The Genius

July 7, 2008
When Bill Walsh took over coaching duties for the San Francisco 49ers in the late 1970s, the team was arguably the worst in the NFL—and he was stuck trying to shake a rep that he lacked what it took to lead a pro team. Within two years, the 49ers had won the Super Bowl (against Walsh’s former employers, the Cincinnati Bengals, no less) and were well on their way to becoming the “team of the ’80s.” Harris’s biography is grounded by extensive interviews with Walsh, but the players and others who were there bring nuance to the portrait, revealing that the “Genius” who was admired for his confident demeanor on game day could also be a brittle, insecure personality off the field. While game highlights do appear, equal attention is paid to Walsh’s team-building skills, with lengthy analyses of his selections from the college draft pool—including Joe Montana, an underappreciated college quarterback who became one of the game’s all-time greats. Harris clearly knows his football, but the personal drama of Walsh’s career is told with such verve that even nonfans will be riveted.

Starred review from September 1, 2008
Harris's "The League", which examines the business of pro football, was a best seller in 1986. Now he returns to the game with a biography of influential strategist and multifaceted coach Walsh. It is also a thorough examination of that team of the Eighties, Walsh's San Francisco 49ers. While Walsh's personal life is fully chronicled, special emphasis is placed on his ten years coaching the 49ers, as he first built a dynasty and then retooled it each year to remain competitive. Harris makes a special effort to appraise the effect of the cerebral Walsh's innovations on the evolution of the game itself. Recommended for all libraries.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2008
Before Bill Walsh became head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in 1979 and led the team to three Super Bowl victories, he had earned a reputation as an innovative offensive coordinator with an ability to develop quarterbacks. Consideredsoft-spoken and something of an intellectual, he was also considered an oddity among the NFL coaching fraternity. Harris, a former contributing editor at the New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone and author of 10 previous books, conducted a series of interviews with Walsh in the year preceding the coachs death in July 2007. Those form the basis for the book but are fleshed out with other first-person interviews as well as detailed research from other print sources. The resulting portrait confirms much of the publics perception of Walsh: erudite, thoughtful, focused, brilliant, and compassionate. In addition, Harris illustrates Walshs incredible passion for the game, his competitive drive, and evenhis whimsical sense of humor. Walsh was one of the NFLs greatest coaches, and Harris book does him justice. Expect significant demand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)