Bill Walsh and the art of quarterbacking

Reads

Coming this spring to the RSP Blog is an exercise I am calling The RSP Football Writers Project. Some of the top football writers and analysts I have the fortune of knowing will be given 4-6 weeks to construct their own teams from top to bottom with a salary cap. They’ll present these teams at the RSP Blog after the NFL Draft and discuss how these players and coaches fit into their system philosophies. You can actually contribute to the questions by clicking the link above as well as see some of the writers involved that include Smart Football and Footballguys contributor Chase Stuart, Yahoo! and Football Outsiders Doug Farrar, and former NFL Scouts Matt Williamson of ESPN and Russ Lande of The Sporting News.

Todd Marinovich’s life story is beyond fascinating and completely embodies the cliche that truth is stranger than fiction. The ESPN Year of the Quarterback documentary is fantastic, but I’d argue the Esquire feature story, which undoubtedly the documentary is based – and won a National Magazine Award for profile writing – is even better. If you never heard about Marinovich, you’ll be amazed. If you have but he’s a distant memory, I’ll be writing an essay about this documentary next week (see below for highlights of his pro debut).

Listens

As a former teacher of mine said about this Swedish Group Dirty Loops: If you don’t wear a chin strap while listening to this, your chin will break into a thousand pieces when it hits the floor!! You’ve been warned. Check the other cover tunes too…some neat arrangements and re-harmonization of pop songs.

Views

Todd Marinovich beating a strong Kansas City Chiefs team in his rookie debut with the great Bill Walsh commentating.