Vince Lombardi: Win By The Rules

Vince Lombardi was not only a sports figure. He transformed football into a metaphor of American experience, and he became a living legend, a symbol to many of leadership, discipline, perseverance, and teamwork.

The son of an Italian immigrant butcher, Lombardi struggled as a coach in high school and climbed as an assistant coach at Fordham, West Point, and the New York Giants. His leadership of the Green Bay Packers to five world championships in nine seasons is the most storied period in NFL history.

Every year Lombardi told his players that professional football was a cruel business.His jobs and theirs, he would say, depended on only one thing, winning, and the only way to win was to accept nothing less. 

The thing that people remember about Lombardi values as a coach is, that he did not believe in cheating to win, and he showed no interest in winning the wrong way, without heart, brains and sportsmanship. He did not encourage dirty play despite the violence of the game as he always insisted that football was “not a contact sport, but a collision sport”.

He was obsessed with winning, and that obsession led to unfortunate imbalances in other aspects of his life.

Lombardi was able to maintain his marriage life with his wife, Marie Planitz, although the marriage faced the typical challenges that come with the high-pressure world of professional sports. They committed to stay together for over 33 years. However, he failed to maintain his health.

He was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1970, and it rapidly progressed, but he continued to work and remain active in his role as the head coach of the Washington Football Team (then known as the Washington Redskins) until his health deteriorated significantly.

His death occurred on September 3, 1970, just a few months after his diagnosis. He was 57 years old - too young for the man who always showed discipline in every way.

Lombardi was remembered by his well-known phrase “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” which he explained: Being a part of a football team is no different than being a part of any organization such as army or political party. The objective is to win, to beat the other guy. Some may think this is a little bit cruel. I don’t think so. I do think that is the reality of life, the rules when they get into the game, and the objective is to win: fairly, squarely, decently, win by the rules, but still win.

Win by the rules, indeed, is rarely seen nowadays.

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Serpong, 1 Apr 2025

Titus J.