Column: Where others were finding coal, Bobby Beathard was digging up diamonds

Sez Me …

Bobby Beathard has passed at 86, killed by Alzheimer’s that destroyed the greatest and most resourceful professional football mind since Pudge Heffelfinger was paid $500 to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

Bobby must have watched more film than Cecil B. DeMille. He was a scout first, traveling to colleges every week during the season. He was center stage, and everyone else in his orbit was audience.

The keenest judge of gridiron horseflesh, the evaluator’s evaluator, is what he was. Where others were finding coal, he was digging up diamonds.

So far ahead of his time he lapped the field, Bobby set the bar to heights first reached by Yuri Gagarin. He was what every NFL general manager wanted to be when they grew up.

Accept no substitutes, because he couldn’t be duplicated. Bobby Beathard was the builder of champions. Super Bowl champions.

He was director of player personnel with the Dolphins when they won two Super Bowls. He was the GM with Washington, and after hiring Joe Gibbs, won three titles (with different QBs) — and it mostly was his players who won a fourth there after he left to become GM of the NFL Team That Used To Be Here (aka the Judases).

Washington also got to Super Bowl XVIII, which it lost to Marcus Allen and the Raiders.

And he was a scout with the Chiefs when they got to the first Super Bowl.

His résumé is unmatched.

Bobby retired in 2000 after his decade-long tenure in San Diego, where he achieved his greatest accomplishment — getting the J’s to the Super Bowl after four years on the job.

He admitted to me that he was out of his element after 1993, when free agency came in, and he no longer could stockpile talent. Most years after that, he traded away his No. 1s, his touch slipped, and the franchise suffered.

But the end shouldn’t have erased what he accomplished. It shouldn’t have taken him 18 years to get into the Hall of Fame. He should have been first-ballot, but the voters couldn’t see past his finish here.

GMs such as Bill Polian, who won one Super Bowl (with the Colts), went in before Bobby, and as Bill said: “To me, Bobby Beathard is the single greatest evaluator I’ve ever come across.”

Bobby was an everyman-nice guy beach bum from childhood, with a marvelous group of eccentric friends. He bodysurfed every day he could (and often had bandages on his face from pre-cancerous growths to show for it). As Rick Schloss witnessed (when Rick had the stamina to run), Bobby washed his car every Sunday morning when the team was home. He ran marathons.

His dress? Cool wave casual. If he owned a tie, it was attached to a Boogie Board.

RIP to a good man. My condolences to his wonderful wife, Christine, and their family. …

How good? One morning a few years ago, I got a call from Bobby (I hadn’t talked to him for a while), asking me how I was doing. A few hours later, I got a call from another good man, Steve Fisher, asking me how I was doing. Frightened, I asked my wife: “How am I doing?” …

I give up. Media/talking heads never will get it. Drew Brees was a Pro Bowler in San Diego after Philip Rivers was drafted. Sean Payton didn’t “fix” him. He took a chance on Drew when everyone else had doubts about the shoulder. …

Can Payton fix Russell Wilson in Denver? Nathaniel Hackett was a bad head coach, but he’s a highly respected offensive coordinator — already hired by the Jets — and he could do nothing at Mile High with Wilson. …

I’ve been around thousands of athletes. None have had more confidence in their ability than Brees. …

So Tom Brady is retiring. Good for him, good for me. But I fear Tom has retired just in time to win his eighth Super Bowl. …

The rumors of Tom to the 49ers were stupid. I’m sure he would like to be capable of walking after he turns 46. …

Somebody with a few hundred thousand followers tweets that every NFL team should retire Brady’s No. 12. What, so he’s Jackie Robinson now? Get over it. …

Kyle Shanahan, another genius who’s only big win has been at craps, will rue the day he rudely dismissed Jimmy Garoppolo. Jimmy was 38-17 as the Niners’ starter, with a 99.0 passer rating. …

It was the worst NFL championship Sabbath. When officials become the story, when every time you look at the screen you see a closeup of the referee’s mug, it’s a bad read. …

The Bengals had to send enough troops to get after one-legged Patrick Mahomes, but defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, another budding genius, did not. Hard enough to overcome the brutal, one-sided officiating. …

Joseph Ossai’s out-of-bounds hit on Mahomes was legit. But Patrick shouldn’t have been physically capable of running that far 59 minutes into the game. …

No matter what, Andy Reid outcoached the Skyline chili out of Zac Taylor. …

Chiefs-Bengals had 53 million-plus viewers. That’s one for every penalty — and proof the NFL isn’t on the phone with an undertaker. …

Marlon McCree has become our Bill Buckner. He screwed up. But he didn’t lose that playoff game with the Patriots by himself. There were many other factors, one of them being Chargering. …

Why isn’t Tony Romo the clairvoyant he used to be? He either stopped while the stopping was good, or wants more than $18 million a year to be Uri Geller. …

Josh Allen skipped the Pro Bowl due to injury but is playing in the Pebble pro-am. Fore! …

Mike McCarthy, who can’t manage a game and tells time by the sun when he has nothing to do, will call his own plays for the Cowboys? Know what that means? Dallas is finished. …

The Judases hiring Kellen Moore as OC was inspired — if only by his red zone success, and their lack of it. …

Want to make the Pro Bowl? Throw two touchdown passes. …

Can’t understand why networks would give the Pac-12 broadcasting rights prior to expansion. Don’t they want to know what’s in the package they’re paying for? Or, are they already aware? …

Thousands enjoy February Madness at the Padres FanFest. I believe their first FanFest attendance totaled seven — Buzzi Bavasi, Preston Gomez, Sparky Anderson, Ollie Brown, Cito Gaston, and beat writers Phil Collier and Paul Cour. …

Have you seen it? Nike and Tiffany have combined on a new sneaker, $400 the pair. Bania’s incorrect review: “They’re gold, Jerry! Gold!” …

February is Black History Month. Florida skips it and moves directly to March, Third Reich Month. …

Like Fernando Tatis Jr., I’m trying to hold my breath. …

That whole Chinese spy balloon thing was overblown. The Pentagon is hushing up the fact that the Wizard, having left without Dorothy Gale and Toto, got off at Kansas. …

Ham & Eggers: Saw a pothole after the rains that had so much water in it seniors were doing exercises and splashing the towel boy. …

Punxsutawney Phil is a redundant idiot.