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On Saturday night, HBO premieres a new Vince Lombardi documentary at 8pm ET. It repeats at 11:30 pm ET.
New HBO Lombardi Documentary
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Tonight (Tuesday), the NFL Network is showing still another Vince Lombardi documentary on their "A Football Life" series at 9 pm ET. Tonight's episode is Part 1. Part 2 is next week.
NFL Films can't get enough of Lombardi.
NFL Films can't get enough of Lombardi.
I liked Part One. Lombardi was far tougher than even the toughest head coach of today. I don't even know who that would be, they're all "sensitive" now and know the "racially correct" way to go about their job. Vince would have to be the same way if he had been born a generation later than he was.
Lombardi was very tough and demanding but also fair. To watch film of him and to listen to him talk is to glimpse a bit of the best of the way the country used to be, something that most Americans living today haven't experienced and many likely can't even identify with.
Lombardi was very tough and demanding but also fair. To watch film of him and to listen to him talk is to glimpse a bit of the best of the way the country used to be, something that most Americans living today haven't experienced and many likely can't even identify with.
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The team that Lombardi inherited in 1959 had won only one game the year before. Eventually, 13 players who had been on the 1-10-1 1958 Packers either made the Pro Bowl or Hall of Fame.
Part Two is on Tuesday night and the rest of the week.
Part Two is on Tuesday night and the rest of the week.
Since I'm a Packer fan I am inundated with Lombardi lore, lately they have of course PCed the bio with Lombardi starting the first black linebacker Robinson who of course is now in the HOF. His grandson who once wrote for the Packer Report basically was of the opinion that he would not be all that successful in today's environs. But I don't put Lombardi in the Manichean sense of goodness and evil. Once to get the attention of his team he put a dollar sign on the chalkboard so in a sense he is on the same continuum that today's players are on as well. But Lombardi is the high point of the NFL's cultural peak, that formed with the white ethnics melting partially into America and the NFL has coasted on that ever since. (If the NFL had Vick as its cultural peak it would basically be on the same trajectory as rap "music") Baseball's cultural peak that of rural white America of the founding stock.
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I hate I'm missing it sports historian, but I refuse to buy HBO, Showtime, or any of the garbage that's mostly shown on those channels. I have children. Will it be on any other channel or I can possibly get the DVD?
It's tough to identify another great coach such as Lombardi, but I would say per my avatar, Tom Landry, or Chuck Knoll would be pretty close. Two great 70's coaches who were tough and not politically correct. Where have those days gone?
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The A Football Life series has been put on DVD. It will take several months for the Lombardi episodes to be available, but they will be.
Very nice post.
Re: Lombardi starting the "first black linebacker". haha, that's one of those PC factoids that would be laughed at in a sane world. There wasn't a color line in football, and certainly not in the late 50's. Plus the prototypical linebacker of that era was basically a grunting animal so I'm sure it was a stretch to see a black man in that role. You know, because they are all professors and gentleman (from what I see on the TV). Very enlightening of Lombardi to think outside of the box on that issue.
The second part has begun airing the past couple of days. Pretty poignant as Lombardi's health decline and death at a young age is dealt with. Likely as unabashed a tribute to a White man that a "mainstream" media outlet will ever show. But, in the half-hour "back talk" after the show, hosted by the unqualified Steve Wyche (very bizarre looking as far as ethnic mixture; why not have a veteran moderator who was actually alive when Lombardi coached?), his son Vince Jr. makes it clear that he had a strained relationship with his father. So what, who cares, get over it, you're 70 or so years old now, guess they had to find a way to get a negative strain into it.
How is this exactly new? its the same footage that I remember seeing before, with maybe like 10 minutes of different stuff added in, along with commentary from NFL network people. If there is other new stuff it has been played before on other shows. The black linebacker thing I saw before so that isn't new.
but it also reinforces what I was saying about Jim Taylor vs Jim Brown. The whole grading system. The black defender made the pressure which caused the qb to throw the game losing interception, giving the Packers the Championship! and he got a negative grade for the play because it wasn't exactly how the play was drawn up on the board which is crazy because you should allow defenders to freelance a little bit. Taylor wasn't encouraged to cut across the field and stuff like that and still dominated.
but it also reinforces what I was saying about Jim Taylor vs Jim Brown. The whole grading system. The black defender made the pressure which caused the qb to throw the game losing interception, giving the Packers the Championship! and he got a negative grade for the play because it wasn't exactly how the play was drawn up on the board which is crazy because you should allow defenders to freelance a little bit. Taylor wasn't encouraged to cut across the field and stuff like that and still dominated.
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follow your blockers the way the play is designed up on the board and you will run to daylight. He was talking about the 2nd level mostly anyway, a back wasn't just supposed to cut to the right if he saw a hole if the play was designed to go to the left, he would get a negative grade even if he gained a big chunk of yardage. And if you watch footage, it shows that the blockers have different people to block based on what the defense is doing, but the idea is to follow them anyway, no matter if they get it right or not. It mostly summed up the power sweep, and Taylor ran a lot up the gut, despite the "lombardi sweep" being talked about over and over.
You can't sum up an entire coaching philosophy with one simple slogan. He also didn't like you turn the ball over, and cutting across the field and trying to bulldoze too many people will lead to more. Jim Brown had 57 fumbles for his career, Taylor 34. Brown had two seasons with less than 6, Taylor only had one season with 6.
You keep your man crush though, I'll rate the guy who performed better in the postseason higher.
You can't sum up an entire coaching philosophy with one simple slogan. He also didn't like you turn the ball over, and cutting across the field and trying to bulldoze too many people will lead to more. Jim Brown had 57 fumbles for his career, Taylor 34. Brown had two seasons with less than 6, Taylor only had one season with 6.
You keep your man crush though, I'll rate the guy who performed better in the postseason higher.
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So what? Especially in those days a fullback's job was to "run a lot up the gut." Also a FB ran traps and draws, which fairly often broke for big gains.
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On Monday, March 3, the NFL Network is running several programs on Lombardi's Packers.
First, at 4 pm ET, there is a film on the 1962 NFL Championship game which the Packers won over the Giants 16-7. This game was noteworthy for several reasons. It was the first film produced by Ed Sabol, the founder of NFL Films. This was perhaps Jim Taylor's most famous performance and was controversial because of alleged dirty play by Sam Huff and other Giant defenders when tackling Taylor.
The 1962 Packers had 19 white starters (all white on offense) out of 22. Since Willie Wood was ejected early in the game, there were 20 white players for Green Bay for both units in the 1962 Championship game.
After this film there are the highlights of the 1966 Packers followed by the America's Game episode on the 1966 team. Other films on the Packers follow.
First, at 4 pm ET, there is a film on the 1962 NFL Championship game which the Packers won over the Giants 16-7. This game was noteworthy for several reasons. It was the first film produced by Ed Sabol, the founder of NFL Films. This was perhaps Jim Taylor's most famous performance and was controversial because of alleged dirty play by Sam Huff and other Giant defenders when tackling Taylor.
The 1962 Packers had 19 white starters (all white on offense) out of 22. Since Willie Wood was ejected early in the game, there were 20 white players for Green Bay for both units in the 1962 Championship game.
After this film there are the highlights of the 1966 Packers followed by the America's Game episode on the 1966 team. Other films on the Packers follow.