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Bill Walsh to Rams, was thisclose to happening.......
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Also den, i turned 12 that May.

66ers, BA-BYYY!!!!
I use to post that article for years, however, back then, getting out of contracts was not that easy and if the Rams wanted Walsh, they would of had to buy him out and although Carroll Rosenbloom could not be known as cheap, he could still be frugal and that is one of the reasons I believe they went in another direction with it coming down to Coryell, Allen & Dan Reeves IMO.

 
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I use to post that article for years, however, back then, getting out of contracts was not that easy and if the Rams wanted Walsh, they would of had to buy him out and although Carroll Rosenbloom could not be known as cheap, he could still be frugal and that is one of the reasons I believe they went in another direction with it coming down to Coryell, Allen & Dan Reeves IMO.

I remember Pat Haden commenting on that years later and him saying "what if". Saying that could he have done what Montana did with Walsh. I think that was a bit much. He just didn't have the stature or arm to be a guy to carry an offense.
 
I remember Pat Haden commenting on that years later and him saying "what if". Saying that could he have done what Montana did with Walsh. I think that was a bit much. He just didn't have the stature or arm to be a guy to carry an offense.
Well, as much as I dislike Pat Haden, Walsh did comment that Haden would have been a great fit for his offense.

Bill Walsh believed that if he had been hired as the Los Angeles Rams head coach in 1978, he could have turned quarterback Pat Haden into a Hall of Fame-caliber player. Walsh famously stated he could have made Haden as effective as Joe Montana, largely by utilizing his quick-passing West Coast system to maximize Haden's accuracy while protecting him.
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Los Angeles Times +2
 
Now granted I turned 12 back in September of 1978, but when the Rams were moving on from Knox, I wanted Bill Walsh because of his offense and felt the Rams needed an offensive type Head Coach.

They interviewed several including Walsh, Don Coryell & Dan Reeves of the Cowboys, but in the end Rosenbloom went with Allen because of his regular season record. Both GM Don Klosterman & Carroll's son Steve Rosenbloom were against the Allen hiring and campaigned for Dan Reeves because Reeves would bring in the Cowboy offense, but in the end Carroll sited the fact that Allen won games, albeit his post season record at that time was worse then Knox, who was fired because of his lack of post season success.

After that decision and then firing George Allen after only two preseason games, Rosenbloom shared with his wife Georgia, his biggest mistake was letting Chuck Knox go and thus is the reason that Georgia brought back Knox in 1992, when John Shaw had recommended hiring Mike Holmgren.
Yeah I was 22 then, and was also very bummed that Walsh wasn't the choice. Always wondered how that may have played out had he been the Rams coach.
I hadn't heard ( or, more likely just forgot ) about the Holmgren wiff.
 
I hadn't heard ( or, more likely just forgot ) about the Holmgren wiff.
Yeah, in 1992, John Shaw who was right about 3 times in his life when it came to football, was strongly suggesting to Ram owner Georgia Frontiere to hire 49er OC Mike Holmgren, however, Georgia ignored Shaw's recommendation and hired Chuck Knox instead because she remembered that Carroll Rosenbloom thought back in 1978 that one of his biggest mistakes was letting Knox go.
 
Walsh famously stated he could have made Haden as effective as Joe Montana, largely by utilizing his quick-passing West Coast system to maximize Haden's accuracy while protecting him.
The only time you'll ever see Pat Haden's name mentioned in a sentence with Joe Montana. Even Houdini couldn't make Haden play like Montana.