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Just read from the SF Chronicle that Baalke's first choice in 2011 for HC was his former mentor Bill Parcells. Baalke still consults with Parcells on personnel matters. I liked reading that. Parcells obviously is a HOF coach who knows what it takes to win and has an eye for talent. When that fell through, Harbaugh was the choice.

Parcells has been my first choice as head coach AND general manager since the middle of the Nolan era. Those now on here who have been a part of the boards that I was a part of in previous years probably know some of the rants I've gone on about him because there were so many of them. "Bring in The Tuna" was a statement I made over and over and over in the past.

I think Parcells is one of the all-time great football minds, both from the personnel side and as an in game coach. Speaking from the history side of things, he'd be in my all-time top 3 I'd love to sit down with and talk about the game with on all sides.

Despite all that, I never really thought it was that much of a possibility because Parcells has always been tentative about coming back, especially to coaching but I thought maybe just maybe if you presented him with the right kind of power and structure you could lure him back to the personnel side which has always been my dream. I'm not sure you will find a bigger advocate for hiring Parcells in the past than me so this is somewhat bittersweet to me as I have not been the biggest Baalke advocate or backer in the past.

I have always said, though, that for all of Baalke's shortcomings as a personnel man or weaknesses that I believe exist in him, that one of the best things I like about him is his shared believe on the type of players they favor. They're somewhat similar in some ways and very similar in some other ways. They are rare in that they favor players that are built and made up in a way that not many personnel men and coaches favor these days but like me they are very stubborn in that kind of belief and how you structure a team.

I will give Baalke credit in that and it's the one main thing that gives me hope with Baalke becoming more than just a good personnel man. He's gotten better working with the scouting department and selecting the kinds of players that I favor but there's a lot of room for improvement despite being labeled as one of the better personnel men in the league.

One main area where I wished Baalke was more like Parcells is that he'd be willing to take more home run chances with the roster.

For those that don't know me and the moves I favored in the past I can touch up on that in another post if that doesn't make sense but I've had the feeling for quite a long time now that a lot of Baalke's moves have been a too safe and in some ways he seems too skewed into in building a team that can sustain success from the personnel side for a 10-year period rather than go for the home run and make some bold moves that are a little more short-sighted and set you up for harder decisions in 3-4 years but would in turn make this team better in the short term for a better Super Bowl run.

Anyways, this news would make me more excited if I felt like the ship hadn't sailed on Parcells but I've come to grips with the idea it has.

Last thing. It doesn't shock me either that Baalke would turn to Parcells because it's been known that he was fond of Parcells for several years as the article touches up on. One of Mike Nolan's best relationships was with Parcells and Nolan would OFTEN go to Parcells to bounce ideas off of. Parcells was reportedly a great support man for him with a lot of the harder decisions he had to face when he was the coach and that tie was one of the MANY reasons why I liked Nolan so much as a head coaching candidate before he took over. My love for Nolan as a football mind is another very, very long subject and one I won't get into now because it doesn't pertain to the subject here.

Also, to York's credit, according to that Parcells biography, York himself reached out to Parcells before he promoted Baalke to GM and Parcells assured him that Baalke was the right man for the job. Glad to see and hear York seeking advice from proven football minds.