
From now until (and actually after) draft day, current and former GMs and coaches do conference calls for the media, and we'll bring you some of the best stories as we get them. Yesterday, Michael Lombardi of the National Football Post, who spent over two decades in the personnel offices of the Raiders, Browns, 49ers, Eagles, and Broncos, did a media call and recounted one particular pre-draft process he witnessed with Bill Walsh in San Francisco.
In his hotel room the night before a 34-21 49ers win over the Houston Oilers in October of 1984, Walsh saw highlights of a Mississippi Valley State game on the news, and the performance of a guy by the name of Jerry Rice(notes) whomped him upside the head. Walsh's own director of scouting ranked Rice as a fifth-round talent (we're guessing that guy wasn't Walsh's director of scouting much longer), but when the '85 draft rolled around, Walsh was determined to get his man.
Lombardi on the process:
Read More »from Tales from the Draft: Michael Lombardi's Jerry Rice storyI was fortunate to be in the 49ers draft room











