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00:15The positive feelings you have about yourself and the team should come from the team.
00:20Because believe me, no one suffers but us when we lose.
00:26No one.
00:42You know, he videoed every meeting he had and kept it as a document.
00:47He wanted to know if he was being effective or not.
00:50It honed his skill and made him more of an effective communicator.
00:53Any word that came out of his mouth, you're like, oh my God, wow.
00:59You're ready to go do battle.
01:01You're ready to go run through a wall.
01:05I heard he was like a grandpa, but also tough and didn't take any shit.
01:11We've got to correct the problem.
01:13Yeah, he could be your best friend.
01:14He could be your worst enemy.
01:16I get unraveled.
01:17Ronnie gets unraveled.
01:19There's nothing personal.
01:20That's just part of it.
01:21Because we're right on the edge all the time.
01:22That's all this man thought about, trying to have an competitive advantage.
01:28When you take a loss, you shake it off and come back ready to play the next day.
01:33That's professional.
01:35And that's what it takes.
01:36He is the godfather of the modern NFL.
01:40You wondered why, why all this?
01:43And what he was doing was he was collecting it so that he could hand it to his assistant coaches.
01:49Especially his minority coaches, he wanted to see them get jobs in the NFL.
01:52He wanted to help them be successful.
01:56And we play our style of football.
01:57And we don't want it any other way.
02:00And so at the height of his genius, he collected it all and handed it out.
02:06We have a standard of play on this particular football team.
02:10You play full board, all out, every play until the game's over.
02:16So you have a standard of excellence every play.
02:19In the face!
02:37First and foremost, it was the game right before the NFL players went on strike.
02:40So there was a lot of tension in the league.
02:42There was a lot of tension in locker rooms.
02:44We had the lead at the end of the game.
02:47Bill Walsh and company now have to look for a little bit of help from the almighty.
02:52I don't think anybody felt that we were going to win that football game.
02:56Eddie DiBarlo already had left the field to go to the locker room to chew everybody out.
03:01I wasn't always Mr. Nice Guy.
03:06Not with the team or not with Bill.
03:09My Youngstown roots came out from time to time.
03:13But that's the way I was brought up.
03:16And Montana will get one throw.
03:18Rice to the near side.
03:20And they decide that they're going to line up as if they're going to throw a Hail Mary down the
03:23left side.
03:24And instead, they had Jerry Rice on the right side of the field with a rookie cornerback.
03:28Had to go against, you know, Jerry Rice with Joe Montana throwing it to him.
03:31Here's Montana throwing for the end zone.
03:35It was like slow motion.
03:37The ball slowed down.
03:38You could see the rotation of the front.
03:40And as receivers, we always taught to go up and catch the ball at his highest peak.
03:45So I go up, I attack the football, and we win that game.
03:50He's got it!
03:52Touchdown, 49ers!
03:53It just looks so easy.
03:55The 49ers have won it on the final play.
03:59That's an incredible ball game, my friend.
04:02Boy, that was the most ecstatic moment we've had in a long time.
04:06I think Roger Craig and I skipped off the field.
04:12He handled victory great for about 20 minutes, then he was back to work.
04:17As I've gotten older, I've realized, you know, how much my dad really cared.
04:24At their 49er offices, there were photos lining all the halls.
04:28And my dad would walk down the hall.
04:30If they weren't quite straight, he would straighten them.
04:33If your desk wasn't clean, you heard about it.
04:35I mean, he was one of those kind of dudes.
04:38This time of year, right now, every detail counts.
04:43He was chasing perfection.
04:45He thought it was possible.
04:46He was frustrated when it didn't happen.
04:49I knew the presentation of the Vince Lombardi trophy.
04:52My dad was always after the perfect game.
04:55I can even think of a Super Bowl we won that could have been a perfect game if I'd have
04:59made two different calls.
05:00I always played off the negative.
05:02But I think that, in a sense, drives a person into being totally mobilized to do the very best they
05:07can.
05:07Two plays.
05:09That's how we thought.
05:09Now they'd won the game big.
05:11Everybody loved it that he was beating himself over two calls in the game that he didn't think he should
05:16have made.
05:16Bill was, they called him the genius.
05:20Good or bad.
05:22The tricky part for Bill was to find the balance.
05:27If perfection is unattainable, and that's the goal, then what do you do with what's left?
05:49Bill was, he's trying to be perfect.
06:05That's the goal.
06:10We played Cincinnati on Sunday.
06:12Had a great comeback.
06:14Bill was very pointed.
06:15He goes, look, I'm not going to lie to you and tell you I don't care what you're going to
06:19do.
06:20But whatever you do, do it as a team.
06:24The strike football fans have been dreading is on.
06:30The NFL's announced plan to keep the season going using players who had been cut by the teams in the
06:35preseason was attacked by union officials.
06:38Nothing doing as far as progress in the NFL strike.
06:41Plenty of replacement players to go around as the Niners made public the names of some 60 players who will
06:48play in the interim.
06:49I think we'll be able to field a good team.
06:51Obviously, it's not going to be the same product that was here a couple of weeks ago.
06:55Welcome to Giants Stadium, where two teams representing the San Francisco 49ers and the New York Giants play.
07:00And I'll remind you that these games do count.
07:04The whole thing was insane.
07:05I remember all of us laughing at Bill.
07:07He decided the only way I can do this is if they run the wishbone triple option.
07:13Walt, last coach to wishbone when he was a high school coach.
07:16Here comes the bone.
07:19And when's the last time you've seen that in the NFL?
07:21It was crazy.
07:25And Bill's.
07:27You've got to be able to deal with adversity.
07:30There's your final.
07:3141-21 San Francisco.
07:32When things are tough, how do you deal with it as a team?
07:37Bill had said, if you're going to stay, do it as a team.
07:41If you're going to go out, do it as a team.
07:46And initially, we did do it as a team.
07:48And we'd have practices just to stay focused on football.
07:52And then guys started going back.
07:56Joe Montana is not a member of the union and is being mentioned among the possible strike breakers.
08:02Hey, I have certain things that I have to do, and the decision has to be mine.
08:06I didn't agree with what we were arguing and fighting about.
08:10I want a better bargaining agreement like everyone else.
08:13But what we're fighting for, they're not going to give us.
08:15You're not going to get it right now.
08:17You could never get that across because everybody was too concerned that you went back in.
08:22This is the scene outside Atlanta Stadium.
08:25Falcons man the picket lines.
08:27The complexion of this game changed dramatically last Wednesday
08:30when Joe Montana walked back into camp for the 49ers.
08:33And Bill Walsh and the 49ers get another win.
08:36I don't know if I could look these guys in the eye down the road when I got to play
08:40with them again.
08:42There is Joe Montana.
08:43He's 12 of 13.
08:46Touchdown.
08:48So the 49ers went 3-0 in replacement ball.
08:54National Football League players went back to work today on orders from their union
08:58without achieving any of the goals they struck for.
09:01The 49ers can't ignore the last three weeks, the strike and its ramifications.
09:05But now it's time for the players to get reacquainted.
09:09There were a lot of really heated, heated opinions.
09:14I had a chance to at least explain to the guys what I was doing and why I was doing
09:20it.
09:21It was just hard to get that point across to the other players.
09:25The guys had some strong reactions.
09:28I think you said something in the heat of the moment.
09:29I don't want to get into that.
09:31I don't want to go there.
09:32I don't want to go there.
09:33Okay?
09:34Don't want to go there.
09:35All right.
09:35That's way old news.
09:37Okay?
09:40Eventually, people started saying, let's go play.
09:43Let's just go play and win.
09:46Regardless of what went on the last three or four weeks, the ultimate goal is to get the
09:49Super Bowl ring.
09:50I just want to get serious for a minute.
09:54We've won the previous games, not the sky that I'd like to have seen.
09:59We've got to start demonstrating the poise of a champion.
10:06San Francisco 49ers, a team with perhaps the best organization in all of football, and
10:11it has paid off in dividends.
10:13San Francisco has been not only winning, but playing wide open, exciting football.
10:17And a big reason is the fabulous wide receivers.
10:19He's going to throw long.
10:20And I think just about everyone around this league would agree that the 49ers are the
10:24best team in football.
10:25Rice is there.
10:26He's got it.
10:26Touchdown 49ers.
10:28The year of the strike, I played 12 games.
10:31And in those 12 games, I think I had 23 touchdowns.
10:36It's crazy.
10:38Jerry Rice was the ultimate.
10:39I called him Jesus and colleagues.
10:41Now, what about his nickname?
10:43He folds a towel up and puts Flash 80 on him.
10:46It was like Flash, like Flash Gordon.
10:48And it just caught on.
10:50That took a lot of time because I had to get to the stadium early.
10:54Hey, man, that's not white, man.
10:56That's not white.
10:57They were out.
10:58Put pink stuff on, man.
11:00Bronco, come on, bro.
11:02I had to have the new shoes.
11:04The pants had to fit a certain way.
11:05The jersey had to be nice and tapered.
11:07Because I feel it makes a statement.
11:11If you look a certain way, you're going to play a certain way.
11:14Rice is currently the main thrust in the high-powered 49er offense and seems totally relaxed with his role as
11:20Joe Montana's favorite target.
11:23He's just running by people.
11:26I would tell my safety if I'm playing him, you back up.
11:30And if Jerry Rice gets behind you, you just keep running and go straight into the locker room and go
11:35home.
11:37When you've got the greatest quarterback ever, like Montana, you know he's going to put the ball in an area
11:42where you can do something with it.
11:45You know, the longer you play with somebody, the better fuel you get.
11:47And he's been having a great year.
11:49You just got to keep going to him.
11:50Jerry's running a post.
11:51Did you call a post?
11:52No.
11:53How do you know he's going to the post?
11:55I could just tell.
11:56He could look at me and I could look at him and I knew exactly what he was thinking.
12:01He knew what I was thinking.
12:02The hero today, Jerry Rice, with three touchdowns for the third time in his career.
12:07That's why I always tell him, I said, you came way too late in my career.
12:10What the hell's wrong with you?
12:14Here we are at the Walsh residence.
12:18Lifestyles of the rich and famous.
12:20Comments about Johnny Cat.
12:21You know, in our house we had just a regular phone and then we had, like, the office phone.
12:26And it was red, which was really funny.
12:29One time I picked up the phone and it was Sean Connery calling to tell us that he couldn't make
12:36it to the game.
12:37When that phone rang, I didn't mind answering the phone.
12:45We had a candlestick luxury box and people would call and want to come in and Willie Nelson was one.
12:50Clint Eastwood, Priscilla Presley, and I didn't even have to invite him.
12:54Tom Selleck.
12:55MC Hammer. I remember him being there.
12:58Grace and Dad and all those guys were all around, too.
13:00Peter Crampton.
13:02My team, you know, has been my team for a long, long time, man.
13:06What's your prediction?
13:07There is no prediction.
13:08What do you mean? The Niners are going to go to the Super Bowl?
13:10Yeah, the journey was around. Absolutely.
13:15I don't know who had that jersey.
13:17The players got really, really close to a lot of them, especially Huey Lewis.
13:23Huey Lewis was huge at that time.
13:27We played Pittsburgh last night and I was an hour away and Dwight called me, so I didn't know.
13:31The 49ers started to happen.
13:33Eddie and Bill understood what they meant to the community.
13:36They encouraged this camaraderie between artists and the players and the community and all that sort of stuff.
13:42Huey was there singing all the time.
13:44We did anthems. We did halftime concerts.
13:47We wrote this song, Hit To Be Square.
13:50And got the idea to have them shout here and everywhere.
13:59As long as I didn't have to sing by myself, I'd be okay.
14:05Your goal record's in the mail.
14:09There might have been celebrities suddenly showing up, but the real celebrities were the players.
14:15Everywhere we went, we were the story.
14:18We were Aerosmith and Rolling Stones putting together.
14:21There'd be hundreds of people.
14:22We had special security that would shield the players.
14:27Joe Montana was all of a sudden one of the hottest names in America.
14:30I'm wanted. What for, Sheriff?
14:33I'm just a 49er looking for a little gold.
14:35Even though we're from New Jersey and all our friends are mad at us for going for 49ers,
14:40we want them to win and go all the way to Super Bowl.
14:42I mean, you would have never known it as a teammate.
14:44He was pretty down to earth.
14:46He didn't feel like he was special.
14:51I mean, he knew what his job was and, you know, he had the skill set to get it done
14:57and put the ball in his hands and, you know, here we are.
15:05From the 12, Montana trips.
15:07Down he goes.
15:08Back at the 20, clutching his knee.
15:11And Candlestick Park becomes silent.
15:17What's it like for a team bound for the playoffs to lose not only its best player, but perhaps the
15:22most valuable player in the National Football League?
15:25Well, the San Francisco 49ers will find out right away.
15:31Joe Montana is down on the ground, hurt.
15:35On the sidelines, there'll be Steve Young getting a word for Bill Walsh.
15:39I think it was interesting from a fan standpoint because there was two totally contrasting styles of quarterbacking.
15:46Joe Montana helped off the field.
15:49A right-handed, prototypical passer.
15:52The most beautiful spiral you've ever seen in your life.
15:55The coolest.
15:56So many big wins.
15:59And there is Montana being taken back to the dressing room.
16:05Here he is, the left-hander.
16:07And then here comes Steve, left-handed, scrambler.
16:11Second and 18, and it's Young rolling left.
16:16Getting inside the 20, inside the 10, the 5, and Young barrels down to the 1.
16:22Ball will be coming out sideways.
16:24Pass to Rice.
16:25Caught for the touchdown.
16:27Tom, I had never caught a ball from a lefty.
16:30And I got to try to get used to the different spin.
16:33And the crowd chanting Joe, Joe, Joe.
16:36Everything that I learned with Joe, now I had to make Steve Young the best that he could be.
16:41And the 49ers have dominated the first half despite losing Joe Montana.
16:47People ask me, well, what's it like to play with Joe Montana, Steve Young?
16:50I said, you know, I pretty much put both of those guys in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
16:54All I had to do was throw me the football.
17:05I think about all the athletes in the world that compete in a sport that you run down a runway,
17:12flip up and land, and then you either win or lose.
17:14Like, that is incredibly difficult.
17:19Me throwing a ball in a general vicinity and have Jerry Rice catch it for a touchdown, that's the job
17:24you want.
17:26Career best, four touchdown passes.
17:28I know, Steve, when you saw Joe go down, you had to be concerned but also excited to go into
17:33the game.
17:34Obviously, we're best when Joe's in the game and just kind of get ready the best that I can.
17:4013-2 and a brilliant regular season campaign.
17:44Joe Montana, did he say, hey, I can come back later in a couple of weeks?
17:48No, I didn't really talk to him about that.
17:49I just, we've built up a good relationship over the six months and I just wish that he could get
17:53better real fast.
17:55You feel pretty nimble nowadays?
17:57Yeah, I feel pretty good.
17:58The 49ers, the favored team in the race to the Super Bowl.
18:02Minnesota, the ball club that surprised the New Orleans Saints, the first chance to upset the 49ers.
18:08Saints go marching in.
18:09They didn't even concern themselves with who they were playing.
18:12And we've got to make this a personal vendetta against the Minnesota Vikings.
18:16It was not a great day.
18:20Drizzly, the field was wet.
18:23What happens, the water table is so high here that it doesn't drain.
18:27Once it starts raining, this becomes a quagmire.
18:33They are favored in this game by 11 points right now.
18:37They are the pick to go on and capture Super Bowl XXII.
18:40And if the 49ers accomplish that, it certainly will stamp them as the team of this decade.
18:46Yeah, we were supposed to win that game.
18:48F*** our defense.
18:50Boom this f*** on the run.
18:52Go, go, go, go.
18:53Everybody had picked us to win.
18:55We were moving on.
18:56Vikings couldn't handle us.
18:59For the 49ers, they've had two weeks to get Joe Montana healthy.
19:02Does have a bit of a sore hamstring, but they've got a dandy on the bench.
19:05Montana's had a good, solid year.
19:07There are times when you like Young's movement.
19:10Will he come in in a certain situation?
19:12Well, you flirt with it.
19:13I'm not sure.
19:14You don't want to take the continuity away from your quarterback who's taking you already to two world championships.
19:23I could tell from the beginning of that game.
19:26It just wasn't right.
19:32Touchdown!
19:33We couldn't stop their pass game.
19:34And the 49ers, certainly a little confused defensively.
19:41It's one of those things of sports that you can't really explain.
19:45You know, you've got everything going for you.
19:47You're right there.
19:49And then it just falls apart.
19:52Going deep for Rice.
19:55Incomplete.
19:56Gary Rice has been shut down today.
20:00Sideliner for Clark.
20:02Picked off.
20:04Touchdown!
20:07Minnesota has San Francisco in deep trouble.
20:14Sack.
20:15Second sack.
20:17Play action and a sack.
20:21Bill would always do what he thought was best to get the W.
20:25And if Joe couldn't run and Steve could run, I would have made the same decision if I was him.
20:33A rare occurrence where you see Joe Montana lifted from a game.
20:37I didn't know where it was going from that point.
20:40Was he making a change for good or what?
20:43Or I don't know.
20:46And I'm sure he was trying to find a spark for the team at that point.
20:51But I think that was probably the most disappointing part is that he took an opportunity away.
20:58Not like I'd never been behind before.
21:01That's a very frustrated quarterback right there.
21:04Some players just looked and it was like,
21:06Oh, f***.
21:07And we've been here.
21:08We all know this situation.
21:10You're making the wrong choice.
21:13In the middle of a playoff game, to suddenly have greatest quarterback to ever play the game
21:17get yanked for his backup?
21:21I'm looking around like,
21:23if he can mess with Joe,
21:25who on this team isn't replaceable?
21:30Play action pass and wide open Roger Craig inside the five.
21:35It boiled down to this.
21:37I knew that Steve Young's running would make up for our lack of pass protection.
21:42Young, touchdown.
21:45I had a job to do.
21:46It was my role.
21:48I'd be letting the team down and my profession down.
21:51And I wouldn't be honest with myself unless I made that change.
21:54Steve Young obviously made an instant difference.
21:57Joe was a great runner, but Steve was the greatest.
21:59And it happened.
22:00Steve went in and ran with the ball and threw.
22:02And we scored a couple of touchdowns.
22:06Young for John Taylor, intercepted.
22:09The Minnesota Vikings with an absolutely startling upset of the team
22:13with the best record in football this year.
22:17We weren't ready.
22:19It was my fault.
22:20Our team wasn't ready.
22:24It was devastation in the Bay Area.
22:26We felt like we had let the fans down.
22:30I didn't like losing.
22:32It would stay with you until training camp.
22:35I think, too, you have Hall of Fame quarterback, Hall of Fame receiver, Hall of Fame head coach.
22:41It's like the expectations for yourself because you knew what you had.
22:47The 87 year was the one where people started to grumble because they all thought that they were better than
22:53the Vikings.
22:55It really started to eat at Eddie, and it really started to eat at Walsh.
22:59He wanted a replacement for Montana because he was big on the old Paul Brown notion.
23:05Let great players go a year before they're done.
23:08You'd never like to be taken out of the game, but we talked about it right at the end of
23:12the game, and I understand why he did it.
23:14I think our relationship changed a little bit from that point on, and it wasn't quite as jokey and as
23:22fun.
23:24It became more business between Bill and I, which I didn't really like.
23:29I do all the work, and I'm serious, but I'm not serious.
23:32I'm out there to have fun, and the way you have fun is when you play well and you perform,
23:37and add an extra stress to that stupid game is not necessary.
23:50Bill always believed that creative tension was positive, toxic tension was terrible, and it's a fine line.
23:57In the end, Bill authored it, right?
24:01So there was going to be a lot of drama about it.
24:14This is a great photo of Bill and I.
24:17This was the NFC Championship.
24:20You can tell how elated Bill Walsh was.
24:23He wore his, you know, his emotions on his shoulder.
24:28I mean, at times, you'd have to sort of hold Eddie off.
24:30He'd be so emotional.
24:31He wanted to win so, so badly, especially after we'd won, say, two Super Bowls, after we'd become a dynasty.
24:40Then he wanted to and expected to win every week.
24:44That made it very, very difficult.
24:47Bill took things super hard.
24:49He and Eddie had this love-hate relationship.
24:52It teetered on creative and toxic tension, you know what I mean?
24:55It was like teetering.
24:57Ed DuBarlo and I have gone along beautifully.
25:00I've really treasured the opportunity to work for him.
25:03Eddie probably fired Bill three times.
25:06Eddie fired him like six or seven times.
25:08Eddie told me to fire Bill 12 times at least.
25:10At least 12 times.
25:11He gets frustrated when we lose and so do I.
25:14I do think my dad might have been fired on a flight home from a game.
25:18And I think we've worked well together for many years.
25:20I think I fired him in New Orleans after a game.
25:24But, you know, this too shall be mended.
25:30You know, you have these couples that can't live with each other, can't live without each other.
25:36These two photos sum it all up.
25:39It could be as emotional and sad as you could imagine where you package in years of stress and turmoil
25:47and being the best, only the best.
25:49And then there were the moments where you realized what you really had in the relationship and what you really
25:55were able to do together.
25:56I'd like to say we don't have a Bill Walsh in the NFL without Eddie DeBarlow.
26:01And Eddie DeBarlow maybe never has a trophy without Bill.
26:04Who knows?
26:05They gave each other what they needed.
26:08And so long as nothing went too terribly wrong, then you had a shot at winning.
26:14The morning after, every picture does tell a story.
26:17And the faces here pretty much fit the mood.
26:20The Viking loss changed a bunch of dynamics there.
26:25That loss was devastating.
26:27It almost, in a sense, cost me my job.
26:30My problem was I had served as president, general manager, and head coach and offensive coordinator at the same time.
26:36Had so many things to think about.
26:38I'll be back.
26:38If they come by, I'll be here.
26:41He was taking on absolutely way too much responsibility.
26:44Because he was running the offense, overseeing the defense.
26:47He would sit there with a projector until 2 in the morning, looking at the plays.
26:52He did the team travel.
26:54The marketing department.
26:56We have some company.
26:57These are 49er players.
26:59I'm the coach.
27:00I'm Bill Walsh.
27:00Welcome to our locker room.
27:02And welcome to your suites.
27:04You know, back in those days, we had like one marketing person in the building.
27:08So for sure he was involved in all aspects, probably making the decision.
27:12These are the kind of things he was being pushed around with.
27:14Instead of just coaching football, which was his bread and butter.
27:17So he needed a break.
27:20My dad found out kind of a roundabout way that he'd been demoted.
27:23Now, obviously, my dad's ego maybe could fit in here.
27:27He took out the lights, maybe.
27:28He could fit, his ego could fit in here in that time of his life.
27:31So he took that as a personal attack.
27:36I think the pressure that 87 ratcheted up on him, in particular in 88, made him miserable.
27:43And because he wore his agonies on his sleeve, he did the one thing a coach should never do.
27:49There's a quarterback controversy developing.
27:51We're going to have to select between Steve Young and Joe Montana.
27:54That's a critical area for us.
27:56Now, it came out in his own words.
27:58Not in my words, not in any other columnist's words.
28:00I was really mystified.
28:02It is tossing red meat to the sports media.
28:04It's instant headlines.
28:06People like controversy, period.
28:08I think they're going to have to kick me out.
28:10If I can still take the beating, I still want to play.
28:12I mean, and if I can still do the job.
28:14In my own mind, I try to beat Joe.
28:15You know, I'm going to be better than Joe.
28:17And now, you know, obviously that's not going to happen for a little while.
28:20But that's my goal.
28:20And I think it's a great challenge.
28:22And I think I thrive on that.
28:23I think it's a lot of fun.
28:28Bill Walsh, he remembers the last time that they played the Giants here.
28:32It was a nightmare for the 49ers.
28:34It was a nightmare for Joe Montana.
28:36And I really feel that he would like to see how Steve Young can do against them.
28:40We can't guarantee that everybody's feelings are going to be treated perfectly.
28:46But in the spirit of what we're doing, we've all got one thing in mind.
28:50That's to bring this team as close together as we can get it and perform the play.
28:54Steve Young comes on for his first start of the year.
28:57There's Joe Montana there in the cap.
28:59He's disappointed that he didn't get the start today.
29:02Was I mad at the problem?
29:04I'm pretty sure I probably was.
29:06If I wasn't, something was wrong with me.
29:24I didn't feel like Bill pitted us against each other.
29:28He didn't look for us to, you know, have a dog fight.
29:31It really wasn't that way, but it was, that's where the awkwardness was.
29:38It's a funny thing because there's like a fine line.
29:41You want the team to win, but you still want to play.
29:44And this is where Joe Montana is so strong.
29:47There's no one that operates with their offense better than Montana.
29:50People will say, ma, you're not a team player.
29:54Well, I am a team player.
29:56And so it's this space that you're in trying to figure out how to navigate it.
30:04Steve Young stays on the bench, and here comes Joe Montana.
30:09I know I'm better than that, and I know I can play with that team and make that team better.
30:141.21 to go, and the 49ers have fallen behind by four.
30:19It was one of those things I, I was always ready for an opportunity.
30:23Montana to throw.
30:25Throws long for Rice down the sideline.
30:29He's gone!
30:30I just remember looking back, I could see my entire team like chasing me to the end zone.
30:36A 77-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Rice.
30:41Man, it's just like, you just never know.
30:44And Rice erases a nightmare of three years making.
30:47I was always ready to play.
30:49My gracious.
30:51I don't think the 49ers are ready to put Joe Montana on the shelf yet.
30:58Hey, Ryan, you can look at me and not the camera, if you will.
31:01A couple questions I'm sure you've answered a million times you're tired of hearing.
31:03How much did the quarterback controversy affect the team?
31:05Okay, the quarterback controversy.
31:07We've had a quarterback controversy.
31:08A quarterback controversy.
31:10A quarterback controversy developing.
31:12Did I ask you about that?
31:13About the controversy?
31:14No, you didn't.
31:15I'm glad you didn't.
31:16Okay, I didn't see this.
31:17Can you believe that someone in San Francisco is questioning the play of Joe Montana?
31:22Now Joe's having to look over his shoulder, and there waiting for him is Steve Young.
31:27We have two quarterbacks, and we may go to more of a system where both of them play.
31:32Can you rotate quarterbacks and be effective?
31:34Well, right now, in this position, I'd like to think we could rotate a little bit.
31:36I'm sure Steve's being a little diplomatic, and I'm sure he'd like to play full-time, too.
31:42You have to.
31:44I think there's a quarterback controversy in San Francisco.
31:49Oh, it seems like it.
31:51I'm surprised that Joe Montana's not in there.
31:53I can't believe that they would take him out now if there's nothing wrong with him.
31:59I'm not sure what Bill was trying to accomplish.
32:01I don't know if it was simply that he thought it was time for Joe, and it was time to,
32:05you
32:06know, get younger or stronger.
32:08I think a lot of guys felt, well, he's just trying to light a fire under Joe.
32:12When you make a mistake, you know, and you see the other guy there, and maybe you start
32:16to warm it up, and then things start going through your mind.
32:18You know, you're going, oh, guy, if I make another one, am I coming out?
32:20Joe already is a self-starter.
32:23He didn't need a fire lid under him, but it certainly brought a lot of unwanted attention
32:31and questions.
32:31And now Joe Montana's coming back in again.
32:35This doesn't make any sense.
32:36Now you've got a coach who constantly doubts himself and is, you know, trying to reinvent
32:41the wheel that he built.
32:44It's a lot of psychoanalytical angst running wild.
32:48The team had to get used to it, too, right?
32:50How do we deal with this?
32:51Joe will come up, or Steve.
32:53Come up, they've got their quarterback at zero.
32:55You know, you don't want to keep dropping after the face, Joe or Steve.
33:00You weren't really quite sure of what was going on, which it was unsettled in my mind.
33:04It must have been a little unsettling in the guys that were participating.
33:07Particularly to Joe Montana.
33:09I don't think any more or less than Steve Young.
33:11Steve, are you satisfied with this kind of role, like a relief pitcher?
33:16I'm satisfied to play for the 49ers, and we'll take it from there.
33:20You know, I've talked about wanting to play.
33:22I mean, if you want to talk to someone who wants to play, come talk to me.
33:25Wow.
33:26Just handle it.
33:26You just handle it.
33:28That was grittier than I thought I was back then.
33:30I'm kind of excited that I was that gritty.
33:33I wasn't trouble, and I wasn't going to be trouble.
33:36But don't ask me what I want to do.
33:40Welcome to Soldier Field in Chicago.
33:43The 49ers drop two games behind the Saints if they lose tonight to the Bears.
33:49McMahon dropped from behind by Haley.
33:53Charles Haley got hurt, so I went down to the locker room,
33:58and there was a television that he was watching the game on,
34:02and it was a close game.
34:04Well, here's the better game this year.
34:06Walsh, at one point or another, has gone to the bench for Steve Young.
34:10Bill was trying to win the game, but when he put Steve in, it got bad at the end.
34:15Fourth and two.
34:16Young lost it for Craig, but Craig is stopped short of the first down by Dewarsom.
34:22Haley jumped up, and I took this TV, and I threw it,
34:27and it went right by his head, and it smashed against the wall.
34:31He said, you're crazier than I am.
34:34The 49ers, they have really put themselves in a hole.
34:38We are back live at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
34:42The Niners have a big win against the Vikings.
34:44There was a line of not understanding who was going to play and who wasn't going to play.
34:48So it will be Steve Young, and he says he is ready.
34:52Bill was, remember what he told me when he first was recruiting me?
34:54Your legs are a superpower, and I believe that you're going to be great because of it.
35:00But the part that he made clear right when I got there was,
35:03you need to learn the job of quarterback.
35:05It's not running around.
35:07You need to run the play and get the most out of the play.
35:10I can't have you bailing early because you're not willing to stand in there and make the throw.
35:15And if you're going to be great, if those legs are ever going to be valuable,
35:18Vikings lead by four points.
35:20It's going to be because you were an amazing quarterback in the pocket.
35:29Young comes out of it.
35:31Still on his feet of Steve Young, and still.
35:33And so when I did that against the Vikings, it was kind of, oh no, oh no, oh good.
35:38Young cuts back.
35:41Young touchdown.
35:4449ers win it on a breathtaking run by Steve Young.
35:48And Bill was never one that, like, nice run, great job, you know.
35:52Any compliment was backhanded.
35:54Steve is a frustrating guy, but on the other hand,
35:57he makes a big play like this that wins the game.
35:59You might think that Bill loved you.
36:01You better check tomorrow.
36:05You see that picture right there, guys?
36:06That's what my father would look like when I showed him my report card.
36:11I think he kind of honed his skills with me and the family,
36:14getting the most out of people.
36:16I never could get praise from him.
36:18Everybody in this world wants praise from anywhere they can get it.
36:21That's why people have dogs, for God's sakes.
36:22And I think he picked up on that and realized that if he kept me wanting praise,
36:28I'd have to work harder and harder to get it,
36:30and then he would never then quite give it.
36:33So you were always wondering, gosh, am I doing a good job?
36:37But I had to work that much harder, just like, you know, Joe.
36:41If you had a great game, a lot of times you didn't get the game ball because that's what he
36:45expected from you.
36:47I had a game, and I had over 10 receptions, three touchdowns.
36:51He sent someone down to the locker room to tell me to come upstairs.
36:55So I'm thinking, okay, Bill is going to just pat me on my back and say, great job and stuff
37:00like that.
37:01And he looks at me with a straight face, and he said, I need more from you.
37:05And so I'm walking back downstairs, and I see Joe going upstairs.
37:09I see Ronnie.
37:10I said, good luck, guys.
37:13That was him to a T.
37:15I mean, he didn't demand perfection just of you.
37:17He wanted it of himself, too.
37:19What about pressure?
37:20Do you think to be a successful head coach, well, you have to enjoy pressure?
37:23No, you don't enjoy pressure unless you are a little thick or strange.
37:28You don't necessarily enjoy that, but that becomes part of it.
37:31For Coach Walsh, the urgency is there every day, and you can never let your foot off the gas pedal.
37:38It's a very hard, unsustainable career choice, and that's why I don't think many coaches last for more than 8
37:47to 10 years.
37:52It's not often that the Bay Area and most of its major news services get caught up in what most
37:57believe to be a sports story.
37:58But tonight, it is, and we are.
38:01The front page story on today's San Francisco Chronicle.
38:06Joe Montana smells a trade.
38:10Montana was sidelined last week when his backup, Steve Young, turned in a sterling performance and a game-saving 49
38:17-yard run for a touchdown.
38:19Coach Bill Walsh said Young would again start next Sunday.
38:25Joe may be available in a limited way, but I'm not sure that he's going to be 100%.
38:30I'm sure I was mad as hell by him starting the next week.
38:35Joe has been saying he's played less than 100% before.
38:39Why the change now?
38:40Well, as time passes, I make judgments.
38:42I thought that, okay, so he's trying to replace me at that point.
38:53Montana is quoted as saying he thinks the coach wants to trade it.
39:04It was intense.
39:07And that created more drama.
39:10Not your average day at the office for the 49ers.
39:13Scads of reporters on the scent of scandal.
39:16The media refusing to budge from the quarterback controversy.
39:19It's like, where are we going?
39:20What are we doing?
39:21And we're all wondering.
39:22I mean, I'm in the middle of it.
39:28Again, Bill was the one that was orchestrating it.
39:31Steve Young is going to get his second start for the 49ers in place of Joe Montana.
39:34Joe will dress for the game today.
39:37Bill had made it pretty clear that if we won this game, I'd continue to play.
39:42And Steve Young brings out the 49ers.
39:44And I know that I have to play or I'll go crazy.
39:48Young finally lets it fly.
39:49Touchdown!
39:50So the 49ers now with a commanding lead here.
39:54And there is a quarterback discussion over there.
39:56A lot of people just assume there must be a sharp rivalry between Young and Montana.
40:01We never had an argument.
40:03We never had words.
40:05You know what I mean?
40:05Like, it never was that way.
40:07It was just, there we were.
40:10He was the best in the game and I was trying to be.
40:13They might have not been the best friends, but, you know, you're not going to like everyone.
40:18I haven't met too many superheroes that get along.
40:23Batman or Superman.
40:25It didn't matter to me.
40:28There was a lot of talk about Joe Montana.
40:30Not only being traded, but Steve Young starting, Joe Montana being through.
40:37I knew I'd get another opportunity.
40:41Still time in the fourth for them to make something happen.
40:44Lomax going deep to the corner and it is a touchdown!
40:48Against Phoenix, we forgot to come out the second half and play football.
40:5323 to 10.
40:54Hold on to your helmets at home, folks.
40:59Touchdown!
41:0124 to 23.
41:03The Cardinals win it.
41:04The last thing I ever thought would happen to the 49ers is to have a lead like that and lose
41:08it.
41:09I thought we did that to other people and it happened to us.
41:14One thing we can't do as an organization is begin to blame each other for what went wrong.
41:20Because it's so easy to start saying, if we'd only, this guy'd only done this, that one'd only done this.
41:25We'd only made this call.
41:27We'd have won it.
41:27And that's true.
41:29There will be some teams that if they take one more loss, they go in the tank.
41:33And we've taken one more loss.
41:35Others will keep battling.
41:37So let's concentrate on the Raiders and take it from there.
41:41Joe Montana, back at quarterback this week.
41:47Montana at the controls on first down.
41:50He delivers the strike.
41:51Complete to Rice, who then fumbles the football and the Raiders have it.
41:5549ers give it to Roger Craig, the NFC's leading rusher.
41:59Humble!
41:59And what does that do to your team's confidence going into the locker room at halftime?
42:03So, I'm in the locker room, and I am really not happy at all.
42:08And we had a large glass Coke.
42:15It wasn't just Coke.
42:16It was water, everything else.
42:18And I went over it, and I kicked it in.
42:22And it went everywhere.
42:25And the team came in and looked at me.
42:29What I remember about that time was just the feeling that, you know, the team was going to get gutted.
42:37Mr. D was getting rid of everybody.
42:40It was doomsday.
42:42The standard was the standard.
42:44And we had won in 84.
42:47Isn't that nice?
42:48We had failed in 85.
42:51We had failed in 86.
42:54We had big time failed in 87.
42:57Nobody expected that they would lose to Minnesota here today.
43:01I think that was, to a large degree, kind of enough is enough.
43:06You're searching for answers.
43:08This play, that play, this person, that person.
43:14Fourth and one.
43:16This is the ballgame.
43:18Craig, no, Rice on the reverse.
43:21The Raiders smell it out and stop him.
43:23And the Raiders take over.
43:25We lose to the Raiders, and we're 6-5.
43:29And at 6-5, you're not close to being eliminated.
43:33But you can smell it.
43:35You know, it'll all come back around.
43:37You know, if we give up, then it won't.
43:39But we can't afford to give up.
43:42The 49er standard was to win the Super Bowl.
43:44But the spirit of football is adversity is coming.
43:50It's going to happen every season.
43:52It's never going to be smooth sailing.
43:54And I think caring about losing, that's what draws out great character.
44:01We knew we were good enough.
44:02That wasn't the issue.
44:03Look at that roster.
44:04But from what we've seen of late, we're playing for our jobs, our futures.
44:11Every team has moments like that.
44:14When you lose, when something goes wrong, the players are always sitting there going,
44:22what can we do to change this?
44:25The team meeting was called, it was players only, right?
44:29It was one of those meetings where, let's get together, let's figure out what we're going
44:32to do.
44:33The theme of that meeting in 88 was, hey, if you've got something to say, say it.
44:38Don't keep holding it in, say it.
44:40We had never had that kind of an airing of feelings.
44:44Ronnie, well, as far as being a Hall of Famer and all-time great player, was one of the
44:49best natural leaders I've ever been around.
44:54And, you know, a natural leader doesn't have to say things all the time.
45:00But when it came, you listened.
45:03Ronnie got up in front of the whole team and told every guy, we don't have coaches, we don't
45:11have media, we don't have families, we don't have an owner.
45:16For the rest of this season, we have the guys in this group, the guys in this circle.
45:22You didn't want to let the other guy down.
45:25And the most important thing that could happen to us at that time was to have that kind of
45:29meeting, get our collective heads out of our butts, and start playing the way we're supposed
45:36to play.
45:39No one suffers but us when we lose.
45:42No one.
45:43So we're in this thing alone.
45:44You don't have any friends outside this room and your families, just so we all understand
45:49that.
45:49And what happens is we get tighter and tighter as a group.
45:53There's something out there for us.
45:56There's a reason for all of this.
45:58We're seasoning ourselves for something bigger.
46:06This could be it.
46:08This could be my last game.
46:11This is serious stuff.
46:13It's all on the line.
46:14I want to play.
46:15I don't want to end my career sitting here on the bench.
46:18If there's a job that you want, then be the greatest in the world of the job you have.
46:22In spite of everything, you got to find a way to do it together.
46:25You only get one shot.
46:28We all won the Super Bowl that night.
46:57We all won the Super Bowl.
47:01We all won the Super Bowl.
47:03We all won the Super Bowl.
47:04We all won the Super Bowl.
47:04We all won the Super Bowl.
47:05We all won the Super Bowl.
47:05We all won the Super Bowl.
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