If Bill Walsh said it once, he said it 49 times during his first couple years as an NFL head coach:
“You know,” he would say, “I didn’t get the chance to be a head coach until I was 48.”
He said it so often and with such a wistful countenance that one had no choice but to assume he was haunted by his perpetual longing.
It’s common knowledge that Walsh was devastated when the great Paul Brown passed him over for the head coaching position with the Cincinnati Bengals. Walsh had served on Brown’s staff for eight years, first as receivers coach, then quarterbacks coach and de facto offensive coordinator.