 49ers owner.
"I'm talking about head coaches to coordinators to sons to cousins. I
tried to sit down and do his family tree of football once and I just
quit. No one, and I mean no one has put a mark and touched pro football
in the way that Bill Walsh has. Calling him an icon isn't even doing
him justice."
In late October, DeBartolo flew across the country to have lunch with
Walsh at his Woodside home. They sat on his deck, opened a bottle of
wine and reminisced about their three decades together.
Walsh's cellphone seldom stops ringing. His secretary, Jane Walsh,
who's not related to him but has worked with him for 16 years, is
constantly juggling his schedule to fit everyone in. Bill Walsh is the
type who has a hard time saying no to anyone. Now, he's feeling the
love and admiration pour in.
"Some of the letters I've gotten from some of my former players are
tear-jerking," he said. "Some of them are from former Stanford players
that I coached when I was here, NFL players, guys that weren't the
logical guys to
David E. Garnett
President
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