Originally posted by BrianGO:Originally posted by NickSh49:Originally posted by BrianGO:Originally posted by NickSh49:
OK, I have to say something about this, cause I have some knowledge that I can contribute to the conversation due to my work with the league.
This whole "Walsh-tapes" issue began with Steve Young. Steve Young went on record multiple times stating that there was a "vault of tapes" Bill Walsh had recorded that have the roots of the west coast offense on them.
Now, you might be wondering... what exactly ARE on the tapes? Like, when you put them in the VCR, what do you see?
In essence, the tapes show Bill Walsh either at a blackboard or overhead projector teaching plays to the 49ers. The camera is at the back of the room, with just Walsh and a few floating heads in the foreground watching him draw up wisdom.
Now, I know that NFL Films has a lot of footage of Bill Walsh drawing up plays from back in the day fitting the description above. How organized is it? I'm not sure, but from what I know my guess is that the footage would be pretty disordered. How much footage is there? A good amount, but I don't know how much. Would NFL Films give copies of this footage to the 49ers if they requested it? I really don't see any reason why not. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to help.
From where I stand, this whole tape-issue seems like a joke to me. The tapes that NFL Films have have been digitized. This means they exist not only as physical media, but as digitized media for distribution means as well. This means the footage has potentially passed in-and-out of the hands of a tremendous amount of people. There's not many secret plays from Bill Walsh that haven't been seen already by numerous parties. You can watch some of the old 49ers' AMERICA'S GAMES to see some of the footage that people have been talking about.
This is the reason I wonder what all the fuss is about. I'm not sure there are any amazing, world-changing things to be learned from these missing tapes. Sure, NFL Films has some of the original footage, but who knows who those tapes were originally donated from. Eddie DeBartolo? Mike Holmgren? George Siefert? An anonymous third-party?
How many tapes were there originally in the vault? No one knows.
All I'm saying is that even if the 49ers recover some of what they think is missing, my guess is that what they will get back won't be that important anyway. They will still be missing tapes from people who don't want to give them back. It's kind of a wild goose chase at this point.
But Steve Young made it sound REALLY interesting... which is why we are still talking about it now. And IMO, Steve may not have had all the information, because apparently, that Walsh-tape-vault is kinda empty (just going by what Harbaugh said). And finding those phantom tapes seems like a waste of time from where I stand.
But whatever. Maybe Mike Holmgren will Fed-Ex out some DVD's next week. But even if he does, you know he'll keep the best stuff to himself.
Harbaugh has used the words "intellectual property", which means, even if every team in the league has got the data saved on their computers, they are breaking the law by doing it.
I LOVE that Harbaugh is doing this, he is already throwing his weight around the rest of the league by using the words "intellectual property", because he is pissed that the tapes ever left the facility and that other teams have access to them.
Harbaugh is sending a message that, "The 49ers are back," and our tapes belong here. He is already bleeding more 49er pride than Nolan or Sing ever did.
I don't know if there are any legal grounds, but if there are in fact legal grounds, and the tapes are in fact "intellectual property", Harbaugh can create a s**t storm around the league if he wants to, and I sure as heck wouldn't put it past him.
The guy has been wearing a 49er hat for barely a month, and he's already acting like he is personally insulted by the fact that other teams have our "intellectual property." I LOVE this coach.
You'd think the 49ers would actually take legal action?
That means the 49ers would have to actually know WHO has the tapes. They don't.
Besides NFL Films, whom will happily give copies of any tapes back to the 49ers, Harbaugh has no clue who has these tapes. What is he going to do, hire a private investigator?
I admire your passion, but this is simply a wild goose chase.
Its not about rounding people up or tracking tapes down. For example, there are millions of people around the world who have copies of intellectual property, whether it is music or movies etc, that they did not pay for legally. You can't track them all down. But making it illegal makes it more difficult to obtain, and most people would rather just pay the money then have to spend the extra effort to get the content for free.
Now, if the Broncos for example, have a bunch of these tapes, which they are not supposed to have, there could be an incident, however unlikely, where somebody sends an e-mail or has a phone conversation that an NFL official overhears or sees, and that NFL official is now obligated to report the activity. It is possible to get caught, and it might not be worth keeping that information in your building anymore if you care enough about the fine or bad press or whatever the result might be.
Remember Spygate? The Patriots didn't think they would get caught and/or didn't think they were doing anything wrong, but it turned into a big incident and they were required to turn in all materials relating to the incident.
Now, do you think they kept any of those materials? Even though they could probably get away with keeping or making copies of materials and keeping them on their home/office computers, they probably did not, because it is just not worth the TROUBLE you have to go through to avoid getting caught, however unlikely.
If teams are no longer allowed to keep Bill Walsh's old tapes, and are required to turn in all of that material to the 49ers, sure, they could just make copies or just claim that they don't have any of it, but if they get caught, after officially denying that they have the materials, then they are in a world of hurt. It's just not worth it.
If there are legal grounds, Harbaugh could force the NFL to require teams to return any and all tapes that were previously removed from 49er headquarters. It would be up to the teams whether or not they will comply, but I think most or all of them certainly would comply.
It's all speculation, but what's great about it, is that Harbaugh CARES that the tapes are missing / being used by other teams, and is using strong legal language to demonstrate how much it matters to him.
I'd be VERY surprised if it got to SpyGate-type levels of legal issues. I doubt we'll hear of this tape hunt again.
im sure if jed was president at the time no way he allows coaches leaving to other teams take things to make that team better
