Walsh was a long-time assistant with the team, from 1982 to 1994. After being fired along with Shell by the Al-ster in 1994, Walsh was a head coach at Idaho State (where he lost. A lot) and was a director of a minor league team in Mobile Alabama. He hasn't worked in football since 1999, however. According to ESPN's Len Pasquarelli, since 1999 he has "operated a bed-and-breakfast ranch and served as mayor of Swan Valley, Idaho." Awesome.

Was Walsh any good way back in the day? Well, as has been pointed out before, Shell did win when he was the coach. Which is more than we can say of pretty much every one else who has coached the Silver & Black. On the other hand, there is ample evidence Walsh had nothing to do with them winning. In fact, Walsh's offense was known for being ultra conservative, ultra-penalized, ultra-scoffed at, and featured sideline fights between coach and players. Double awesome.

Art hired a bunch of other coaches too, none of them really that exciting or well known, all mainly hired because they're friends of Art (Shell, not Davis). Walsh, in fact, is mainly known for being one of the few coaches who didn't lead the mutiny that cost Shell his job in '95. This does show that Shell seems to be having complete autonomy on who to hire. Whether that's a good thing or not, who knows. We do know that the Raiders, a team nostalgic for the 70's, run by an owner nostalgic for the 50's, is now run by a coach who appears nostalgic for the 90's. Just like SFist! We wonder, if like us, a flannel and Doc Marten clad Art Shell sits around watching Raiders highlights underneath a "Seinfeld" poster as "Straight Outta Compton" gently wafts through the speakers.