SB Nation User Blog: howtheyscored

Remembering the Genius Part 4: An Interview About Bill Walsh

howtheyscored — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:57:13 -0000

Today we unveil the penultimate piece of the Remembering the Genius series on NinersNation. If you're just finding out about this segment now, Remembering the Genius is a temporary segment that we're running on Wednesdays. Arne Christensen, who posts here as arnec, interviewed David Harris about Bill Walsh, and we're running the interview here, while it lasts. You can read the earlier parts here.

And as before, I think it's important that you have this information and these links available every week:

Please enjoy Part 3, after the jump.

Arne: In the time you talked with Walsh, did he reminisce, was he nostalgic about his coaching days, or was he really just analytical?

David: He looked at those years with a cold eye, he wasn't fooling himself.

Arne: It sounds like winning the Super Bowl in 1988 was a surprise for him, different from '81, but both were surprises.

David: In '88 he was convinced they weren't going to win. He thought they were a year away from peaking. In '81 they simply caught lightning in a bottle. The season's a dynamic process, hard to anticipate, and certainly Walsh had no idea they were going to win.

Arne: People tend to focus more on the Bears and the Giants, Ditka and Parcells, as the 49ers' rivals in the ‘80s, but I get the sense that Walsh thought Joe Gibbs was his real counterpart.

David: Sure. He had contempt for Ditka and Parcells, he didn't think they were capable of matching him. He saw Gibbs as his chief rival. Gibbs was coaching on a whole other level than Ditka and Parcells.

Arne: There's a lot of emphasis on the replaceable parts system Walsh had, and how well it worked, but there must have been some cost to it as well.

David: He had more emotional attachment to the players than he let on, far more than he was prepared to reveal. That was the function of a role he played with them: he had to manage the players and not get too attached to them. He felt his only justification for moving players was the team, and whether a move hurt or helped its performance. Everything else was secondary.

There was no basis to keeping that role in later years, so he could express the emotions he'd kept secret before. And the edges to the relationships had worn off: he and the players weren't banging heads any more. There was a reconciliation with many players.

Arne: Your book has the "Genius" title, and I suppose Walsh was aware of that. Did he talk about his response to having that label put on him?

David: He didn't acknowledge that he was proud of it, he didn't go around beating his own chest over that label. He wouldn't say anything like that in public. But my goodness, who wouldn't want to be called a genius? He liked it, but it was too presumptuous to say he was smarter than everyone else.

Arne: The old GM, Joe Thomas-everything I've heard indicates that he tore apart the team.

David: Walsh had to rebuild the team entirely. Thomas had cut the franchise's ties to the community, to alumni. He walked all over the team, he decimated the team. It was a major effort Walsh was undertaking when he started his job.

Arne: I was just looking at a list of what the '81 49ers went on to do, and it looked like half or more of the players went into business careers. Was he proud of that?

David: I suspect so. He didn't make a big point out of it. He did help his players make the transition to a post-football career. I know he was very proud of the minority coaching program the 49ers had. He deserves enormous credit for what it accomplished. Denny Green, Ray Rhodes, they both came out of that program. Also the people who emerged from internships in the program to become coaches, Tyrone Willingham for one.

Week 9 Prediction Games: The Resulting Results

howtheyscored — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:03:15 -0000

Scene: Saturday, lunchwise: howtheyscored and that shrewd and knavish sprite, groug, standing alone. They had been talking about football like normal people, but suddenly they start talking like crazy people about Oberon knows what.

howtheyscored
About the games go swifter than a punt,
     And Kyle Orton of the Bears look thou hunt:
     All fancy-sick he is, and full of pep
     With wins and wins, that cost the pundits' rep.
     By some illusion see thou bring him here:
     I'll charm his eyes against defenders who appear.

groug
I go, I go; look how I go;
Swift as the flight of a Drew Brees throw. [Exit groug]

howtheyscored
Lint fluff of this yellow towel,
   Hit with accuracy foul,
   Sink in apple of his eye.
   When the safety he doth espy,
   Lo, the games this week are mine
   By which count sabotage is fine.
   To let groug score once, by and by,
   Is a simple charity.

[Re-Enter groug]

groug
Captain of our hairy band,
   Kyle Orton is here at hand,
   And the tool, was watching film,
   Hoping for a winner's helm.
    With that, shall this week's games we see?

[groug takes a quick look at all of your predictions]

groug
Lord, what fools these mortals be!

howtheyscored (To Himself)
Them and you, the noise you'll make
When 15 points this week I take!

Scene: Monday, nightwise: howtheyscored and groug reconvene, again alone.

groug
LOL howtheyscored.
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHHAHAH GOOD PLAN JERK.

howtheyscored
You suck.
You thankless puck.

Want scores?

Tennessee @ 49ers:

CB30, groug (22)
Ninerfromacrossthepond (28)

Pittsburgh @ Denver:

nacho49 (0) - Little did Puck-groug know what we were conspiring to do!
PHUT!, sfgfan, etb2 (6)
shulkdog, nocal81, Dub4lif3, groug, whobob, LASVEGASNINER (8)
YoungWillis, jpgarfunkle, Ninerfromacrossthepond (12)
illini49er, bayboy, RBoogy29, CB30, 5-0 (14)

Dallas @ Philadelphia:

RBoogy29, nacho49 (8)
Ten-Man (14)
JoeO (16)
groug (20)
gbears16 (22)

Baltimore @ Cincinnati:

fortyniners (10)
ZeroIndulgence (14)
Drew K, J2daZ (18)
danknerd49, grantmp, Dubs fan in Boston, groug, howtheyscored, SpurredOn, leaping_larry, Fooch (26)
nocal81, gbears16, wjackalope, beecharmer (28)

Arizona @ Chicago:

groug (16)
grantmp, DuikeBuike, sfgfan (20)
illini49er (22)
hudd07, 5-0, albertoleecho (26)
Dubs fan in Boston, rlott#42, jpgarfunkle (28)

San Diego @ New York Giants:

danknerd49, Dubs fan in Boston (6)
groug (10)
shulkdog, 49erLou, etb2 (12)
LASVEGASNINER, SpurredOn (14)
PHUT! (18)

That makes our week 9 leaderboard look like this:

1.	ro128487	62
1.	PHUT!	62
3.	groug	61
4.	cassusriff	55
4.	jpgarfunkle	55
6.	howtheyscored	54
7.	JoeO	53
7.	nocal81	53
9.	bignerd	51
10.	DuikeBuike	49
10.	grantmp	49
12.	5-0	48
12.	Ninerfromacrossthepond	48
12.	sfgfan	48
15.	wjackalope	47
16.	CB30	46
16.	LASVEGASNINER	46
18.	etb2	45
19.	YoungWillis	44
19.	nacho49	44
21.	shlecko	43
22.	urnext	42
22.	danknerd49	42
22.	illini49er	42
25.	Ten-Man	40
25.	gbears16	40
25.	leaping_larry	40
25.	SpurredOn	40
25.	49erLou	40
25.	Dub4lif3	40
31.	bonbrillio	37
32.	MontanaPass	36
33.	youngbuckeroo	35
33.	these3words	35
33.	BEETLE49715	35
33.	Mike Hawk	35
33.	Fooch	35
38.	J2daZ	34
38.	Drew K	34
38.	ZeroIndulgence	34
41.	mpotter14	33
42.	renke81	32
42.	nini9er	32
44.	sundaysfinest	31
44.	jtoj	31
44.	beecharmer	31
47.	ProfessorBigelow	30
48.	foosball4949	29
48.	bayboy	29
50.	Joshpreet	28
50.	rlott#42	28
52.	Persiflage	26
53.	remembertheCATCH	25
53.	Sloan	25
55.	ar4gsw	24
56.	snowweasel30	23
56.	albertoleecho	23
58.	49RFAN	22
58.	RBoogy29	22
60.	whobob	21
61.	Widowwolf	20
62.	mikemccwolf	19
63.	Kaizre	18
63.	49ersfan29405	18
65.	hudd07	16
66.	shovel-25	15
66.	Number22Drew	15
68.	Florida Danny	14
69.	Ninjames	13
69.	corvette49rdave	13
71.	Riding The F Train	12
71.	shulkdog	12
73.	proudcanadian99	10
73.	Iwantwinners	10
73.	Ceradecke	10
73.	49ERFAN	10
73.	fortyniners	10
78.	Tony C	9
78.	ronniemac03	9
78.	Mr. Nice Guy	9
81.	Smithisstilltheanswer	8
81.	Dubs fan in Boston	8
83.	supraman	6
83.	lincypoo i wuv u	6
83.	FaStRmAn	6
83.	demise87	6
83.	crevis1987	6
88.	49ersAllTheWay	5
89.	StevenC	3
89.	RilezG	3
89.	ManBearPig21	3
89.	LADubbz45	3
89.	JerseyNinerFan	3
89.	De Stijl	3
89.	CW30	3
96.	Tricky-Nicky	2
96.	connie mack	2
96.	Brendan Scolari	2
96.	dez4o8	2
100.	UnleashTheGore	1
100.	nostocksjustbonds	1

So, ummm... I'm not sure what all that above was. Shakespeare scholars assert that howtheyscored was so confident about his predictions going into Sunday that he struck a deal with the heretofore hapless groug, such that they would sabotage the eyes of Kyle Orton and allow groug the advantage of points in the one particular game. Unbeknownst to howtheyscored, leading scholars say, groug was pulling the ol' one-two. While he was away, fetching Orton, he in fact went around the rest of the league and rigged all of the other games, before bringing Orton to howtheyscored as though nothing had happened. Then he called me a fool.

Sadly, it's true. Not the iambic babbletameter. The fool part. I was a fool. As were many of you. Not groug, though. He took full advantage. I think he probably had the best week. I'm not going to make sure I'm right about that. It just seems fairly obvious.

Then cassusriff and jpgarfunkle moved forward. The top is getting more and more interesting by the week, and I believe we actually have our first tie for first of the season (big ups to PHUT! for that).

And how about nacho49 nailing that Steelers prediction? Good for you! Puts you square in the top 20, looking to strike.

I think Ninerfromacrossthepond, RBoogy29, and danknerd49 also had good weeks.

Kudos to me and ro128487 for laying big fat eggs (his bigger than mine this week).

I'm going to hurry this up because I know Fooch will be posting the new games tonight and I don't want to be too late on this one. Congrats all! Let's finish strong over the last half of the year!

And check your darned scores.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Remembering the Genius Part 3: An Interview About Bill Walsh

howtheyscored — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:29:43 -0000

By now you probably recognize this segment, but in case you don't: Remembering the Genius is a temporary segment that we're running on Wednesdays. Arne Christensen, who posts here as arnec, interviewed David Harris about Bill Walsh, and we're running the interview here, while it lasts. You can read the earlier parts here.

Again, because it's important to me that you have this information and these links available weekly:

Please enjoy Part 3, after the jump.

Arne: The '81 team, what was its larger significance?

David: [Mayor Dianne] Feinstein said that team saved the city. There was so much of a malaise at that time, the whole area questioned itself. There'd been the shooting [of George Moscone and Harvey Milk], the Jim Jones massacre; it was a bad time.

Arne: I think the 49ers had lost 18 games in a row on the road coming into the 1980 season, but at the end of the decade they were a dominant road team. It sounds like Walsh repeatedly used military analogies to help his team on the road. Did that work?

David: The military-wars-it was a reference point for Walsh. He could pull situations from there and use them as lessons. After all, football does have similarities to war. The whole us against them idea, that was arguably the core to his road success. It was a certain asset to them.

Arne: Looking through the games in 1981, you see that time after time the defense would have 5, 6 turnovers. I don't think it gets mentioned very often.

David: Yes, the defense was critical. In '81 the defense carried them through several of their big games, the Steelers, and the Cowboys. Sure, Dwight's catch was the winning moment, but the defense kept them in the game. The offense had 6 turnovers, so the defense had a lot of work keeping the Cowboys from scoring.

Arne: Walsh's approach to the 1982 strike-what did it change for the rest of his career?

David: '82 was the dividing line for his approach to coaching, the end of him being a players' coach. He felt betrayed by the players, felt they hadn't committed to the game the way he had. He took it very personally. It was part of the reason he kept his distance from them in following years. He felt the players had stepped outside the bounds of appropriate behavior. Cocaine ravaged that team. He took steps after the season to get the party animals out onto the waiver line. He was convinced they were not as concerned about winning as he was.

There was also his position as the GM, president; he was assessing players, figuring out how much to pay them. Keeping that distance was also a motivating tool: he didn't want the players to be comfortable. He presented different sides to a lot of his players. They'd never quite know what he was doing. He felt that was important for them to be able to function.

Arne: Leaving the team after the 1982 season ended-was there ever a sign that he thought he should have apologized for doing that?

David: He had tried to overcome those feelings of being abandoned by the players. He felt he was justified in leaving the team, that it had failed him. He felt he would have said something he regretted if he'd spoken to them. He was overwrought, shaky; he was plunged into his depression.

Arne: There are a few examples of the 49ers picking up people like Clark, Hicks, who were ignored by the rest of the league. Was that a case of Walsh just having an eye for talent?

David: There was that, yes, but also, it was a case of picking players to play certain roles he had in mind for them. He wanted to find out what skills people had, the things they did well. Then he'd develop plays to use the player for that feature, to use his talent.

Week Eight Prediction Games: The Surprising Results

howtheyscored — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:16:03 -0000

I'm speechless. If you want to know why, go ahead and take a look at the results for the Texans game.
I have, like, 700 other things that I need to do tonight, some of which actually involve my future.

Therefore, you get no ramblings. Check out the scores, though. And then double-check them out. Data entry is not an exact science, no matter how many nano-bots I have the Borg inject directly into my bloodstream.

49ers @ Indianapolis:

YoungWillis (12)
wjackalope (18)
Drew K, ZeroIndulgence, urnext, bignerd, albertoleecho, ProfessorBigelow, beecharmer (20)
Ninerfromacrossthepond (24)
J2daZ, whobob, PHUT!, CB30, LASVEGASNINER, grantmp, jpgrafunkle, leaping_larry, MontanaPass, shlecko (26)

Atlanta @ New Orleans:

hudd07 (2)
danknerd49, mpotter14, JoeO, ro128487, grantmp, 49RFAN, snowweasel30, SpurredOn, Ninerfromacrossthepond, bignerd, shlecko (6)
49erLou, bonbrillio, illini49er, Dub4lif3, youngbuckeroo, beecharmer (8)
these3words, 5-0 (10)
cassusriff, nocal81, LASVEGASNINER, Mike Hawk, wjackalope, urnext, MontanaPass (12)

New York Giants @ Philadelphia:

Mike Hawk, Fooch, nini9er (18)
bonbrillio (20)
Ten-Man, PHUT!, ro128487, 5-0, urnext, beecharmer (24)
jtoj, Ninerfromacrossthepond, bignerd (26)
J2daZ (28)

Denver @ Baltimore:

these3words, BEETLE49715 (6)
YoungWillis, nocal81, sundaysfinest, youngbuckeroo, nini9er (12)
groug, Widowwolf, nacho49 (14)
J2daZ (16)
hudd07, PHUT!, jtoj, SpurredOn, 5-0, Ninerfromacrossthepond, Fooch, bignerd, albertoleecho (20)

Houston @ Buffalo:

danknerd49, rlott#42, PHUT!, JoeO, BEETLE49715, shlecko (0) - Okay, who hacked the site?
49erLou (4)
cassusriff, DuikeBuike, YoungWillis, fortyniners, grantmp, foosball4949, snowweasel30, 5-0, etb2, nini9er (6)
J2daZ, these3words, LASVEGASNINER, illini49er, bayboy, sfgfan, gbears16, Ninerfromacrossthepond, Fooch (8)
ZeroIndulgence, jtoj (12)

Minnesota @ Green Bay:

CB30 (8)
ProfessorBigelow (10)
DuikeBuike, whobob, nocal81, sfgfan, Mike Hawk (14)
albertoleecho (16)
Drew K (18)

And that makes our week eight leaderboard look like:

1.	ro128487	62
2.	PHUT!	57
3.	cassusriff	55
4.	howtheyscored	52
4.	jpgarfunkle	52
6.	bignerd	51
7.	JoeO	50
8.	nocal81	49
9.	wjackalope	46
10.	5-0	45
10.	DuikeBuike	45
12.	grantmp	43
12.	shlecko	43
14.	urnext	42
14.	Ninerfromacrossthepond	42
14.	YoungWillis	42
17.	LASVEGASNINER	41
18.	groug	40
18.	sfgfan	40
18.	CB30	40
21.	leaping_larry	38
21.	gbears16	38
21.	illini49er	38
21.	etb2	38
25.	Dub4lif3	37
25.	bonbrillio	37
25.	49erLou	37
28.	MontanaPass	36
28.	Ten-Man	36
28.	SpurredOn	36
31.	youngbuckeroo	35
31.	these3words	35
31.	danknerd49	35
31.	BEETLE49715	35
31.	Mike Hawk	35
36.	mpotter14	33
36.	Fooch	33
38.	renke81	32
38.	nini9er	32
40.	sundaysfinest	31
40.	jtoj	31
40.	J2daZ	31
40.	Drew K	31
44.	beecharmer	30
44.	ZeroIndulgence	30
44.	ProfessorBigelow	30
47.	nacho49	29
47.	foosball4949	29
49.	Joshpreet	28
49.	bayboy	28
51.	rlott#42	27
52.	Persiflage	26
53.	remembertheCATCH	25
53.	Sloan	25
55.	ar4gsw	24
56.	snowweasel30	23
57.	49RFAN	22
58.	albertoleecho	21
59.	Widowwolf	20
60.	mikemccwolf	19
61.	Kaizre	18
61.	49ersfan29405	18
61.	whobob	18
64.	RBoogy29	16
65.	shovel-25	15
65.	Number22Drew	15
67.	Florida Danny	14
67.	hudd07	14
69.	Ninjames	13
69.	corvette49rdave	13
71.	Riding The F Train	12
72.	proudcanadian99	10
72.	Iwantwinners	10
72.	Ceradecke	10
72.	49ERFAN	10
76.	Tony C	9
76.	ronniemac03	9
76.	Mr. Nice Guy	9
79.	Smithisstilltheanswer	8
80.	supraman	6
80.	shulkdog	6
80.	lincypoo i wuv u	6
80.	FaStRmAn	6
80.	demise87	6
80.	crevis1987	6
86.	49ersAllTheWay	5
86.	fortyniners	5
88.	StevenC	3
88.	RilezG	3
88.	ManBearPig21	3
88.	LADubbz45	3
88.	JerseyNinerFan	3
88.	De Stijl	3
88.	CW30	3
95.	Tricky-Nicky	2
95.	connie mack	2
95.	Brendan Scolari	2
95.	dez4o8	2
99.	UnleashTheGore	1
99.	nostocksjustbonds	1

Uh... wow. Just wow. I mean, I know I've been complaining about the games being harder to predict this year, but that's a really messed up way to restore the balance. Especially since I didn't get any of the cut. Not any of it! I made a good prediction in that Texans game, darnit! And no points! Lame.

So danknerd49, rlott#42, PHUT!, JoeO, BEETLE49715, shlecko: congratu-fudgy-lations. I mean, honestly, good job. Great job, really. PHUT!, JoeO, and shlecko made their strikes to get up with the leaders, and danknerd49, rlott#42, and BEETLE49715 bounded into the thick of the pack, where - as we can see - anything can happen.

You have to like what bignerd and 5-0 are doing. In a tumultuous week, both of them did more than hold tight after forgetting to claim their apparently free perfect scores in the Texas game - they moved up in the rankings.

What can you say about ro128487? He's in first. La-dee-fudging-da.

Silently, almost sneakily, Ninerfromacrossthepond is moving up. This guy has won the games before, and it looks like he's just heating up right now.

Fooch and beecharmer also had good weeks - and beecharmer only JUST got the predictions posted in time (10:00 a.m. timestamp!).

If I missed you, I'm sorry. As I said, I'm kind of rushed. Which is another good reason to double-check your scores!

And next week you guys are going down.

The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled - but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved, precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A wrong is un-redressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally un-redressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.

The Raidas Continue to Be a Comedy of Errors

howtheyscored — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:23:34 -0000

The Raidas Continue to Be a Comedy of Errors

Tom CabLOL accused of more violence.

Remembering the Genius Part 2: An Interview About Bill Walsh

howtheyscored — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:55:58 -0000

In case you missed it the first time, Remembering the Genius is a temporary segment that we're running on Wednesdays. Arne Christensen, who posts here as arnec, interviewed David Harris about Bill Walsh, and we're running the interview here, while it lasts. You can read part one here.

I'd like to just take a minute to reintroduce Arne and David Harris, as well as to point you to some of the things they've done in the past. If you want to get the meat of the interview, it's right after the jump.

Arne: I know Walsh had some real issues with the press.

David: He could hold grudges, especially in the last few years. The newspapers were challenging him, and at times he thought it was intentional. He was enormously resentful of the columnists for taking him apart on the Young vs. Montana issue. He felt he knew far more about the quarterback position than they did, so they had no right to criticize his decisions.

Arne: It's funny, because there was a similar situation with Montana vs. DeBerg in Walsh's first years as coach.

David: Walsh picked Montana from the start, he knew Montana would be the quarterback. Definitely there was a plan on how to develop and use him. He put Montana only in situations guaranteed to have success, near the goal line. During the week he'd practice only two or three plays and then come in Sunday and run them. It would build up his confidence in those situations. Walsh was trying to bolster Montana, have him adjust to the game slowly. It was certainly an issue though, during the 1980 season. First the 49ers had DeBerg, then Montana had a couple really bad games, DeBerg came back, he didn't do well, and finally Montana came in permanently.

Arne: How did Walsh take the pressure of losses?

David: He couldn't forget the losses. It limited the length of his career. He was constantly putting pressure on himself for a bad play call. Walsh took great pride in building the team, but he could also see how much more could have happened [for the 49ers] if certain things had gone right, if decisions were made differently.

Arne: One of the things I've read about Walsh is his emphasis on the quickness of his players.

David: He felt footwork was essential to playing the position of quarterback. He said Montana had the best footwork of any quarterback he'd ever seen. He had that mantra of "hit the other guy before he hits you"; Walsh certainly emphasized defensive quickness.

Arne: The defense-how much responsibility did he take for it?

David: He understood the defense quite well; there were certain things he wanted from it. He took that coordinator-Studley-out in 1982 because of a dispute between their two visions for the defense.

Arne: After leaving the Stanford coaching job, Walsh hopped around, went to the 49ers as GM, President, went back to Stanford, did some academic things there. It looks like he wanted to still be involved in football, but he didn't settle on a specific role.

David: It was the world he was comfortable in, and he wanted to be in that same element. He hovered around it, took the GM job with San Francisco. He became a consultant to the athletic department at Stanford. He wanted to keep doing something there until the last part of his illness. Walsh had an office at Stanford , kept going to it until a month before he died; until the last month of his life.

Arne: The whole "renaissance" aspect of his personality, where Walsh socialized with people in the arts, in business, etc.: was that maybe a release from the pressure of coaching?

David: It wasn't so much a release or a way to get away from coaching. It satisfied part of him that coaching couldn't. It was just part of being a full-bodied human being. He wasn't just about the Xs and Os. Winning the three Super Bowls was his entrée to that world of course, he circulated among those people because of his success in football.

Arne: He didn't apologize for being a football coach, didn't feel it was a trivial thing to do?

David: He wasn't ashamed to be a football coach. You don't know if he had the insecurities about his status down deep, but certainly he never showed it. His successes impressed a lot of people, not just in the football world.

Stay tuned next week to read part three.

Matt Hasselbeck's doughter was run over by a dirtbike, She's okay, but yow.

howtheyscored — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:13:58 -0000

Matt Hasselbeck's doughter was run over by a dirtbike, She's okay, but yow.

That pretty much says it all. No kidding, "Worst bye week ever."

Week Seven Prediction Games: The grougtastic Results

howtheyscored — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:11:38 -0000

Merriam-Webster defines the word "Hundred" as "a 100-dollar bill" and "a subdivision of some English and American counties." The word "Hundred" is derived from Old English into Middle English from the word "hund" (which means hundred) and the suffix "-red" (which has to do with accounts and numbers).

That's all well and good.

I define "Hundred" as the number of people who have registered scored in this year's games. To me, that's a milestone. For others, that's an arbitrary number-point derived from little more than the number of fingers I have. As though if I were a three-toed sloth, I'd be getting all excited because we just got our 36th score. To that I say, "Pshhh. Whatever, man."

I mean, check it out. I'm a red-blooded human being. I have ten fingers and ten toes. When I multiply those together, I have 100 fingers and toes combined. That's not a coincidence. That's math.

Do you have ten fingers and ten toes? Are you a human being? Because your weird argument about sloths is telling me that you're not. Don't be a sloth.

This is a milestone. Yay!

49ers @ Houston:

leaping_larry (2)
urnext (4)
ZeroIndulgence, gbears16 (8)
Ninerfromacrossthepond (10)
DuikeBuike, renke81, groug (12)

Philadelphia @ Washington:

howtheyscored, ro128487, wjackalope (2)
cassusriff, Widowwolf, Ninerfromacrossthepond, urnext (6)
PHUT!, LASVEGASNINER, jtoj, mpotter14, CB30, sfgfan, snowweasel30, leaping_larry, Mike Hawk (8)
danknerd49, jpgarfunkle (10)
beecharmer (12)

Arizona @ New York Giants:

jpgarfunkle (12)
DuikeBuike, albertoleecho, ro128487, shlecko (14)
5-0 (22)
bonbrillio (26)

Minnesota @ Pittsburgh:

groug (0) - No love here, groug. You got your name in the title. Don't get greedy.
rlott#42, jpgarfunkle, bignerd (2)
DuikeBuike, Drew K, illini49er, CB30, Widowwolf, ro128487, SpurredOn, Ninerfromacrossthepond, urnext (6)
sundaysfinest, cassusriff, Ten-Man, 5-0, nocal81, fortyniners, gbears16, grantmp, snowweasel30 (8)
albertoleecho, J2daZ, wjackalope, youngbuckeroo (12)

Buffalo @ Carolina:

cassusriff, jtoj (6)
sundaysfinest, nocal81, gbears16, Fooch, CB30, snowweasel30 (8)
renke81, 49RFAN, J2daZ, JoeO, Sloan (10)
dez4o8, these3words (12)
49erLou, youngbuckeroo (14)

Chicago @ Cincinnati:

BEETLE49715 (16)
Dub4lif3 (26)
howtheyscored (28)
danknerd49 (30)
sundaysfinest, YoungWillis, hudd07, illini49er, ProfessorBigelow (34)

Which makes our week seven leaderboard look like this:

1.	ro128487	55
2.	howtheyscored	52
3.	jpgarfunkle	51
3.	cassusriff	51
5.	PHUT!	42
6.	bignerd	41
6.	nocal81	41
6.	wjackalope	41
9.	DuikeBuike	39
10.	groug	37
10.	leaping_larry	37
10.	LASVEGASNINER	37
13.	5-0	36
13.	JoeO	36
13.	gbears16	36
16.	etb2	35
16.	grantmp	35
16.	sfgfan	35
16.	urnext	35
20.	MontanaPass	34
20.	Dub4lif3	34
20.	CB30	34
23.	Ten-Man	33
23.	illini49er	33
25.	renke81	32
26.	SpurredOn	31
26.	Ninerfromacrossthepond	31
28.	bonbrillio	30
28.	49erLou	30
28.	YoungWillis	30
31.	mpotter14	29
32.	Joshpreet	28
32.	shlecko	28
32.	youngbuckeroo	28
35.	Drew K	27
35.	sundaysfinest	27
35.	jtoj	27
38.	ZeroIndulgence	26
38.	Persiflage	26
38.	nacho49	26
38.	foosball4949	26
38.	bayboy	26
38.	these3words	26
38.	Mike Hawk	26
45.	remembertheCATCH	25
45.	Sloan	25
45.	J2daZ	25
45.	Fooch	25
49.	ar4gsw	24
50.	ProfessorBigelow	23
51.	beecharmer	21
51.	danknerd49	21
53.	nini9er	20
53.	BEETLE49715	20
55.	mikemccwolf	19
56.	Kaizre	18
56.	49ersfan29405	18
56.	49RFAN	18
59.	rlott#42	17
59.	Widowwolf	17
61.	RBoogy29	16
61.	snowweasel30	16
63.	shovel-25	15
63.	Number22Drew	15
63.	albertoleecho	15
66.	whobob	14
66.	Florida Danny	14
68.	Ninjames	13
68.	corvette49rdave	13
70.	Riding The F Train	12
71.	proudcanadian99	10
71.	Iwantwinners	10
71.	Ceradecke	10
71.	49ERFAN	10
75.	Tony C	9
75.	ronniemac03	9
75.	Mr. Nice Guy	9
78.	Smithisstilltheanswer	8
78.	hudd07	8
80.	supraman	6
80.	shulkdog	6
80.	lincypoo i wuv u	6
80.	FaStRmAn	6
80.	demise87	6
80.	crevis1987	6
86.	49ersAllTheWay	5
87.	StevenC	3
87.	RilezG	3
87.	ManBearPig21	3
87.	LADubbz45	3
87.	JerseyNinerFan	3
87.	De Stijl	3
87.	CW30	3
94.	Tricky-Nicky	2
94.	connie mack	2
94.	Brendan Scolari	2
94.	fortyniners	2
94.	dez4o8	2
99.	UnleashTheGore	1
99.	nostocksjustbonds	1

First of all, I just wanted to mention how much of a lousy sloth-sympathizer ro128487 is. And I'm not saying this because now he's beating me. Nope. That has nothing to do with it. Nothing at all. I swear. I swear 100 times. It's just that I saw him this week, and he had his hands up with his thumbs and pinkies turned in. He was trying to open doors with three fingers and eat his cereal without an opposable thumb. I couldn't see his feet, but he was walking funny, so I'm pretty sure he had cut off a couple toes per.

Really.

Seriously.

That guy's not your friend. He's a big, hairy, tree-hanging dirtwad. And, yeah, he's in first place. I maintain that the two have nothing to do with each other.

On the other hand, the rest of you are all cool.

The top ten is still worth a nice rundown: jpgarfunkle is still putting up money scores, and would be beating me right now if not for a late Washington touchdown. And then cassusriff just will not go away. Combined with me, that takes care of your 50+ point people. You want to fight me about bringing up 50? You want to? Because I've got four fingers and a thumb curled into a fist right now that don't care what you have to say.

Then there's a sharp drop. PHUT! didn't do much, but he did enough to hang onto sole possession of fifth place. bignerd, nocal81, and wjackalope basically stood pat this week, but did enough to stay ahead of groug. Which, really, is all that any of us can hope for.

We have to give props to DuikeBuike. Most of our top ten stayed the same, but DuikeBuike jumped into the fray.

Oh, I can hear you now. "But howtheyscored," you say, "there are only eight playoff spots open! Why do you care about the top ten? Why not just the top eight? It would take you less time, wouldn't it?"

And to you I say, "Hey, stupid parrot! What did I tell you about your stupid fourcentrism? You know I could eat you if I wanted to. You're just poultry."

And then I'd say this: "Also, groug is in the top ten. And that might not happen again for him. Poor guy."

Of course, he's tied with leaping_larry and LASVEGASNINER, but groug is the only one who managed a perfect prediction this week. It's been a few weeks since we've had one of those, and they are not easy to do. Heck, if not for a late Washington touchdown, bonbrillio would have had a perfect score and screwed me out of at least one point. And probably more. But fate intervened, as it almost always does.

So congratulations, groug. The only lolling going on right now is yours in all of our faces.

Ninerfromacrossthepond had a very nice week, reminding me of how he looked last year. Is he primed to make a mid-season run? This guy can play, so watch your collective backs. Also, watch your collective backs about Fooch. Dude's in the top 50th percentile. And he plans on staying there.

And good job, jtoj! That was one of our bigger jumps for the week, and you deserve a mention.

Lastly: Hi, urnext. Check out where you are this week, you big red-blooded whiner. Good job on continuing the monumental climb. What is that: 56th to 16th in two weeks? Can't argue with results.

I can't get to everybody. Sorry if I missed you. Just complain in this thread, and I'll try to mention you next week. But be careful, because if you suck I might just laugh at your whining. See you next week.

And check your scores! Lord knows that wjackalope will be checking his.

Saturday afternoon she drove to the bakery in the shopping center. After looking through a loose-leaf binder with photographs of cakes taped onto the pages, she ordered chocolate, the child's favorite. The cake she chose was decorated with a spaceship and launching pad under a sprinkling of white stars, and a planet made of red frosting at the other end. His name, SCOTTY, would be in green letters beneath the planet. The baker, who was an older man with a thick neck, listened without saying anything when she told him the child would be eight years old next Monday.

Remembering the Genius Part I: An Interview About Bill Walsh

howtheyscored — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:03:31 -0000

Recently, I was contacted by Arne Christensen about an idea for a series of front page posts on NinersNation. You might know Arne as the NinersNation member arnec, who posted the FanPost last week about the anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. After seeing what he had in mind, Fooch and I were more than happy to work with Arne on these posts.

By way of introduction:

Arne Christensen is the author of several e-books describing the Bill Walsh 49er teams, from 1979 through 1988, with a focus on the three Super Bowl winners. These e-books are available for purchase online. Arne also runs a blog about the 49ers' history, which can be viewed here. A few months ago he spoke with David Harris, author of The Genius (also available on Amazon), a biography of Walsh focused on his 10 years coaching the 49ers. Their discussion was concerned primarily with elements of Walsh's personality and his coaching strategy with the 49ers. The resulting exchange provides a sense of Walsh's character and the way it shaped both his 49er teams and, by extension, the NFL games you see today. For the next few weeks, I'll be posting a new section of the interview as a main page story on Wednesdays on Arne's behalf. We all hope that you enjoy it.

You can read part one of the interview after the jump. This first installment is relatively short. Let us know how you like it and we'll try to plan the other installments accordingly.

Arne: What was the dynamic between Eddie DeBartolo and Walsh? It seems they were very different personalities.

David: It was a mixed bag: there was a kind of bond [around wanting to win], but also large difficulties. DeBartolo went into rages at Walsh after bad losses; Policy saved him after the Vikings game in 1987. Eddie wanted to fire him, but just took away the president's title. Walsh also felt Eddie was a great owner who gave his teams what they needed, and he was grateful for the opportunity Eddie gave him.

Arne: I've heard talk about Walsh regretting not staying on, feeling that he missed one or two Super Bowl wins by resigning too early.

David: Walsh said various versions of that. Who knows if he wanted to come back? He was seriously burned out after '88, and I doubt a year off would have changed that. He did come back after two years to Stanford, and he didn't have the edge anymore, the fire, the obsessions about the game. It wasn't the same as his time there in the late '70s. 10 years of responsibility and pressure had taken a lot out of him, the pool had been drained. At Stanford, he took guys he was comfortable with, who he'd worked with before, and it didn't turn out that well. He didn't have the critical intelligence, the assistant coaches.

Stanford had a fine football tradition, and there was plenty of top-flight talent that would have been happy to coach for him, to have the chance to learn under Walsh. But it was his old buddies, an oldies but goodies tour. Not as demanding on Walsh. He didn't have the goods anymore. He was in his early 60s, he didn't have the energy. Coaching, it's a younger man's job. The recruiting visits weren't really his bag at that point. College offered a shorter season: going to Stanford was an in-between commitment.

Arne: Walsh wasn't really the macho coach, the guy like Ditka who had that physical presence and intimidation, but he still maintained control over his team.

David: He was certainly controlling, an enormous stickler for detail. Everything had to be done the way he wanted it done, and he had the jobs to make sure it was that way. The players complained about his manipulation, said he was always trying to maneuver them.

He'd done everything for the 49ers: he had four jobs-coach, president, GM, offensive coordinator-until the last three games of the '88 season. Those three playoff games-that was when Holmgren became the coordinator. He was responsible for the janitors, drafting players, training camp, everything.

Stay tuned next week to read part two.

Week Six Prediction Games: The Indelible Results

howtheyscored — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:00:41 -0000

Okay, guys, listen up. I think it's time we had a little talk. I want to sit down here and talk like mature adults about scoring.

Yes, it's time for that talk. The prediction games birds and the prediction games bees. You would think, maybe, that it would be better for beecharmer to sit you down and have this talk. You'd be wrong, though. He knows almost nothing about birds. It's kind of sad, actually.

So, I mean... where to start? I know this is a little bit awkward, but I think we can get through this. You've taken the classes, so I don't need to tell you about where everything is. You know all about what happens when New Orleans penetrates New York's secondary. I mean, you know about it in theory. You might have even watched a video or two. I know, the videos are exciting. Heck, I'm getting excited just thinking about them!

Sorry, that might have been going too far. Let me take a step back. I thought that it might help if we took a look at a few magazines.

<reaches into a drawer and pulls out a stack of fantasy football, Sports Illustrated, and ESPN the magazines>

Now, don't be nervous. I know this is weird. It's weird for me too. But let's take a look at the centerfold for a second.

Whoa, hey! Don't get defensive. Don't get all weird on me! I'm just trying to help. It's obvious that you've been having trouble scoring. I mean, you do want to score more prediction games points, right? Okay, then. I can tell you how to do it. How do you think I even got my name? Alright then: Let's talk about protection.

What? Hey! Where are you going? Don't you walk away from me!

Fine then! Be that way! If you don't want to score, you don't have to! I didn't even want to help you! Your mother asked me to. She's worried about you.

So, let's see who the heck scored:

Denver @ San Diego:

Sloan (10)
bayboy, grantmp, MontanaPass, howtheyscored (14)
bignerd (16)
danknerd49, whobob, PHUT!, ro128487, sfgfan, urnext, corvette49rdave, CB30, beecharmer, ProfessorBigelow, cassusriff, youngbuckeroo (20)
Drew K, Ten-Man, illini49er, wjackalope, JoeO (22)

Chicago @ Atlanta:

cassusriff (4)
Dub4lif3, 49erLou, DuikeBuike, sfgfan, urnext, Fooch (6)
danknerd49, ZeroIndulgence, ro128487, illini49er, LASVEGASNINER, leaping_larry, bignerd (12)
groug, 5-0, demise87, bonbrillio, wjackalope, shlecko, etb2, CB30, beecharmer (14)
Drew K, Ten-Man, YoungWillis, SpurredOn, mpotter14 (18)

Baltimore @ Minnesota:

grantmp, LASVEGASNINER, corvette49rdave (14)
49erLou, leaping_larry (16)
bayboy, etb2 (20)
whobob, Ten-Man, wjackalope, Ninerfromacrossthepond, urnext (22)
MontanaPass, bignerd (28)

New York Giants @ New Orleans:

sundaysfinest, jpgarfunkle (20)
demise87, mpotter14, corvette49rdave, cassusriff (26)
Dub4lif3, DuikeBuike, snowweasel30, nocal81, 5-0, bonbrillio, jtoj, JoeO, Fooch (28)
nacho49 (30)
YoungWillis, J2daZ, groug, ro128487, BEETLE49715, etb2, CB30, youngbuckeroo (34)

Carolina @ Tampa Bay:

PHUT! (6) - That's called getting PHUT!ed!
renke81, illini49er (8)
Ten-Man (10)
wjackalope, jpgarfunkle, etb2, beecharmer (14)
albertoleecho, sfgfan, MontanaPass, Ninerfromacrossthepond, urnext, jtoj, bignerd (16)

Arizona @ Seattle:

youngbuckeroo (16)
Mike Hawk (18)
Dub4lif3 (22)
Drew K, whobob (34)
nacho49, bignerd, ProfessorBigelow (36)

So that makes our week six leaderboard look like this:

1.	howtheyscored	44
2.	ro128487	43
3.	jpgarfunkle	40
3.	cassusriff	40
5.	PHUT!	39
6.	bignerd	37
7.	nocal81	35
7.	etb2	35
7.	wjackalope	35
10.	LASVEGASNINER	34
10.	MontanaPass	34
12.	JoeO	33
12.	grantmp	33
14.	sfgfan	32
15.	5-0	31
15.	DuikeBuike	31
15.	Ten-Man	31
18.	Dub4lif3	30
19.	leaping_larry	29
19.	49erLou	29
19.	YoungWillis	29
19.	illini49er	29
23.	Joshpreet	28
23.	SpurredOn	28
23.	bonbrillio	28
23.	renke81	28
27.	gbears16	27
28.	foosball4949	26
28.	Persiflage	26
28.	groug	26
28.	mpotter14	26
28.	nacho49	26
28.	youngbuckeroo	26
28.	bayboy	26
35.	remembertheCATCH	25
36.	ar4gsw	24
36.	these3words	24
36.	shlecko	24
36.	Drew K	24
36.	CB30	24
36.	urnext	24
42.	ZeroIndulgence	23
42.	Mike Hawk	23
44.	Ninerfromacrossthepond	22
44.	ProfessorBigelow	22
44.	Sloan	22
47.	J2daZ	21
47.	Fooch	21
49.	nini9er	20
49.	sundaysfinest	20
49.	beecharmer	20
52.	mikemccwolf	19
52.	jtoj	19
54.	49ersfan29405	18
54.	Kaizre	18
56.	danknerd49	17
57.	RBoogy29	16
58.	shovel-25	15
58.	Number22Drew	15
58.	49RFAN	15
58.	BEETLE49715	15
62.	Florida Danny	14
62.	whobob	14
64.	Ninjames	13
64.	rlott#42	13
64.	corvette49rdave	13
67.	Riding The F Train	12
68.	Ceradecke	10
68.	Widowwolf	10
68.	proudcanadian99	10
68.	Iwantwinners	10
68.	49ERFAN	10
68.	albertoleecho	10
74.	ronniemac03	9
74.	Mr. Nice Guy	9
74.	Tony C	9
77.	Smithisstilltheanswer	8
78.	hudd07	7
78.	snowweasel30	7
80.	lincypoo i wuv u	6
80.	shulkdog	6
80.	supraman	6
80.	FaStRmAn	6
80.	crevis1987	6
80.	demise87	6
86.	49ersAllTheWay	5
87.	De Stijl	3
87.	JerseyNinerFan	3
87.	RilezG	3
87.	CW30	3
87.	ManBearPig21	3
87.	StevenC	3
87.	LADubbz45	3
94.	connie mack	2
94.	Tricky-Nicky	2
94.	Brendan Scolari	2
97.	UnleashTheGore	1
97.	nostocksjustbonds	1

Yowza. Nobody could do better than 20 in the New Orleans game? Really? All it would have taken was a bad prediction in that game to steal five points. For shame. Sixteen was the low score in Arizona? These are scores that wouldn't net you a single point in any other week! I mean, I had just about the worst week that anybody could have had. I picked four losers. Four! And I was only even close on zero of them.

And you let me off the hook. How did I run away with four points this week? There's only one person to blame for that: All of you.

Okay, enough of that. You didn't all suck. Some of you did pretty darn well. And you should be recognized for it.

Our man wjackalope had a pretty good week. And we all know he's been itching for one. He took seven points this week to jump... one spot? Really? Just one? Wow. Man, that was a lot of good work to only take one spot in the standings. Rough. Good job nonetheless.

So who made it so darn hard for him?

PHUT!, cassusriff, bignerd, and etb2. Great weeks all. I was going to pick the ones who did especially well, but you all were pretty awesome here, going in that seven to ten point range. wjackalope can blame the lot of you for the fact that he's not in the top five this week.

And cassusriff in particular should be back on our radar. After previously holding first place, he missed a week, did just enough to stay around the top last week, and is now back in the running with a vengeance.

I should probably just mention everybody in the top ten. ro12847 didn't have a great week, but came extremely close to stealing first place. And jpgarfunkle continues to look good (seriously, he's a good looking fella).

I want to mention whobob and corvette49rdave, too. Though they started late and have yet to climb the ranks, I keep seeing their names and if they stay in the game and keep playing like thus, they can probably compete for playoff spots.

Fooch, also, made a few moves this week. I always keep my eye on him because it's only a matter of time before he drops that 30 point week on us that he's been saving up for two and a half years.

And we like to talk about intangibles, so it's probably worth noting how clutch I am. Based only on this one week's worth of data, it should be obvious to anybody that I will always hunker down and score some Monday night points to keep you below me in the standings. CLUTCH. I'm like Jeter. You should totally see the calmness in my eyes.

Overall, it was a fun week. A lot of people scored who probably thought they had no chance. There was a lot of movement on the boards, and the top 15 is seriously tight right now. Wait... people scoring... things being tight... oh no... not again....

It might be time to stop.

And remember to double-check your scores! Let last week be a lesson to you.

In the week before their departure to Arrakis, when all the final scurrying about had reached a nearly unbearably frenzy, and old crone came to visit the mother of the boy, Paul.