Joe Montana, Bill Walsh, Marv Levy, and Jack Steadman.
 

Maybe this is old news since it happened in 1979, but I thought it was quite interesting.

Well, at least Steadman understood the concept of drafting the top available quarterback. (Sigh.)

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/6...ontana-in-1979

San Francisco 49ers: Did Bill Walsh Really Target Joe Montana in 1979?
BY MATT COOPER (CONTRIBUTOR) ON APRIL 20, 2011

This is one story I've been trying to get to the bottom of for some time. I'm fascinated by the 49ers dynastic run in the 80s and early 90s, which is why I've read a handful of books about them.

In my years of collecting random stories, there seems to be differing accounts as to whether or not Bill Walsh is as much of a genius as he is credited for. I preface this by saying, regardless of the Montana situation, Walsh was an innovator and changed the football landscape. There's a reason he's in the Hall of Fame.

According to David Harris' The Genius, the 'Niners new scouting director at the time was essentially the man who found Montana. He had ranked the Golden Domer "as the best quarterback in the entire draft but non of his scouts agreed."

Sam Wyche was sent to check out Joe as part of the trip to see James Owens. "Joe was staying with his girlfriend down in Manhattan Beach in Southern California and Owens was at UCLA. Walsh wanted to know if Owens could catch the ball, so Sam called Joe and asked him to come over and throw passes to him...When Wyche returned to the Bay Area he told Bill that he'd better take a look at this guy Montana. He just might be the one."

Bill and Sam went to work out Joe again the week before the draft and the results were more of the same. "On their flight back to San Francisco, Walsh told Wyche that his mind was made up. He'd pick Owens in the second round and Montana in the third."

In Glen Dickey's 49ers, it is apparent that Bill really sought Morehead State QB Phil Simms. However, the team traded it's 1979 first round pick in '78 (which ended up being first overall) as part of the package sent to the Bills for O.J. Simpson. This idea would be backed up in Phil Simms' autobiography, Sunday Morning Quarterback. In the book, he mentions how Walsh worked him out and came away impressed with his quick feet. Walsh remembered, "I left feeling Phil was our man, but it would soon become evident that other teams were looking at Phil and he would most likely be drafted before us." Simms ended up being selected seventh overall by the Giants.

In search for another QB target, Walsh worked out Clemson's Steve Fuller, which incidentally allowed for the team to discover and draft Dwight Clark in the 10th round. According to both books, Walsh came away very unimpressed with Steve Fuller after that tryout.

Dickey mentions that Montana was "the last on his list," but he was somewhat interested in him. That workout with Owens appeared to change his mind entirely. Walsh was quoted as saying, "I sensed just watching Joe in that workout that he'd be able to [improvise] in time, though he surprised me by how quickly he learned everything."

It would appear by those accounts that Bill really had targeted Joe the entire time after realizing Simms was not an option.

Legendary Bills' coach Marv Levy was the Head Coach of the Kansas City Chiefs in 1979, and relays a quite different version of that day in his autobiography. "We—and everyone else in the NFL, too—knew that the San Francisco 49ers would be going after a top-notch quarterback in that year's draft...we speculated that they would be going after Clemson's Steve Fuller, the highest rated quarterback still on the board."

The Chiefs weren't on the clock again until the early stages of the second round and started thinking of a Plan B. "If the 49ers did take Steve at the bottom of the first, I had my eyes on another quarterback whose grades in that year's draft really didn't merit his being selected early in the second round, but there was something about that man that told me he was worth the gamble."

"Kay Dalton, the coach on our staff responsible for the passing game, was assigned to work out quarterbacks. When he returned from his trip, his initial reports were about those who were potential first-round selections, but he, too, felt that none of them merited being taken with the second overall pick in the draft [They chose defensive end Mike Bell]. Kay spoke highly of Steve Fuller, but he went on to comment that there was one fellow, a non-first-rounder, Kay said, whom he liked best—better than any of the top two or three!"

After calling Joe's college coach, Marv came away with a gushing endorsement. Levy "would have been quite content to use [his] top of the second choice on [Montana]."

However, Levy also had a very meddlesome team president on his hands. Jack Steadman was not buying into the strategy of "bypassing the best quarterback available." Levy, "realizing now how many times [he] had persisted in having it [his] way," got on the horn and worked out a deal to trade up just ahead of SF and take Fuller.

While Walsh had made it quite clear in the other two accounts that he did not want Fuller, something pretty interesting happens next.

"Just seconds after our selection of Steve Fuller was announced, the telephone in our draft room buzzed. The call was for me, and, on the other end of the line I head the voice of my old friend, Bill Walsh, who was now the head coach of the 49ers."

"Marv, you no-good so and so!" he shouted. "We were going to pick Steve Fuller, and you guys knew it, didn't you? He said it with no rancor in his voice, because he knew the chess games that were always played out on draft day. In fact, Bill was a master of such shenanigans himself."

With the Chiefs having just selected Fuller, Walsh really had no reason to call the Chiefs. It couldn't have been an attempt to downplay their interest in Joe Montana, considering a rebuilding team wouldn't have spent two sequentially high draft picks on a quarterback anyways.

What would be his motivation for calling, other than to make exactly the point he made?

As great as he was, Walsh had a notoriously large ego and would be willing to take credit for anything he could. Such an insecure man would not allow his legend to be tarnished a bit by admitting he was not that big of a fan of Montana's heading into the draft.

Dickey came to this conclusion:

"John Ralston, an executive with the 49ers the year Montana was drafted, and Tony Razano...have each claimed that Bill Walsh had to be talked into drafting Montana. Their story is that Walsh wanted to draft Steve Dils, who had been his quarterback at Stanford...In Ralston's version, he was the one who convinced Walsh. In Razzano's, he is naturally the hero."

Incidentally, in The Genius, it is noted that Fuller was close to the top of the board before Walsh worked him out. That still wouldn't explain why he felt compelled to call Marv Levy, though.

Dickey continued: "In one of these off-the-record talks before the 1979 draft, Walsh had praised Dils's intelligence and courage but doubted that he had the physical ability to be a standout in the NFL. He didn't want to downgrade his former quarterback publicly, but he also wanted me to understand why the 49ers wouldn't draft Dils, whom he projected as no more than a backup quarterback in the NFL."

Perhaps the manipulating king himself wanted to convince everyone in the draft room he wasn't that interested in Montana so that it wouldn't leak out. Dickey goes on to make the point that Walsh would not have been able to be coerced into taking a player he didn't believe in. Maybe he believed in Montana right before the draft, but it wasn't until he was convinced by his entire staff the weeks leading up to the draft. There is really no way of knowing for sure and we probably never will.

I feel Dickey sums it up best: "Everybody wants to be known as the one who discovered Joe Montana."

Puke, another chiefs missed out on a legendary quarterback for some chump story...

Thanks for ruining my day

Here's something I never get... if you're convinced you have a once a decade type player, "the one," why would you risk not getting that player? If he's projected as a 6th, why not take him in the 4th? If he's projected as a 3rd, why isn't he worth it in the 2nd?

I pointed it out in the 'Baldwin: Worst Draft Pick Ever?" thread and I'll repeat it here: No draft pick in the history of this franchise has ever been or will ever be worse than Steve Fuller.

For the sole reason that it kept us from taking Montana.

I think i'm going to cry, I sat there as a young lad thinking wow this Steve Fuller guy is going to be something running that Wing T.

Now I'm really depressed.

Thanks Steadman.

To bring back something we used to say on this board all the time during the 70's and 80's: "Dammit Steadman :cuss: "

He did more to hold back this franchise in the 70s and 80s than any other individual. He was a bean counter, not a football guy.

I hadn't heard this story before. This really sucks. I wish I hadn't opened this thread.

Thanks a lot, Rain Man. :cuss: :cuss: :cuss:

Steadman was in the organization because he was Lamar Hunt's roommate at SMU. I don't think Fuller was the worst pick ever. The one that was the most damaging was Blackledge. We've still never drafted a QB #1 since 1983 because of that pick. Other terrible number one picks were Brian Jozwiak, Anthony Hancock, Trezelle Jenkins and Ryan Sims. Sylvester Morris and Percy Snow were injury victims, so I don't really hold their high pick status against them.

Oh, and in light of this story think about this: Jack Steadman is on the Chiefs ring of honor. Talk about peter principle in action...

What about the Todd Blackledge draft? To me that was the worst. Wiffed on many good QB's...Marino, Kelly, ?Simms? coupla others.

**** todd blackledge.

If the pick is "the one" then you take them with your first pick. Period. Doesn't matter what round other teams value them. If they are indeed "the one" you pick them with your "one."

Carl Peterson should have been shot for the Blackledge pick. o:-)

I totally agree. But you have people saying they knew Montana was going to be great, or they knew Tom Brady was going to be great... really? Then why did they last until the 3rd and 6th rounds, respectively?

I said this is another thread a few minutes ago: You don't take a guy rated as a third rounder by every scout and front office in the league in the first round. If that player busts, you'll never be a GM in NFL, ever again, and everyone will question your ability to scout and run an organization forever.

It's not worth the risk of ruining your career.

I remember hearing a story of one of the Bears' scouts begging them to draft Montana in the first and second rounds, to no avail. "All he does is win" was the guy's exact quote, IIRC.

Never heard any such story regarding Brady.

I wonder the same thing about the article. I think Levy is a generally honest guy, but it's better to say, "I would've taken Montana", rather than "Geez, he wasn't even on our radar". They're all trapped by the fact that they all passed on him in the first two rounds, but that won't stop everyone from saying, "We were about to trade up to get him because we really liked him".

Absolutely. ~Quincy Carter.

Steadman gets a lot of shit, but the fact is, much of the core group of the team that Marty took to the AFC championship in '93 were drafted by Steadman.

Steadman's greatest failure was bringing in, and keeping, the right guy to coach the talen

If he had retained Levy after a poor strike shortened, scab team season, he would probably

Steadman would probably be viewed differently.

And then, depression set in.

It's only a big deal to Montana. If the Chiefs pick Montana...he fades into obscurity and Steve Fuller is the HOF guy. :D

Levy embarrassed the team and fan base with that ****ing winged T. He was doomed after that crap, at least in my eyes.

Milk: Steadman was moved out of the GM role in 1976. He was still in the front office, but worked on stuff like player contracts and stadium improvement and such after that point. In 1976 Jim Schaaf was the GM, and stayed until 1988, when King Carl was hired. One of the reasons Steadman got out of the GM chair was because he sucked at evaluating talent, and wanted the scouts and coaches to make the picks after that. They didn't do a very good job until Marty and Carl got here, although they got a couple decent players like Maas and Neil Smith prior to 1988.

Interesting. doubtful guys like Steadman and Schaaf would last nearly as long in todays era because there is so much more pressure to win. Back then, there was very little media pressure, no grass roots internet fan revolts, etc.....
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People are pointing the finger at Steadman in this thread.

I am simply pointing out the fact the team did actually have talent when Carl took over, which he and Marty built around.

They won with defense, and 5 or 6 of the players on that defense were drafted or signed prior to '89.

In those days they didn't have the luxury of free agency to help turn fortunes around.

Free agents at that time were guys that were no longer wanted by their previous teams.

Bill Maas
Neil Smith
Dino Hackett
Deron Cherry
Kevin Ross
Kevin Porter
Albert Lewis
John Alt
Dave Lutz
Rich Baldinger
Jonathan Hayes
Christian Okoye
Stephone Paige

Yea, great point.
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The defense was always good in the 1980s. The offense was god awful, because we never had a top tier QB. One of the reasons Nick the Kick's career stats are so good is because we'd end up kicking field goals in games, then losing 21-9.

Art Still, Deron Cherry, Lloyd Burruss, Kevin Ross, Albert Lewis, Maas, Spani, those guys were all studs. Stephone Paige, Carlos Carson and Delaney for the short time he was here, was about all we had on offense.

The shame for the Chiefs is, when they started to turn it around, there was this guy named Elway that was in the same division....

Interesting since I've heard Walsh say that he wanted Phil Simms and only picked Montana because the Giants took his top QB. He said they tried to trade up for him.

Yeah, our defenses were for the most part pretty decent if I remember right, and we had some very good players. Other than a brief stint in the early 80s, though, our offenses were terrible.

And I must note that the Broncos were a playoff team before Elway arrived.