San Francisco 49ers general manager Bill Walsh is not a psychic, but he did have a vision about how this season would unfold for the storied franchise.

"The minute Steve Young was unable to play and the loss of Garrison Hearst, and then ... trying to fill it in in a matter of weeks, I knew we were in trouble," says Walsh.

Despite his team's performance, Walsh, who recently appeared on ESPN's Up Close with host Gary Miller, is still content with the leadership of Steve Mariucci and the rest of the Niners organization.

"I share meals with Steve Mariucci, our families know each other, all of that is fine. Our biggest problem is in the locker room, where we just don't have the personnel that we need to win games."

In case you missed Walsh's appearance, the following is an edited transcript from the Dec. 21 show.

Miller: This has been a very tough year, you're not used to this kind of thing. When you went to the 49ers in '79, this is what it was all about. What has it been like to go through a 4-10 season?

Walsh: Well, it is much like '79 and 1980, very much like it, but I could see this coming. I spoke with Steve Mariucci about it months ago. I could see what was about to happen. The minute Steve Young was unable to play and the loss of Garrison Hearst, and then giving up a number of starters because of the salary cap, and then trying to find people to fill in after we had brought our squad all the way down to 30 players, then trying to fill it in in a matter of weeks, I knew we were in trouble, especially because of the loss of Steve Young and his greatness. So I tried to warn Steve Mariucci, who is an eternal optimist, and didn't quite believe me at the time, but I am afraid he is with me now.

	While Bill Walsh's on-field wardrobe has improved, his team's performance has declined rapidly.

Walsh: I sort of wish I had. He is going to suffer through the growing pains, like any other quarterback. I liked him very much, but we were without defensive lineman at the time, without defensive players other than linebackers, so we were just forced to take a defensive lineman with our first choice. I was sort of hoping I could trade up and get a hold of Shaun in the second round, but we had no second-round pick of our own. So it boils down to us just not having him. Instead, we have Jeff Garcia, who really has been playing very, very well in the recent games and who will be an excellent backup for us once we've establish a future starter.

Miller: When you say, "excellent backup" and he hears that, do you think that that's all right with him?

Walsh: I think that is OK with him, because he is starting games and his numbers are as good as anybody playing. He threw for 300 yards last week and 430 yards two weeks ago, so he is out there and he is a player. But if we are talking about a Hall of Fame quarterback, like we've had in Montana and Young, than we're going to have to learn to wait for a younger player and one that we can develop right from the start.

Miller: Let's talk about Steve Young. We had his agent Leigh Steinberg on Up Close recently. He feels that Steve shouldn't play too much more, and ultimately that is going to be up to Steve Young. He also said that if Young came back this year, that he would probably suffer another concussion because of the state of the offensive line. Does that sound about the way that you would look at it?

Walsh: Well, I guess so, sure. I am not sure if the offensive line has been the crux of the problem; although we need a big offensive tackle and we need one soon. I don't know if that has necessarily been the problem, but as far as Steve Young is concerned, until a number of physicians, a number of specialists, OK him to play, he is not going to be able to play and it is that simple.

Miller: It has been a long time since this last concussion took place. How much difference would it make if he came back to play now as opposed to coming back and playing in September?

Walsh: I am not sure, I am not a specialist, obviously, and I don't know the business, but there are players with worse problems than that who play virtually every week, worse concussion problems then Steve Young, they are out there on the field. Steve Young has been so heavily publicized, it was right there in front of national television, that there is a stigma associated with it now. Can Steve Young play again? Yes. Should he play again? Only he can answer that, and so many of us wonder why he should play again. He's a Hall of Fame quarterback, he's broken records, he is the highest-rated quarterback in history, and he is worth $100 million. Why he should have to play again, I don't know, but that is going to have to be up to him.

Miller: Totally? You're the general manager of the team and there are salary cap implications.

Walsh: Well, there is a salary cap problem and there is no question about that, but that will have to be accounted for. If Steve chooses to play, then we'll have to decide. In the meantime, he is going to have to have a number of physicians, specialists in neurology, OK him to play football, and that will have to happen first.

	“	He's a Hall of Fame quarterback, he's broken records, he is the highest-rated quarterback in history, and he is worth $100 million. ”
		— Bill Walsh on Steve Young

Miller: Ironically, Jerry Rice has fallen off just about the time that Steve Young went out. He has had some uncharacteristic "Rice performances." What do you think of his future?

Walsh: Jerry can still play, there isn't any question about it. Just like a lot of the great baseball players, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, any number of them, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron going all the way back, could have kept playing. I can recall as a youngster, following Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, their career batting averages would be .310 or something like that, it was so impressive, and by the time they left baseball, their batting averages for their career were well under .300. The point is, do you need that? Does Jerry need to go out and have people ridicule, boo and criticize him, when he is conceivably the greatest player of all time. In all of the polls that you see, he is in the top three. Does he need all of that just to play another year of football, I don't know.

Miller: Can anyone tell him that? Can even you tell him that?

Walsh: He is not ready to hear that, but he may hear it on this show. (Walsh laughs and nods). He may hear it on the show.

Miller: Do you think that this should be his last year?

Walsh: It's up to him, if he wants to keep playing ...

Miller: As an outsider, you say that he cannot judge himself objectively ...

Walsh: when you look at it ... Well, you can't convince them, either. His entire life, like Steve Young's, they were brought up on it. They don't know what is outside; they don't know what's out there. They don't know that there is another career that can be just as successful, even more fulfilling than what they have done. Many of our former players come back to me and say, "Why did I play so long?" Because they are very successful people who have gone on with their lives, and so these people have to break out of this mold, of getting in the car, going to the locker room, everything that goes with the game of football. Part of it is the adulation and attention that they receive, it is massive and it is awfully hard to walk away from that.

Miller: You might be an example of that?

Walsh: I could be ...

Miller: Are you going to be back next year?

Walsh: It remains to be seen, I am under contract for two more years. I knew that the 49ers needed some stability, so I returned under those circumstances. I am not even sure I can get the stability, but to be honest with you, Gary, the front office is operating very smoothly regardless of what some media people will say. We have an excellent group of people. We all get along very, very well. I share meals with Steve Mariucci, our families know each other, all of that is fine. Our biggest problem is in the locker room, where we just don't have the personnel that we need to win games.

Miller: Are there too many people in the front office? How do you decide who is going to make what decisions?

Walsh: I guess so, because everyone else has the same slots filled for every organization, and I happen to be General Manager, but I want to say now directly that Steve Mariucci will have, as far as I am concerned .... It is going to be up to him to decide ... I am certainly willing to concede to Steve Mariucci, the Steve Young and Jerry Rice problems, the $24 million dollar overrun on our salary cap and the need to add a number of football players to this team before next season is played. I am quite willing to concede those decisions to him and I will be there to monitor him and to help him, it's that simple. We have some other excellent people like Terry Donahue. Terry is like a Joe Paterno, he is one of the truly great coaches at the college level. He can coach and he can certainly administrate, I am just hopeful that Terry will be with us. I had originally felt, and I still do, that Terry Donahue and Steve Mariucci would be a great team, two people working together, dynamic people working with an organization. I hope it holds up, I hope it's true, I hope it happens.

Miller: Your first round pick this year is going to be very high and very expensive. What are the odds of you even holding on to that pick, being so high over the salary cap already?

Walsh: We are going to have to have the money to sign our picks; naturally we are going to have to have that. Meanwhile, we're $24 million over the cap this year, $28 million over the cap last year. This can't go on, it has to stop and we are making every effort to stop it. People say, "well, they're confused, they don't know what they are doing". All we do is spend the day pouring over the salary cap, using the management counsel of the NFL as co-partners in this, trying to work out a way to field a football team that's competitive next year and still trying to deal with the cap. We have plenty of experts to do it and we have contingency plans, and we are going to have to see what happens in the case of Steve Young, what happens in the case of Jerry Rice, Tim McDonald and other people as to how we can move from there to meet all the needs of a football team and get under the cap.

Miller: Rice and Young, can you leave it up to them or could somebody in this organization make a cold-blooded decision, because if you keep them, you run the risk of facing another 4-, 5- or 6-win season because they are not up to their standards?

Walsh: It takes a decision, you can call it cold-blooded, you can call it anything you want, there will be a decision made, there isn't any question about it. There will be a party to the decision and Steve Mariucci will be the main-character. I would like to see Steve Mariucci directly involved in that decision.

Miller: (Before the season), I know you were in a tough situation with Garrison Hearst going down, but Lawrence Phillips had had a couple of go-rounds with Jimmy Johnson and with the Rams and got dumped. He had an incredible season in the World League. What happened with him, Dick Vermeil said that when he doesn't play, he is no good (Walsh nods in agreement). In another words when he is distracted, he just starts to lose it.

Walsh: He lost concentration, he lost focus, and was deeply troubled by not being a starter. Meanwhile Charlie Garner has had a super year, he is one of the top five running backs in the game and so we signed both men, hoping honestly that one would turn out; we didn't have anyone else. Really, Lawrence Phillips' numbers were very, very good; he played well but not as well as Charlie, and so Charlie was on the field and Lawrence was just seeing spot-duty. So he began to lose some interest in what was happening and more and more interest, until the point where the coaches just felt that he wasn't cooperating. Now, is he a militant person? No. Is he a pleasant person? Yes. Does he have a sense of humor? Yes. You sit with him and you thoroughly enjoy his company. Now, I don't know if I am the right man to say this, but he is disturbed and he needs help because of it. But as far as being a problem person, that is why everyone we spoke to before we signed him was positive. I got a wonderful letter from his coach in the World League (Jack Bicknell), saying what a fine young man he is and what a great job he did for them. There is something lurking in there with Lawrence that is troubling him and I hope he can find it because he can still play football. Is Lawrence a great player? I am afraid not. Can he be a good player? Yes.