The Catch
One Play, Two Dynasties, and the Game That Changed the NFL
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"RESPECT THAT . . ."
Bill Walsh stood on the sidelines minutes before the kickoff of the 1981 NFC Championship Game and pulled his headset into place, the biggest moment of his professional life about to play out in front of him. Tom Landry's dark gray fedora sat so perfectly on his bald head that it looked permanently attached. Landry's stoic game-day demeanor and public image were a source of constant ridicule--he was emotionless, a stone face, or "plastic man," as Duane Thomas once called him--but he truly had an underrated, though not life-of-the-party, personality.
Walsh possessed a huge ego, and once he became a Super Bowl champion, he never protested too hard when he was declared The Genius. So what if he spoke as if he'd invented football rather than just advanced the game with his innovative offensive system? He retired with three Super Bowl rings in ten seasons and could have won at least a couple more if he didn't walk away less than one week after winning his third championship. He lived the final twenty years of his life regretting that ...
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