The Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy Of Leadership
Bill Walsh, with Steve Jamieson & Craig Walsh.

The Super Bowl is upon us. There are literally thousands of other sites that will have loads of information on the Colts vs. the Saints, if you want anymore. We will discuss the Super Bowl in terms of one of the game's greatest coaches. One coach who may stand above all others is the late Bill Walsh. Only Chuck Noll with 4 Super Bowl titles has more than Bill Walsh with his three. So today we will take a look at a new book by Coach Walsh who was three for three in his Super Bowl appearances. Although Bill Walsh was not a sports lawyer or agent, his book is an excellent source for any sports lawyer looking to begin his or her career or for a veteran striving to achieve excellence in their career.



There are many philosophy of leadership books out there from Coach K , Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, Joe Torre, Bill Belichick; the list is endless. But Bill Walsh, who worked on this book with Steve Jamieson before his death, may have one of the best. Through Bill Walsh's eyes you are given the chance to understand how he took a struggling 49ers franchise and turned it into a dynasty.

Bill Walsh based his coaching and leadership philosophy on a "Standard of Performance". Quoting from the book, the Standard of Performance is" a conceptual blueprint for action; that is, a perception of what should be done, when it should be done, and why it should be done. Your philosophy is the single most important navigational point on your leadership compass."

Coach Walsh then goes on to describe his Standard of Performance in detail and describes how it applied it to his coaching career, then describes how it can also apply to your career. Needless to say, in this small space, we cannot do it justice.

But as they say on television, "but wait, that's not all you get!", this book gives you much more. For you young sports lawyers looking for a mentor, Coach Walsh describes the lessons he learned when he was breaking into the coaching business. Legends such as Paul Brown and Al Davis played an important role in the mentoring of Bill Walsh, although those two never considered themselves mentors. In fact one of Bill Walsh's toughest lessons in life came from the great Paul Brown, who bypassed Walsh for the Bengals coaching job and then tried to keep Bill Walsh from getting a head coaching job in the NFL. Like Bill Walsh, as you go through your career you may run into people who may attempt to put a road block in your path to achievement, so you can learn something from Bill Walsh about how he over came this.

Bill Walsh then describes how he mentored younger coaches such as Mike Holmgren and Dennis Green.

Coach Walsh also describes in detail the latter years when he was coaching the 49ers and the mistakes he made in getting too preoccupied with having to constantly win; so much so that his own self worth depended on winning. He admits that this happens to many people,and gives advice on how to avoid it.

The Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy Of Leadership abounds with timeless lessons for anyone interested in sports law as a career.




Mike Leach heads to mediation on Friday

http://playerpress.com/articles/7227-texas-tech-and-mike-leach-to-go-into-mediation-friday




NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said at the NFLPA's Super Bowl press conference that, with 2010 looking like an uncapped year in the NFL, it will be virtually impossible for the NFLPA to agree to go back to a salary cap. The posturing continues as we get ready to see the upcoming battle between the NFL and NFLPA. For those of you too young to remember the labor battles in the NFL of the 1970's, 1980's and early 1990's (as described by Frank Murtha in the SLT interview of February 3-4), just wait a while and you'll see some fireworks. If you enjoy labor battles this promises to be a good one.