Who is neal dahlen?

Answer 1

Neal Dahlen is a former California high school PE teacher and very successful football coach. While coaching at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, he was hired by the 49ers. My recollection (I taught at the same school), which I think is pretty accurate, is that at first he worked part-time at their summer training camp and later scouted college players on game days. He eventually became a full-time member of the 49er staff under Bill Walsh. If you have a tape of a 49er game during the Seifert era, or see a rerun on ESPN, Neal will be easy to spot. He's the guy with blond hair standing near Seifert during timeouts. Neal later went to the Denver Broncos and eventually became General Manager. I lost track of him after he left the Broncos. If he happens to read this, I wish him the best. We had a number of faculty members at that school who left teaching and had a highly successful careers in other fields. I always think of Neal and those others as great examples of teachers who proved the falsity of the old canard, "Those who can do, those who can't teach. Neal and those others could and did --- both as teachers and as professionals in other fields.