Sports

The Daily Whacks, Wednesday Edition

Today, in the middle of reams and reams of copy about a certain baseball series about to begin in a few hours, we take a brief respite and will talk a little football with John Eisenberg, the author of a terrific book called “That First Season,” a fascinating look at Vince Lombardi’s first year with the Packers in 1959. Everyone knows the success Lombardi became; what this book tells is the less-known account of how the Packers took a chance on this virtually unknown career assistant, much to the early chagrin of many shareholders and even more football players.

But the Packers had been woeful — Red Smith famously wrote than in 1958 they had “overwhelmed one, underwhelmed 10, whelmed one” — and so were willing to roll the dice. Lombardi and the Packers were destined for great things together but it was in that first season that both began to understand that Lombardi was special, and that a special core might just be in place in Green Bay.

Eisenberg, who spent many years as sports columnist at the Baltimore Sun, has also written some terrific books about horse racing, most notably this gem from 2007. But for today’s Six Queries, we focus on the time before Titletown in a sleepy Wisconsin hamlet …

Q1: Bill Parcells is always credited with being as close to a modern incarnation as Lombardi as there’s ever been, and he has taken wretched programs with the Pats, Jets, Cowboys and Dolphins and made them better almost immediately. But can even those awful situations compare with the mess that Lombardi inherited in ’59? Could that have even been worse than what the Lions were after Matt Millen was finally sent away?

JE: Parcells is certainly the closest thing to Lombardi in today’s game, and it’s no coincidence that he preaches the same kind of football Lombardi did – strong running game, tough defense, no mistakes, good blocking and tackling and execution by foxhole guys. Basic football always steadies a wobbly team. But the Packers that Lombardi inherited were more than wobbly. Compared to even the worst of today’s teams, they were semi-professional at best. They didn’t practice hard, didn’t work out on their own, didn’t mind losing. As bad as the Lions were last year (and this year, too, it seems), they worked harder at their craft than the 1958 Packers did. Jerry Kramer told me he didn’t enjoy going 1-10-1 in 1958, but he had a great time partying with Paul Hornung and the rest of the guys, and at first, he wasn’t sure he wanted to work as hard as Lombardi wanted. Those players weren’t being paid well enough to care that much. But Lombardi raised the bar on what they should expect of themselves as pro football player, focusing on discipline, commitment, drive, and fundamentals. And they all eventually came around when they saw how much he helped them.

 

Q2: It was a surprise to me to see just how reluctant Lombardi was to realize that Bart Starr was the guy who’d lead his teams out of the wilderness; the QB he wanted to succeed, Lamar McHan, died before you could talk to him for this book but do you think he saw himself as either the Wally Pipp or Pete Best of the Packer dynsaty?

JE: Lamar McHan had a much better career as a quarterback than Bart Starr until Lombardi got to Green Bay in 1959. McHan was a college star at Arkansas, a top draft pick, and had started for the Cardinals for five years when Lombardi acquired him. Starr, meanwhile, had sat on the bench at Alabama and thrown a ton of interceptions at Green Bay. He was regarded as a useful backup at best Lombardi traded for McHan because he was looking for a starter, and McHan played fairly well until getting injured halfway through the 1959 season, and Starr played so well after taking over that Lombardi couldn’t put McHan back in. McHan’s wife told me that Lamar understood what happened because the Packers became so good, but he was never a Lombardi fan after losing his job there. Like any top athlete, he felt he could have replicated what Starr accomplished. I suspect it did bother him. But he grew older, raised a family and had a happy life, so it didn’t define him.

Q3: It sounds like even today, 50 years later, one or two of the guys who were there for Lombardi’s first season are still reluctant to soften their personal views on the man while clearly conceding what a great coach he was. Is that accurate, and if so, does it surprise you?

JE: With the exception of Fuzzy Thurston, the great guard, who couldn’t stand Lombardi and hasn’t softened one iota, most of the former Packers have, in fact, calmed down on the subject of Lombardi. They might have hated him when they played for him because he was so brutal, but they have enormous respect for him now, and they’re grateful for what he did for them. A lot of these guys have done very well in business after football, and many cite what Lombardi taught them about discipline, organization and fundamentals as key elements of their success. They were a lot younger and more defiant when they hated Lombardi for browbeating them as players; now they’re adults who see the big picture and understand how fortunate they were to play for him.

Q4: Could Lombardi be Lombardi today?

JE: The answer everyone wants to hear is no. I don’t buy it. Admittedly, Lombardi coached in simpler times – no free agency, no salary cap-mandated decisions, no real player demands. He had all the juice as a GM. When Jim Ringo showed up with an agent to negotiate a contract, Lombardi just traded him. So it’s easy to deduce that he couldn’t handle what’s going on today, with players moving freely from team to team, showing no loyalty and having a lot more power. But Lombardi was shrewd, competitive, and insanely driven. Like any great coach, he would adjust to whatever circumstances he had to deal with. Fans think coaches can’t yell at players today because they’re getting paid so much and won’t take it, but the NFL has plenty of tough-guy coaches — Tom Coughlin, Jon Gruden, and Bill Belichick, to name just a few, and those three have all won Super Bowls. Lombardi would have figured out what notes he needed to hit.

Q5: You’ve written a book about your experiences growing up going to Cowboys games at the Cotton Bowl; I assume you must have had a far different view of Lombardi as a kid rooting for a team he always beat than you did by the time you were done writing about the man?

JE: I couldn’t stand Lombardi growing up. I was at the Cotton Bowl for the 1966 championship game when the Packers beat the Cowboys with a goal-line stand in the last minute. Broke my heart. And the Ice Bowl, the next year, broke it again. When I started working on this book years later, there were days when I couldn’t believe I was writing a book about Lombardi and the Packers. But I learned a lot in the process. In fact, I think I learned why the Packers beat the Cowboys. As great a coach as the Cowboys’ Tom Landry was, he was not a great motivator. His approach was “you guys are pros, you should motivate yourself.” Lombardi and Landry were both superb tacticians, but Lombardi brought more to the table as a motivator. His players played harder for him. And in championship games between two great and talented teams, that may have made the difference. This Cowboy fan humbly tips his cap.

Q6: You spent an awful lot of time chronicling the Orioles when you were a columnist at the Sun; does it sadden you at all that the Orioles — who not so long ago were every bit the rival to the Yankees that the Red Sox became — have fallen so far into irrelevance? Can they ever capture Baltimore’s attention and heart again the way they used to?

What’s happened to the Orioles bothers me a lot. I’ve lived in Baltimore for 25 years and I love baseball – my son plays in college and I see lots of games. I would love to see Orioles games matter again. But to say they’re facing an uphill climb is an understatement. The Ravens have taken over their town. Fans are disgusted with the owner, Peter Angelos, and understandably weary after 12 straight losing seasons. There was a glimmer of hope for the first time this season – the arrival of several excellent young pitchers, like lefty Brian Matusz. But they still have a long, long way to go. I do believe some fans would come back to Camden Yards if they started winning – fans support winners just about everywhere. But the Orioles have years of negativity to overcome. They’ll never own the town again like they did before the Ravens came.

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Chirp, Jimmy, Chirp: One of these days, Jimmy Rollins is going to be sorry he shot off his mouth. You would think, anyway.

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Oh, Right … that’s Tonight: Knicks vs. Heat. Nets vs. Timberwolves. Hard to remember a more hotly-anticipated basketball season than this one, eh? We could both use a little of “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh” mojo around here. Quick.

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Just Wondering: How come, all these years later, we’re all still charmed at that old video of Don Mattingly stealing popcorn from the kid in the stands, and yet it feels like the moral certitude of the planet is at stake because Mark Sanchez may have gotten hungry and scarfed a hot dog in Oakland the other day?