Nevius: Bill Walsh wrote the book on NFL coaching success

The Super Bowl always makes me think of Bill Walsh.

It’s been 37 years, so it is hard to remember what a thunderclap of astonishment it was when Walsh took the 49ers to their first Super Bowl in 1982.

The Raiders had been there and won it the year before, but it wasn’t their first trip to a Super Bowl. They were there in 1977 and won the championship. They had a track record.

The 49ers arrived dragging a history of disappointment, near misses and bad bounces. Were they really ready for the biggest game of all?

Everyone, players included, needed a shot of confidence. And whether it was pretending to be a bellhop to get a laugh out of Joe Montana or looking utterly composed on the sideline during the win, Walsh was that guy.

So there have been some Walsh references lately. This week a San Francisco Chronicle story mentioned a book he wrote, “Finding the Winning Edge.”

So I figured, I’ll bite. I like football.

I went to Amazon and there it was. Out of print. No Kindle. No paperback. Hardback only.

The price: $398.

Used.

What the … ?

I checked other sites, but the rate only went up. A couple sellers wanted more than $600. Someone in a comments section claimed to have heard of a signed, leather-bound copy for $1,000.

It turns out “Finding” is a cult classic. Football coaches call it “the Bible.” The veterans read it and then steer their bright, young up-and-comers to it.

Look no further than the Super Bowl. In interviews last week, Rams coach Sean McVay name-checked his autographed copy, given to him by his grandfather, former 49ers general manager John McVay.

And crusty Bill Belichick has reportedly said “Finding” and “Jack Welch and the GE Way” are the two most influential books of his career.

“Finding” even made a Bookfinder.com top 10 list of “most sought-after out-of-print books.”

Which is fascinating, because nearly everyone agrees it is about the dullest data dump they’ve ever had to slog through. Reader after reader talks about the need to peruse it in small bites so you have time to process the fire hose of ideas, thoughts, charts and graphs.

Just the description makes it clear what a strange and quirky piece of work it is. It clocks in at 550 pages and weighs 3.2 pounds, according to ESPN’s Seth Wickersham, who wrote a story about “Finding” a few years ago.

If you are looking for a funny story about the time Montana came to the sideline and said … this is not your book. And not just because of the inside-football jargon.

There are 55 pages of play diagrams. There are 13 pages of practice plans and what Wickersham calls “108 in-game scenarios.”

It is a reminder what a brilliant but strange guy Walsh was. As a sports veteran once said to me, “All the great ones have a screw loose.”

To be that obsessively committed to the nuances of football takes a special focus. I happened to be there one day when Walsh explained that for a quarterback, a five-step drop was three big steps and two small. A seven-step drop was four big and three small.

He said he could look at a quarterback’s feet during a play and tell you if the pass was complete.

So, for a group of driven, football-obsessive coaches, “Finding” speaks their language.

Just a random search of the internet brings up example after example. Eagles head coach Doug Peterson, last year’s Super Bowl winner, said he’d read the book “a couple of times.”

Kansas City’s Andy Reid is such a fan that he gave Ron Rivera a copy before Rivera became head coach at Carolina. Stanford’s David Shaw, who has literally been around professional football his entire life, said he read it and realized how little he knew.

And, course, that’s not counting the college assistants and high school coaches who trade copies of “Finding” back and forth among themselves.

It is especially popular with new coaches who are starting up a new program.

As a handbook for setting up a football organization, Walsh leaves almost nothing unexamined. In fact, dude, are you sure you weren’t getting a little carried away?

There is advice about which team staffer should drive a prospective player to the airport after an interview. There are several references to the role of secretaries and office assistants. There is a list of 29 ways to tell if a player has a drug habit.

And there are the plays. Walsh just about broke professional football there for a while, with his short, precise passing game. Everyone was playing catch-up to the white-haired guy.

Of course, when the rest of the NFL called him “the Genius,” it was with a healthy dose of sarcasm. They were jealous, of course.

And Walsh did have a way of letting you know how smart he was, just in case you hadn’t noticed.

So they pointedly called it “the West Coast offense” instead of the Bill Walsh offense.

Maybe this is his revenge. That after all these years, a book he wrote - 500-plus pages of textbook-dense prose - has been recognized as a football classic. By his peers. He’d have loved it.

And you know that guy who said all the great ones have a screw loose?

He’s probably right.

But there are a lot of guys with a screw loose.

Only a few are great.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cw.nevius@pressdemocrat.com. Twitter: @cwnevius