Fansided
Fansided

The Greatest Villain In the History of All 32 NFL Teams

By Erik Lambert

of the New York Jets of the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium on November 22, 2007 in Irving, Texas
of the New York Jets of the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium on November 22, 2007 in Irving, Texas /
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19 Jul 2000: Head Coach Steve Mariucci of the San Francisco 49ers is looking on with Terry Donahue and Bill Walsh in during the 49ers Training Camp at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.Mandatory Credit: Tom Hauck /Allsport
19 Jul 2000: Head Coach Steve Mariucci of the San Francisco 49ers is looking on with Terry Donahue and Bill Walsh in during the 49ers Training Camp at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.Mandatory Credit: Tom Hauck /Allsport /

Cincinnati Bengals

56. . HC. San Francisco 49ers. Bill Walsh . 7. player

Revenge is a powerful motivational tool, and Bill Walsh used it to fuel his eventual Hall of Fame career as a head coach in the NFL. The team that spurred him on was none other than the Cincinnati Bengals. It began in the 1970s. Walsh eventually became offensive coordinator and along with head coach Paul Brown crafted the scheme that would eventually become known as the West Coast offense.

It had tremendous success in Cincinnati. So when Brown stepped down as coach to retire, everybody thought Walsh was a shoe-in to be his replacement. Instead Brown delivered a shocker by promoting Bill Johnson instead. That stung extra hard because Johnson was the offensive line coach at the time. So, in essence, he was being promoted from being Walsh’s subordinate to his superior.

So it shouldn’t have been a real shock when Walsh resigned as offensive coordinator, seeking a new avenue to being a head coach in the NFL. This was a two-fold disaster for Cincinnati. First, the offense lost a lot of its punch and precision when he left. Second, Walsh came back to haunt them when they finally became Super Bowl contenders.

His San Francisco 49ers defeated the Bengals not once but twice for championships in 1981 and 1988, cruelly reminding fans of what could’ve been.

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