On this #TBT Throwback Thursday "Fixing the American Athlete” goes back to 2002 when Boomer Esiason and I co-hosted a radio show “Fair Play - How to Make Organized Sports a Great Experience for Your Kids” on SiriusXM where we interviewed 3 time Super Bowl Champion Head Coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Bill Walsh.  Coach Walsh mentored me during my early years at the NFL, advising me on Player & Coaching Development. I truly received the equivalency of a Masters & Doctorate degree in coaching, management, creative thinking, and teaching from my time spent with Coach Walsh. Unfortunately he passed away in 2007.

This brief but information rich ten minute conversation between Coach Walsh, Boomer and me was one of many discussions we had that lead me to create the most successful grass root tackle football player & coaching development programs in the nation, NFL Junior Player & High School Player Development.  These programs produced notable NFL Star Players including Carolina Panthers Quarterback, Cam Newton.

I’ll always remember Coach Walsh as a generous and gracious man that gave me the valuable commodity of his time for thoughtful discussions. Conversations that focused  not only on football, coaching, and teaching, but more importantly about living a life always in pursuit of knowledge and a better way of doing things.  For that I’ll always be grateful and will use Bill’s wisdom as I continue to develop and search for programs that better develop athletes and coaches.