WALSH'S VISION

Donahue is fall guy for Walsh's incompetence

January 7, 2005 (NHS) --

"Make no mistake - Walsh is in charge. He will answer to no one below the ownership level. He will run the draft. He will approve free-agent acquisitions. He will run the 49ers according to his vision of how a professional football team should be run."

-- San Francisco Examiner, January, 1999

It's 2005, and how does Walsh's "vision" look now?

If you're a Niner-hater, it looks beautiful, thank you. The 49ers have hit rock-bottom in every possible way. Be it on the field or off, the 2-14ers are an embarrassing disgrace.

They also sound beautiful. Up and down the AM radio dial one can hear the stereotypical whining from the collection of Bandwagon-jumpers that call themselves the "49er faithful". And the most hilarious collective take from these callers?

That the solution to everything wrong is for Walsh to come back to the 49ers (again!) to replace fired GM Terry Donahue.

Yes, the 49er Bandwagon is more pathetic and ignorant than an Ashlee Simpson fan club. As usual, what makes them worse is the media. Instead of correcting these misguided dot-fans with the facts, the pro-Niner media is wholly a part of the Bandwagon, fueling and feeding the ignorance when it comes to the so-called Niner legends, like Walsh. So once again, it becomes the NHS's job to give the truth the media won't say:

Any fault one has with Donahue, and the steaming pile that is the current 49ers franchise, can be traced directly to Bill Walsh.

In 1999 the 49ers were in a similar situation in that they were in that the front office was in complete disarray, and Walsh heeded the call and rejoined the 49ers as GM. "Genius Is Back!" trumpeted the front page of the S.F. Chronicle (not the front page of just the sports section, mind you, but the front page of the entire paper), and all the Bandwagon danced to the promised return to "glory days".

Instead, the 49ers promptly went from 12-4 to 4-12, then 6-10 in 2000. But Walsh was given a free pass because the 49ers were in so-called "salary cap hell" and "rebuilding". Those excuses were muttered so many times when discussing the 49ers that those years were morphed into virtual successes for Walsh despite the poor records. Then, when the 49ers rode their classic cheesy schedule to the playoffs in 2001, Walsh was once again hailed as a hero for all the Bandwagon, especially the ignorant media, for rebuilding the Niners into a contender.

Only the NHS spelled out the reality that this so-called "magnificent rebuilding story" was actually the stuff of smoke and mirrors, not substance. Walsh's big secret of success was to spend, spend, and spend some more, in the exact same manner Carmen Policy used to that got them into the 1998 "salary cap hell" in the first place (minus the salary cap cheating that made Carmen such a "Master Capologist", of course).

Highlights included Walsh's ridiculous pronouncement that Junior Bryant (who?) was "one of the premier defensive linemen in football" when giving Bryant a whopping seven-year contract in an amount far in excess of that befitting Bryant's bit-player status -- a mistake that took three years of "dead money" to erase. And let's not forget it was Walsh who made Jeff Garcia the highest paid quarterback in the NFL in yet another back-loaded, salary cap "friendly" contract that ultimately cost the 49ers about $10 million more in "dead money" before this season.

Indeed, in 2003, the NHS warned:

They are still crafting and restructuring "cap friendly" contracts, mortgaging their future every year, once again inching towards an inevitable crunch. This isn't a solution, it's a fiction ... Yet Policy, Walsh, and all the other "best evers" of the past will be long gone and escape any blame once their continued salary cap ineptitude finally catches up to 49ers yet again in the near future ... And it's all being set up to be the fault of the new "tightwad" 49ers regime -- with fall guys Dr. York, Terry Donahue and Erickson -- to preserve the precious image of the past icons that "set the standard" that nobody else can ever possibly reach.

That inevitable crunch of course happened before this season, where once again the "salary cap hell" caused the decimation of the 49ers' roster -- a hell wholly created by Walsh's bungling. While Donahue is the one being fired and being pilloried in the press for purging the roster of all talent, fact is, his hands were tied by Walsh's actions before him. What was Donahue supposed to do? Keep the headcase Owens around at a ridiculous free agent price? Keep extending the ineffective, aging Garcia's poorly-drafted contract every year?

No, the state of the 49ers today is not Donahue's fault -- it's nothing more than a continuation of Walsh's failure and fake rebuilding "vision" that began in 1999.

So where is Walsh today while Donahue -- supposedly his life-long buddy -- got fired for mistakes that began with Walsh? Well, as the Seattle Times once put it, "Walsh hovers over the team from his own Olympus, taking credit for all that's good and disappearing as things go bad."

Donahue is being fired for Walsh's incompetence, and Walsh -- by completely disappearing -- left his friend hanging out to dry. Not even one quote in support of Donahue anywhere from Walsh. And we'd expect nothing less from someone of Walsh's character.

This is especially sad considering the entire reason Donahue ever came to the 49ers in 1999 was Walsh. Said Walsh at the time (source: SF Examiner):

"Terry Donahue is coming on board as director of player personnel. He's a brilliant executive, was a great coach and is a dynamic person. It will be my job to prepare, train and develop Terry's inventory of knowledge in professional football."

Walsh failed miserably at this job, yet Donahue's the one taking the fall professionally and taking all the public hits. But the only reason Donahue was ever brought to the 49ers is because Walsh forced him down the 49ers' throat. "I don't think I'd have returned without Terry," Walsh said at his press conference in 1999. In other words, if the 49ers wanted Walsh, they had to bring his friend to be groomed to become his successor. Sounds an awful lot like blackmail, but the 49ers had to do it because they were desperate. In addition, Walsh's hiring was done illegally by Eddie DeBartolo, who was supposed to be banned at the time (but that's a whole other story).

Anyway, the fact of the matter is that from 1999 to 2001, Walsh was in charge then handed over the GM title to Donahue. Walsh continued to hang around, grooming Donahue until just last year. That's over five years of mentoring. In short, Walsh taught Donahue everything he knows.

So what does it say about Walsh to tutor such a failure?

Apparently nothing according to the media that won't mention the subject of Walsh (except to kiss his ass). For sure, we know what the Bandwagon would be saying if things worked out differently. Had Donahue turned out to be the 49ers' savior and garner Executive of the Year awards like Carmen "Cap Cheating" Policy, the media wouldn't be able to shut up about how Father Bill taught Donahue everything.

Instead, in classic style, Walsh has been allowed to slither away before everything hit the fan this season because no one in the 49er Bandwagon has the grey matter to make the connection back to Walsh. Make no mistake about it: Walsh is every bit as responsible for the 2-14 debacle as Donahue, coach Dennis Erickson, or owner John York. Walsh steered the ship into the crapper then jumped off just before it got flushed, and the ignorant Bandwagon not only can't see the truth, they continue to feed into his facade by laughably calling for him to come back.

Yeah, Walsh had a vision in 1999, and we're seeing it today. Thanks again, Bill!

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