When Pride Still Mattered Chapter 25 - Until Lombardi Loves You
The title of this chapter refers to how players in Green Bay approached their jobs. One must work, it seems, until Lombardi loves him. But I can’t help but wonder if it in some way refers to Lombardi’s relationship with his father.
Harry Lombardi does not seem like a man who expressed a great deal of external emotion, at least not in terms of fatherly love and affection. He’s a very stereotypical man of his generation in that respect, as was his son. How often have we heard about Vince Lombardi’s strained relationship with his own offspring?
To that end, I have to wonder how much the elder Lombardi’s words must have stung Vince: “You made the biggest mistake of your life. You gave up the best job in the world.”
How is a man ever supposed to be happy in himself if he can’t even please his own dad? After nearly 40 years on various football sidelines, five NFL titles, and more accolades than anybody could ever reasonably ask for, his father’s only reaction to his career change is “you should have kept going.” It’s no wonder he wanted to get back in the game.
Perhaps he always would have, but between that and his sudden overabundance of time, it’s hard to think of a situation where Vince Lombardi wouldn’t have eventually driven himself back into coaching. It’s just how he was wired. We can only speculate as to how he got wired that way, but surely his family upbringing played a role.
Interesting notes
“Lombardi would never” is a common refrain among Packers fans when a player or coach does something they think is somehow untoward, which makes it funny in retrospect that Lombardi himself waffled on retirement, retired secretly, took the Packers’ GM job, then ultimately unretired to take over with a new franchise.
Lombardi’s health issues played a role in his decision to step down from his Packers’ role, and I can’t help but wonder if there’s a way to be an NFL head coach and be healthy. Few successful coaches seem to be the picture of health in the NFL. Even the perpetually handsome and well-groomed Sean McVay made himself so stressed after the Rams’ inevitable post-Super Bowl decline that he made himself sick.
It’s hard not to think that moving into a GM role was a mistake for Lombardi. How do you go from ultimate control to only partial control? Why would you?