Sid Gillman. Josh Katzowitz
I started this journey. Lyle, throughout our conversations, kept saying, “If only Mom were still alive, she could have written the book for you.” Esther’s kids did a pretty good job, themselves.
I also would be remiss if I didn’t give much praise and thanks to the following kind souls: My CBSSports.com colleagues Mike Freeman, Pete Prisco, Clark Judge, Will Brinson, Ryan Wilson, and Andy Benoit for their help; Bob Hunter of the Columbus Dispatch; Tim Sullivan and Nick Canepa from the San Diego Union-Tribune; the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain for, upon my request, telling me the same story twice five months apart in cities 800 miles apart; Jon Kendal with the Pro Football Hall of Fame, who let me hang out in the basement bunker all day and make what felt like about a thousand copies; Brandon Standafer of the San Diego Hall of Champions for loading me up with a decade’s worth of newspaper articles in dusty binders that probably haven’t been touched since Sid left the Chargers in 1971; Mike Pearson of Miami University who introduced me to Paul Dietzel on that beautiful autumn day in beautiful Oxford; the ladies in the Ohio State University archives; Bob Schmidt in the Miami University archives; Jack Brennan and P.J. Combs with the Cincinnati Bengals; Jennifer Rojas with the San Diego Chargers; Patrick Smyth with the Denver Broncos; Todd Tobias for having such great material on and such great interviews with Gillman; Mike Patton, David Gilmour, and Greg Graffin for the soundtrack; Sheila Weiss of Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary; Margie from riflemanconnors.com; Allen Brown for key photo identification; and Nick Shundich (a University of Cincinnati team co-captain in 1951) and his son Steve for mailing me various clips and videotapes.
Many thanks to my editor, Jack Heffron, who began to believe in this project as we ate macaroni and cheese across the street from the Clerisy Press offices. I’m glad he thought enough of it to continue working with me after he moved into the online world. Thanks also to Richard Hunt, Donna Poehner, and Ronnie Kutys from Clerisy.
I have so much gratitude to Trent and Michelle Rosecrans (Cincinnati), Brent Duersch and Jennifer Depalma-Duersch (Delhi, Ohio); Diana, Joe, Mak, Charlie, and Alexa Pasquarello (San Diego); Mariko Miki and Brent Fitzgerald (San Francisco); and the Rev coffee shop (Smyrna, Georgia) for extending to me your warmest hospitality during this process.
Another word about Trent Rosecrans. More than just giving me a place to crash, Trent has served as an editor, an idea-giver, and one of my best friends. This book wouldn’t have been the same (it would have been much, much worse, in fact) without Trent’s input.
Many, many thanks to my parents, Joel and Ellen, for their everlasting love, and my in-laws—Victor and Susan Alonso—for providing huge amounts of support whenever we’ve needed it.
The first time I wrote a book, I had no kids and, for all intents and purposes, had no job. This time around, my house has been inhabited by a pair of twins, and I have a full-time gig with CBSSports.com. I couldn’t have finished this book—spending all those hours burying my head in library books, flipping through online archives and bleeding on my computer keyboard—without the person who’s closest to my heart.
With that, I thank my wife, Julie—who, while supporting this endeavor, managed to complete her triple-board residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, finish her psychiatric forensic fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta, pass her medical boards, and land a pretty sweet job in Austin, Texas.
And most importantly, she’s the mother of my Bella and Jonah, who came into our lives three minutes apart in February 2010 and teach me new things each and every day. They are my inspiration. With them, I am the Florabelle.
FOREWORD
by Dick Vermeil
Sometimes it’s not about who were or are the best NFL coaches; sometimes it’s more about who has coached a winning Super Bowl team. People know Vince Lombardi’s name because the NFL media continues to promote Vince Lombardi, as it should! He was one of our best. Paul Brown’s name is still remembered because he not only coached teams, he owned one as well. But sometimes the National Football League media does very little to promote those coaches who contributed even more than a Super Bowl win, such as Sid Gillman.
Sid Gillman never won a Super Bowl, and that is one of the reasons why many people, especially the younger generation of NFL fans, don’t even know who he was, let alone talk about him in the same vein as a Lombardi or a Brown. I was fortunate to work with Sid. I got to know him very well and one of his greatest assets, that transcended his technical and offensive scheme brilliance, was his teaching ability. Sid broke down and analyzed the fundamentals of all of the offensive positions better than had ever been done before, and his success may not have been duplicated since. Let me explain.
Before I hired Sid in 1979 to come and help coach me and my offensive coaches in Philadelphia, I called around and visited with people with whom he had worked or coached to see how they felt about me bringing him out of retirement at 68 years old. All but two people told me to stay away from him, stating that he was way too opinionated and stubborn. Only Al Davis and Jack Pardee said hire him! Realizing I was also very opinionated and stubborn, I knew we would make a good team. Here is what he did for me, and here is what he did for my offensive staff. He made us all better coaches, better teachers. He challenged our thinking in every phase of offensive football, especially the fundamental technique side of the game. Over his career, Sid had built a film library of all the truly great offensive players executing their specific techniques at game-day speed. Those films directly related to each specific position and each individual thing a player would have to do to execute the fundamental techniques at the highest level. Not only did he challenge us to open up our minds and evaluate the techniques we were all teaching, he taught us a better way to teach these fundamental techniques.
These action film clips of all these great players executing their specific techniques at a Pro Bowl level were great teaching aids as well as a great way to convince us there was a better way to do some of the things we were teaching. From there, Sid proceeded to show us how to better utilize the skills within the offensive scheme.
We had been to the playoffs in 1978—the first playoff appearance of an Eagles team in 18 seasons—so we were going in the right direction. But I really felt that hiring Sid would help us all get to where we wanted to go much faster. There is no substitute for the wisdom that only years of research and experience can bring, and believe me when I say, Sid brought wisdom to my staff that I doubt anyone else could have, even if that other coach had already won a Super Bowl.
Sid was what I needed, Sid was what my staff needed, and I’m sincere in saying I don’t think we would have won the 1980 NFC Championship and advanced to Super Bowl XV without Sid’s guidance. As a result of all the time we spent together, we became very close friends. It was like working with my father. We shared a lot of time outside the office, off the field, doing what good friends do together. We shared great home-cooked meals, backed and supported by good wines, though I must say Sid was not a wine connoisseur. I’ll never forget watching Sid mix different varieties of red wine in the same glass. Wine was about the only thing he didn’t know a lot about. What a piece of work!
The only mistake I made was not filming and/or recording our meetings. I felt like I was in graduate school, working toward a PhD in offensive theory, concepts, schemes, and game fundamentals, all being taught by the leading professor of his time. Wow, what a difference from my first exposure to NFL coaches. Now, I’m not trying to be critical by inserting a direct opposite impression when I insert my Stanford experience. While working as a young assistant coach at Stanford in the mid-1960s, I, along with the rest of the staff, was invited to lunch with a visiting pro staff that was in Palo Alto preparing to play the San Francisco 49ers on the following Sunday. It was midweek, so it was an obvious preparation day, but it didn’t stop the pro staff from drinking martinis along with their lunch before heading back into staff meetings. Not a Sid Gillman approach in any way!
I realize everybody has a different personality as to how they approach