Vince Lombardi is all the rage these days. Forty years after his death, his life is being portrayed in a Broadway play, and last week HBO debuted a documentary about the legendary football coach.
Lombardi’s career is defined by his championship success as coach of the Green Bay Packers. But despite spending only one season as the Redskins boss, Lombardi had a strong influence in Washington as well. He led the Redskins to their first winning season in 15 years in 1969, with a 7-5-2 mark.
Washington was where Vince Lombardi died, and the sadness of his passing from cancer is well documented in the fine HBO film.
What is not documented — and is rarely brought up — is how the NFL tried to use Lombardi’s death bed to pressure the players, who were briefly on strike during training camp in 1970 over pension and other issues, back to work.
Redskins players would work out on their own on a field at Georgetown University, where Lombardi could watch the workouts from his hospital room.
Hall of Fame tight end John Mackey, president of the NFL Players Association at the time, recounted the story for me in the autobiography I co-authored with him called, “Blazing Trails,” about how Redskins owner Edward Bennett Williams and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle used Lombardi’s illness to try to pressure Mackey to call off the strike.
Mackey said he was at Duke Ziebert’s one night with Sergeant Shriver, the former head of the Peace Corps, when Williams approached Mackey. “You know there’s only one thing in life that I’ve ever wanted, and now that I have it, nothing means anything,” Williams said, his voice breaking up. “I always wanted to be in business with Vince Lombardi, and now that we’re in business together he’s dying.”
Mackey told me while he was sure that Williams was “genuinely upset” about Lombardi, it turned out to be the first step by the owners to use Lombardi’s illness as a bargaining chip.
In a meeting with Rozelle in Philadelphia, the commissioner got a phone call and left the room. He came back with tears in his eyes, Mackey said. “Vince is dying,” Rozelle told Mackey. “You know what that means? If he dies before you sign the contract, the public is going to believe you killed him. You’ve got to sign because he is the Kennedy of football. If you don’t sign before he dies, everything is going to stop and we’re going to lose the whole season.”
The union and owners did reach an agreement on Aug. 1 that had nothing to do with Lombardi, who passed away on Sept. 3.
It was a small but ugly part of the final days of Vince Lombardi in Washington. With NFL players and owners on the verge of another work stoppage, hopefully it won’t get as ugly.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN 980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
