Bill Walsh Quotations

Writing headlines is a specialty - there are outstanding writers who will tell you they couldn't write a headline to save their lives.

If any sort of error is inexcusable, it's an incorrect phone number. One of the cardinal rules of copy editing is that every phone number published must be checked.

Nothing is more effective than sincere, accurate praise, and nothing is more lame than a cookie-cutter compliment.

I caution against beginning or ending a quotation with ellipses

Machines aren't replacing proofreaders at all. Copy editors, who proofread and much, much more, use spellcheck as a tool but read every word that appears in the paper

A harsh reality of newspaper editing is that the deadlines don't allow for the polish that you expect in books or even magazines

Writers' bedtimes vary, but few have been spared the shock of a copy editor's early wake-up call

I would have expected this. He's a brilliant person, and he's got emotional integrity. He was one of the most unique people I've ever known. He was a kid, and it was like he was 35 or 40. He was 19. He was a totally mature adult, and he was brighter than I was.

I would get him away from the rush about once every third time he throws.

Money would be taken away from the Department of Defense to fund programs such as a Peace Academy and prisoner rehabilitation, ... The creation of a Department of Peace is a nave and unreasonable approach to dealing with the problems of the 21st century, including international terrorism.

Maybe there are more weapons, maybe there aren't. I don't know about that. I can tell you that the administrators are much better trained in detecting them.

She knew that what gets measured, gets better.

So, I would say the Patriots are the best there is now. They clearly are the best team.

I would say that we made a lot of good trades, but that may have been the best.

I did have a margarita, which I typically did just before I went to bed,

I hate to see where the game is going because of that,

Buddy had a huge impact on that team. He was maybe the key element in that organization.

There is an extensive sand plain extending as far as the eye can see in the vicinity of the drop location. The slope is very shallow and essentially appears flat when you're down there. While the bottom is sand, showing ripples from long shore currents, it is by no means devoid of life. On the contrary, it appeared to be a very productive sand community undoubtedly with lots of mollusks and crustaceans.

Joe might have been more active and quicker on his feet,

Jim's a dynamic man with incredible determination, willpower and energy. He's the ultimate in a driven person who has high expectations. The people around him respond. He's on the cutting edge with an outstanding football mind.

I'm here, I've been here for a year, I'm of course familiar with the university, ... I know lot of the people. It could be I was needed. It appears, and most people agree, I would be the logical person.

I thought it was timely. He wanted to play one more year, and he did everything he could possibly do to make it happen. It didn't work out, but that's OK. I think Mike Shanahan handled it beautifully, and I think Jerry moves on with his health and as probably the greatest player of his era and certainly the greatest player ever at his position.

I thought somebody was trying to put me on. Someone trying to poke fun at me. I'll tell you what, I didn't fall for it, though.

I was only 25 when I drafted him, ... It's hard to believe.

we just can't miss an athlete. Our recruiting program has to be the very, very best.

We aren't willing to concede it won't be ready.

We had an excellent coaching staff, a great attitude among the players and that youthful enthusiasm, It was a team that really shouldn't have been where we were.

Used properly a hashtag can be really cool. Hashtags provide an opportunity for sly editorial comment, for parallel and perpendicular trains of thought, in the limited space that Twitter and, to some extent, Facebook provide.

There is a real positive side to professional sports, and Brady epitomizes that.

Times were simpler, defenses didn't move as fast, and the quarterback was often the best athlete. Now he's being chased by the best athletes.

The ongoing construction of the stadium has continued at a rapid pace, and we're extremely pleased with the progress. It's projected to be done on time. But, in moving the San Jose State game to Spartan Stadium, we feel it gives us that extra week to assure ourselves that the stadium will be 100 percent ready.

When he begins to find his second, alternate and outlet receivers, when he moves out of the pocket and stretches the pocket to hit those guys, that's when he'll start taking defenses apart. There's a total upside to everything he does. He'll demonstrate that this year, especially with the gifts Michael has that are so spectacular.

We'd like to think that tickets will be hard to come by.

We have great regard for Young's athletic ability. He has a quick release and fine instincts. He's probably the fastest runner of any quarterback in the league and his play is similar to Joe Montana's.

You have to be very sure of yourself. You have to be able to say, look, there's a risk here and we're willing to accept the risk. If it doesn't work, it's just part of doing business.

Writing headlines is a specialty-there are outstanding writers who will tell you they couldn't write a headline to save their lives.

The culture precedes positive results. It doesn't get tacked on as an afterthought on your way to the victory stand. Champions behave like champions before they're champions: they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners.

Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results, the process rather than the prize.

When I give a speech at a corporate event, I often ask those in attendance, 'Do you know how to tell if you're doing the job?' As heads start whispering back and forth, I provide these clue: 'If you're up at 3 A.M. every night talking into a tape recorder and writing notes on scraps of paper, have a knot in your stomach and a rash on your skin, are losing sleep and losing touch with your wife and kids, have no appetite or sense of humor, and feel that everything might turn out wrong, then you're probably doing the job.'

When you stand and overcome a significant setback, you'll find an increasing inner confidence and self-assurance that has been created by conquering defeat. Absorbing and overcoming this kind of punishment engenders a sober, steely toughness that results in a hardened sense of independence and a personal belief that you can take on anything, survive and win.

People thrive on positive reinforcement. They can take only a certain amount of criticism and you may lose them altogether if you criticize them in a personal way... you can make a point without being personal. Don't insult or belittle your people. Instead of getting more out of them you will get less

Champions behave like champions before they are champions

Good talent with bad attitude equals bad talent,

I've observed that if individuals who prevail in a highly competitive environment have any one thing in common besides success, it is failure—and their ability to overcome it.

The ability to help the people around me self-actualize their goals underlines the single aspect of my abilities and the label that I value most—teacher.

For me the starting point for everything - before strategy, tactics, theories, managing, organizing, philosophy, methodology, talent, or experience - is work ethic. Without one of significant magnitude, you're dead in the water.

Your path and purpose will become crystal clear when you begin to trust your vision.

Invest in great relationships, they will pay a lifetime of dividends.

Afford each person the same respect, support, and fair treatment you would expect if your roles were reversed. Deal with people individually, not as objects who are part of a herd-that's the critical factor.

Many people erroneously think they have only one chance to succeed, and if they miss that chance, they are doomed to failure. In fact, most people have several opportunities to succeed.

Strength of will - is essential to your survival and success. The competitor who won't go away, who won't stay down, has one of the most formidable competitive advantages of all. In evaluating people, I prize ego. It often translates into a fierce desire to do their best and an inner confidence that stands them in good stead when things really get rough. Psychologists suggest that there is a strong link between ego and competitiveness. All the great performers I've ever coached had ego to spare.

Failure is part of success, an integral part. Everybody gets knocked down. Knowing it will happen and what you must do when it does is the first step back.

There is another side [to ego] that can wreck a team or an organization. That is being distracted by your own importance. It can come from your insecurity in working with others. It can be the need to draw attention to yourself in the public arena. It can be a feeling that others are a threat to your own territory. These are all negative manifestations of ego, and if you are not alert to them, you get diverted and your work becomes diffused. Ego in these cases makes people insensitive to how they work with others and it ends up interfering with the real goal of any group efforts.

The minute you step away from the negative people in your life you will instantly see the beauty in your horizon.

Your enthusiasm becomes their enthusiasm; your lukewarm presentation becomes their lukewarm interest in what you're offering.

If you see players who hate practice, their coach isn't doing a very good job.

If your why is strong enough you will figure out how!

One of the common traits of outstanding performers-coaches, athletes, managers, sales representatives, executives, and others who face a daily up/down, win/lose accounting system-is that a rejection, that is, defeat, is quickly forgotten, replaced eagerly by pursuit of a new order, client, or opponent.

To a winner, complacency and overconfidence can be destructive. To losers, desperation and despondency are just as harmful.

Nothing is more effective than sincere, accurate praise.

The dash helps to indicate that the two thoughts are intimately related, and it's less stodgy than a semicolon, which would have performed the same function (and who talks in semicolons?).

Innovation involves anticipation. It is having a broad base of knowledge on your subject and an ability to see where the end game is headed. Use all your knowledge to get their first. Set the trend and make the competition counter you

The [best] coaches... know that the job is to win... know that they must be decisive, that they must phase people through their organizations, and at the same time they are sensitive to the feelings, loyalties, and emotions that people have toward one another. If you don't have these feelings, I do not know how you can lead anyone. I have spent many sleepless nights trying to figure out how I was going to phase out certain players for whom I had strong feelings, but that was my job. I wasn't hired to do anything but win.

Strong leaders don't plead with individuals to perform.

Consistent motivation usually comes from a consuming desire to be able to perform at your best under pressure, namely, the pressure produced by tough competition. If a player needed me to light a fire under him by turning the other team into a demon, he was lacking something I couldn't give him.

Before you can win the fight, You’ve got to be in the fight.

The absolute bottom line in coaching is organization and preparing for practice.

Flying by the seat of your pants precedes crashing by the seat of your pants.

You can only succeed when people are communicating, not just from the top down, but in complete interchange. Communication comes from fighting off my ego and listening.

Your attitude will unlock the mystery of success you seek!

By instinct we-leaders-want to run hard all the time; by intellect we know this is not possible. Reconciling those two positions in the context of leadership is an ongoing challenge.

We have a lot of players in their first year. Some of them are also in their last year.

A burro is an ass. A burrow is a hole in the ground. As a journalist you are expected to know the difference.

Consistent effort is a consistent challenge.

Everybody isn't everybody.

Calculated risks are part of what you do, but the idea that something completely crazy will work just because it's completely crazy is completely crazy.

Everybody's got an opinion. Leaders are paid to make a decision. The difference between offering an opinion and making a decision is the difference between working for the leader and being the leader.

Find a great mentor who believes in you, your life will change forever!

Victory is produced by and belongs to all.

If I have any talent, it's in the artistic end of football. The variation of movement of 11 players and the orchestration of that facet of football is beautiful to me.

We all know gifs are pronounced "jifs," right? Their creator says so, damn it!

Act like a VIP and become a VIP

"Extra effort," in whatever form it takes (mental, physical, emotional), cannot be sustained without eventual damage and diminishing returns. There has to be a very acute awareness on your part as to the level of exertion and the toll it's taking on those you lead.

I'm not one of those "omg texting kids rite bad" alarmists. I just think there's an interesting nexus where the Internet itself hastened language change when it comes to Internet terms.

I often think about the class differences involved in "jobs" vs. "careers."

My theory is that, just like with omitting a final comma in a list when not essential for meaning, publishers are trying to save paper and ink or pixels on-screen.

There is a weird phenomenon where technology seems to be getting dumber in some ways as it gets smarter.

The more you know about English, the less you're likely to think there are unbreakable "rules" for a lot of things.

90 percent of the time the terms are misused or unnecessary. Not every image obtained from a computer is a screen shot.

The proper use of commas is often more art than science.

Commit yourself to something you have a passion for.

As the leader, part of the job is to be visible and willing to communicate with everyone

Don't look at his last game, or the one before that, or before that. Go back seven or eight games, or maybe a year or two, if you want to try to see tendencies, and even that won't help you.

Could New England stand up to the Steelers defense of the '70s? No chance, ... And I don't think they had near the balance the 49ers had during (the Super Bowl) years.

Could New England stand up to the Steelers defense of the '70s? No chance. And I don't think they had near the balance the 49ers had during (the Super Bowl) years.

The Steelers had the best grouping of players in the history of the game. No question about it.

The running game in pro football has gotten so boring. There's just four or five plays they can run. I think the whole thing is headed in the wrong direction, and it's really unfortunate.

You have to reinvent yourself each year, ... What helped us was that there was some turnover each year.

We were only able to reach editors intermittently. Some we didn't even know where they were or whether they were all right.

This thing is really rolling. This would normally be a three-year project, and we are doing it in nine months.