Jim Hanifan can tell some stories.

Some of which you can even run in the paper.

There was the one where the NFL wanted him to change the way he taught blocking, but he talked them out of it.

There were ones about coaching the Hogs in Washington, protecting Mark Rypien.

There was the one about the former NFL coach who ... oh, wait, we can't tell that one.

Known as the guru of offensive line coaching, Hanifan spent most of his 30 seasons in the NFL in that role, with the St. Louis Cardinals (1973-78), San Diego Chargers (1979), Atlanta Falcons (1987-89), Washington Redskins (1990-96) and St. Louis Rams (1997-2003).

He was head coach of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1980-85, and interim coach of the Atlanta Falcons for the final four games in 1989.

These days, he lives in St. Louis, where he appears on local radio stations giving his analysis of the Rams in particular and the NFL in general.

He was in Coeur d'Alene last weekend as a favor to a friend - one of his former players, Dale Nosworthy, who was putting on a benefit golf tournament. When Hanifan was an assistant coach at the University of Utah in the 1960s, he recruited Nosworthy, a wide receiver, out of Wilson High in Long Beach, Calif., to play for the Utes.

Before he left, between bites of breakfast at Nosworthy's Hall of Fame, the 80-year-old Hanifan, sporting a Super Bowl ring from the 1991 champion Washington Redskins on his left hand, another Super Bowl ring from the 1999 champion St. Louis Rams on his right hand, touched on several topics - the state of the NFC West, the art of teaching offensive line play, and being a father figure to his players, to name a few - in an hour-long chat.

On why the NFC West suddenly got so competitive, with the San Francisco 49ers going to the Super Bowl two seasons ago, and the Seattle Seahawks winning the Super Bowl last year:

"(Coach Jim) Harbaugh came in and gave them (the 49ers) new life. And Pete (Carroll) came in in Seattle, and changed the complexion of that team. And now Arizona's looking pretty good with Bruce Arians. ... so it's a tough division."

Why has Harbaugh succeeded where previous 49ers coach Mike Singletary did not:

"In Singletary's case, when he got into coaching he got handed a coaching position at the National Football League level. And nothing against Mike; he was a great player, a Hall of Fame player. But that does not mean that you're going to be a good coach. A couple of years ago he's just sitting there, and all of a sudden he's an NFL head coach. That doesn't work; it never will.

"You take Jimmy, he put in his dues as a player, a hard-nosed, competitive player. And then he got into coaching. And he took his time ... University of San Diego, then got the job at Stanford, and did a terrific job at Stanford, changed their whole dynamics. ... he grew up in a coaching family."

On how close the Rams are to challenging in the NFC West:

"They're close. They had an excellent draft. ... I think the key there will be (quarterback) Sam Bradford, who has shown a lot of great qualities coming out of college. Last year he was on his way to having a helluva year ... on a broken play, he avoided the rush and got outside, and got to the sideline and went out of bounds - nobody hit him - and he fell, torn ACL, out for the season.

"He's got some good wideouts. ... Tavon Austin, dynamic threat, finally came into his own as kickoff return guy, punt return guy, slot receiver. ... Looks to me like they've got some talent there. ... I think Sam's really a good player, and they did not draft another quarterback, which tells you the coaching staff feels strongly toward him."

On how the current 49ers-Seahawks rivalry reminds him of the Redskins-Cowboys rivalry he was a part of in the 1990s:

"That was a bloodletting thing. We did not like each other at all, that was quite obvious. ... So many of my years, I was always in the NFC East, St. Louis Cardinals and later with the Redskins, it was a dog-eat-dog feeling. You'd look at it like, if we survive the regular season, I don't know if we could make the move in the playoffs, because how many guys are you going to have left?

"One year, in 1990, we were in the playoffs and we were playing the 49ers. If we win that ballgame, we go to the NFC championship game. But we were so banged up, late in the game they pull it off. And I remember thinking to myself, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to us, because we would have embarrassed ourselves the next weekend, because we wouldn't have had anybody who was capable of playing. Then the following year everybody stayed healthy, and we won the Super Bowl."

Hanifan noted that during that time in the NFC East, the Cowboys had Tom Landry as coach, the Redskins had Joe Gibbs, the New York Giants had Bill Parcells - all of which are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And the Philadelphia Eagles were coached by Dick Vermeil, "who I'm sure at some point in time will be in the Hall of Fame. So that was some tough sledding there."

Hanifan was asked if he were recruiting Nosworthy these days, would he still recruit him as a wide receiver?

"Lineman," Hanifan said without hesitation. "I'd recruit him as a guard. But he was a wide receiver when I recruited him, and then I moved him to tight end his freshman year, which upset him dramatically. But he had a great career there at Utah, an outstanding tight end; best blocker on the offense, better than any of our offensive linemen."

It was suggested Nosworthy wouldn't have gone to Utah if Hanifan had wanted to make him a guard.

"I guarantee you he wouldn't," Hanifan replied. "You've got to do those things (switch their positions) after you get 'em there."

Hanifan was asked, with the way the rules of blocking have changed over the years, would he teach offensive line play differently today?

"No sir, I wouldn't change a thing," he said. "I wouldn't change one little bit. But we did revolutionize the game, in a way. I came from San Diego State, and we were throwing the ball quite a bit (under coach Don Coryell). But we used our hands quite a bit; we were aggressive. We struck. Nobody else did that. So when I went to the NFL I brought that with me. ... One of my guards was Conrad Dobler ... my right tackle was Dan Dierdorf. ... They were all very passive, blocking like this (elbows out, fists next to chest). Defensive linemen would just grab their arm, and it was a sack right there, man. So, (I said) no, no, no, we're not doing that. We're going to hit 'em, just like a boxer ... strike."

One year, Hanifan said Coryell came back from the league meetings and said there was quite an argument about Hanifan's aggressive blocking techniques. Back in those days, the head slap was legal, with Los Angeles Rams defensive end Deacon Jones among the more effective at it.

"One of the factors that entered into it was the defensive guys had practiced the violent head slap," Hanifan said, "and when you come up out of your stance, you had better get your hand up as fast as you can, try to ward off that head slap - or you're going to get hit right in the side of the head. Right in the earhole. You start getting pinched nerves, concussions. ...

"Well, the deal was, they outlawed the head slap, but because of that, you're not going to be able to use your hands. You can't strike. So my guys (linemen) come running in to me, (saying) 'What are we going to do?' and I said ... 'We're going to still hit 'em. Screw that, man. So we did. And they had a deal where you were supposed to do this (he extends his hands toward the defender) and then stop. (Art) McNally (then the head of NFL officials), came to St. Louis, sat down with me and said, 'Hey Jim, you can't do that.' And I said, 'Art, as a fellow Irishman, you got in some fights, right, when you were a kid?'

'Well, yeah.'

'Now you tell me, when you go to strike a guy, can you stop like that? You can't extend?' I said, 'You're out of your mind.'

'He looked at me and said, 'You know what, you're right.'"

On working with Mark Rypien, the former high school star at Shadle Park in Spokane, who later played at Washington State and in the NFL, and now still lives in this area:

"Mark had a great career with the Redskins. In 1991, when we won the Super Bowl, I don't think I'd ever seen anyone, including Kurt Warner, throw a deep ball as well as Mark did that particular year. I mean, phenomenal. He was hitting guys, 45, 55 yards down the field, in stride. ...

"Everything jelled in 1991. In '90, we were all crippled up. In '91, we started fast, Joe (Gibbs) gets up there one day and says, 'Here's the deal, every time we win a ballgame here, I'm going to add a day off for you during the bye week. The bye week came right in the middle of the season. But we go 7-0 ... He had to beg 'em, 'You can't do that. Guys, we've got something good going here. We've got a shot at a great season.' And they realized that. They kind of screwed around with us (coaches) a little bit. So we wound up practicing two or three times that particular bye week."

Hanifan said protecting Rypien "was pretty easy, because we knew where he was (in the pocket). ... With Ryp, all I know is how fantastic that season was with him. What a great young man he is. A great leader, a great passion about the game. Calm, collected guy. Very well-prepared, the whole bit."

Years after they played for him, Hanifan remains close to many of his players - Nosworthy and Hanifan, for example, have kept in touch for nearly 50 years. Hanifan said that stems from his high school days, when his football and basketball coaches were more than just coaches to him, as was his coach at Cal.

"To me, that (being a father figure to players) was part of coaching," Hanifan said. "What's kind of cool at the professional level is, you had the same guys. I had Dierdorf for 10-11 years in a row, and I had Conrad Dobler his last six seasons. Well, you get to know a guy really, really well, when you've been around them that long. You get to know the wives, you get to know the kids. ...

"I came back to St. Louis with Dick Vermeil in '97. So here it is, 2014, 17 years later. Seventeen years I've spent Thanksgiving dinner at Dan Dierdorf's house. And before I left St. Louis, I coached there 12 years, I can say, for 29 years I've been to Dan's house for Thanksgiving dinner. So that kind of tells you something there. ...

"The thing about it that I thought was so important as a coach, at that level, was to really get to know a guy, get to know his situation off the field, get to know his family, what the kids are doing ... and you should know what outside things are happening, other than what is taking place in the classroom and on the field. ... I always felt like that was part of the job, I wanted to know my guys as well as I could possibly know them. Because you want to know what makes a guy tick. And if you know what makes him tick, you know whether you need to put your arm around him, or give him a kick in the butt."

So what did Nosworthy need at Utah?

"A pat on the back ... encouragement," Hanifan said. "Put your arm around him."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.