He was released from his contract as GM on Feb. Including his one season there, his overall winning percentage in all games, including the post-season, was. In fact, John Madden is the only other coach to have a winning percentage above. He just beat you. Perhaps the most iconic football coach ever, Lombardi's name adorns the Super Bowl trophy, the NFL's ultimate prize, and he has been the subject of both a Broadway play and best-selling biography.
Yet when he was hired on Jan. His only head-coaching experience had come at St. Cecelia High School in Englewood, N. There, he starred as the football's fullback, paving the way for a football career at Fordham University. At Fordham, Lombardi was one of the football team's "Seven Blocks of Granite," a nickname for the team's sturdy offensive line. Following a short stint as a pro football player, Lombardi started studying law, before getting swayed back to the field as a coach at St.
He stayed there for eight seasons and then left for a new coaching position at Fordham in Lombardi's coaching career at his old university was brief, with a wish to replace head coach Ed Danowski that never came to fruition.
Lombardi's five seasons in New York, which included a league title in , only elevated his status and his value to NFL owners.
In , Lombardi changed employers again, when he signed a five-year deal to head up the Green Bay Packers. Under Lombardi's tight-fisted leadership, the struggling Packers were transformed into hard-nosed winners: Over the course of his career with the team, he led the club to a record and five championships, including three straight titles, from to The team never suffered a losing season under the Hall of Fame coach.
After retiring from coaching following the season and working strictly as the Packers' general manager, Lombardi left Green Bay in to return to the field as the head coach of the Washington Redskins. With his new franchise, Lombardi proved to have his old touch, leading the club to its first winning record in 14 years.
A second year with the Redskins, though, never materialized for Lombardi. I realize that back then, searches weren't as sophisticated as today. But there was a guy on the Chargers, then Colts staffs named Chuck Noll, who didn't go to Pittsburgh until Probably some others as well.
Just curious. There was no real search. On the evening of Feb. When he finished explaining his decision, he announced that Phil Bengtson would succeed him as head coach. This was less than three weeks after Super Bowl II, and Lombardi told reporters that night that Bengtson was his choice and nobody else had a say in the decision.
Lombardi and the three previous Packers coaches who followed Curly Lambeau had all been selected by the executive committee.
It was widely assumed at the time that Lombardi considered only Bengtson and didn't interview anyone else. However, almost 20 years ago now, Bruce Allen told me that the Packers had twice made overtures to his dad, George Allen, who was coaching the Rams at the time and feuding with his owner, Dan Reeves, including in That story was never reported, but it would not surprise me if Lombardi at least asked George Allen if he would be interested in the job at some point between the Packers-Rams Western Conference playoff in Milwaukee on Dec.
As for Noll, he was a year-old defensive backfield coach on Don Shula's staff with the Baltimore Colts. He had been an assistant with the Chargers and Colts for eight years, and had worked under Sid Gillman with the Chargers. Plus, Noll played for Cleveland when Lombardi was an assistant with the Giants. No doubt, he knew of him. Still, I'd be surprised if Lombardi considered him for the job. Neither Bengtson nor Noll had been a head coach, but Bengtson had run a defense at least and had a reputation for being one of the best defensive coaches in the league.
I've read various stuff about Lombardi leaving and how messy and awkward the whole situation was. Can you explain further? Did he negotiate behind the Packers' back, leaving them little choice? Were the Packers awarded any compensation? Was it even discussed? He left the Packers with an aging group of players, after several bad drafts.
The draft turned out pretty bad. Was that Lombardi's fault? The and drafts were nothing great either. What could the Packers have done to keep him? They couldn't offer up ownership.
They couldn't reinstall him as head coach. I'll answer your questions one by one. Yes, it was terribly messy and took the Packers the better part of a week before they agreed to let Lombardi out of his contract. Again, yes. Lombardi more or less admitted that as general manager, he gave Washington permission to talk to him about the job without informing the executive committee.
Were the Packers awarded compensation? Team president Dominic Olejniczak said there was no way to put a value on Lombardi's worth. It's pure speculation on my part, but my hunch is that NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle might have pressured the Packers to take that stance. Was it Lombardi's fault that the Packers had bad drafts from to ?
Lombardi was only days away from announcing his decision that he was leaving for Washington when the draft was held, but he technically was still GM of the Packers at the time. Yet he let Bengtson call the shots in the draft room much to the dismay of personnel director Pat Peppler.
I don't think there's any question that Lombardi knew he was leaving the Packers and sat out what turned out to be maybe the worst draft in team history, starting with No. The NFL draft went from 15 teams to 25 and from players to Obviously, the Packers, as NFL champions picking at the bottom of each round, weren't going to be as successful in the draft as before the merger. In , when they had the fifth pick from a trade, they selected Fred Carr, who might have been as talented as any Packers' No.
In and '68, the Packers drafted two future starters for their offensive line, Bill Lueck and Dick Himes, and also landed Travis Williams, another special talent, in the fourth round.
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