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When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi Review

This is definitely one of the best biographies I have ever read. I knew little of Vince Lombardi before going in other than he was an exceptional coach and motivator. My interest in the NFL and desire to learn about the game lead me to this book and I can honestly say I got more than I bargained for with it.

Not only is there great insight into the game at a time when the NFL was being formed but you also get a good feel for how Lombardi was such a great innovative coach and leader. I took from the book how the need for someone in a leadership role needs to maintain a strong authoritarian presence amongst those they oversee, easing up when needed but never falling in to being 'one of the boys' as I see happens all too often in the corporate world. There is a comparison in the book after Lombardi leaves Green Bay between him and his successor, who was not seen as being forceful or hard, and how this lax, easy-going attitude, caused the players to have a lack of respect for him and as a result play with almost half a heart, contrasting how Lombardi maintained strict order with players and in return made them play better and be better. Interviews relayed throughout the book from these players back up how this Lombardi attitude made them better players and people.

As far as the writing style, it was great and the easy flow and attention to detail that was used just heightened the read all that much more.

I recommend this book to any Football or biography fan as well as to anyone who enjoys reading about someone who made a difference. Five stars all the way.

When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi Feature

ISBN13: 9780684870182
Condition: New
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When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi Overview

More than any other sports figure, Vince Lombardi transformed football into a metaphor of the American experience. The son of an Italian immigrant butcher, Lombardi toiled for twenty frustrating years as a high school coach and then as an assistant at Fordham, West Point, and the New York Giants before his big break came at age forty-six with the chance to coach a struggling team in snowbound Wisconsin. His leadership of the Green Bay Packers to five world championships in nine seasons is the most storied period in NFL history. Lombardi became a living legend, a symbol to many of leadership, discipline, perseverance, and teamwork, and to others of an obsession with winning. In When Pride Still Mattered, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss captures the myth and the man, football, God, and country in a thrilling biography destined to become an American classic.

When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi Specifications

As coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967, Vince Lombardi turned perennial losers into a juggernaut, winning back-to-back NFL titles in 1961 and 1962, and Superbowls I and II in 1966 and 1967. Stern, severe, sentimental, and paternal, he stood revered, reviled, respected, and mocked--a touchstone for the '60s all in one person. Which adds up to the myth we've been left with. But who was the man? That's the question Pulitzer Prize-winner David Maraniss tackles. It begins with Lombardi's looming father, a man as colorful as his son would be conservative. Still, from his father Vince Lombardi learned a sense of presence and authority that could impress itself with just a look. If a moment can sum up and embrace a man's life--and capture the breadth of Maraniss's thoroughness--it is one that takes place off the field when the Packers organization decides to redecorate their offices in advance of the new head coach's arrival: "During an earlier visit," Maraniss reports, "he had examined the quarters--peeling walls, creaky floor, old leather chairs with holes in them, discarded newspapers and magazines piled on chairs and in the corners--and pronounced the setting unworthy of a National Football League club. 'This is a disgrace!' he had remarked." In one moment, one comment, Lombardi announced his intentions, made his vision and professionalism clear, and began to shake up a stale organization. It reveals far more about the man than wins and losses, and is the kind of moment Maraniss uses again and again in this superb resurrection of a figure who so symbolized a sporting era and sensibility. --Jeff Silverman

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Customer Reviews

the master of coaching - wforsdick -
i went to a play about Vice Lombardi based on this book. and i have so much respect for Vice he is a hard nose coach who wants to push his players so hard and sometimes i am like that when i play a video game. any one who was a fan of the Green Bay Packers then will really love this book and understand how he was able to turn this team around from losers to winners so quick. I haven't started to read this book yet but soon i will and when i do i will be reading it more often then my other books i have now. He was the best coach in the NFL and still is to this day. If u like history about the National Football league in the past when Bart Starr was the Quarterback or Paul Horning or Jim Taylor then this book is the book for u.

A Coach's Life - Brian Lewis - Ridgefield, CT

I am a huge sports fan, old enough to remember the Packers glory days under Lombardi, and while I spend a lot of my free time reading, I usually try to avoid sports biographies. For the most part, they are puff pieces about men who often don't deserve accolades for anything other than physical prowess. I really picked up this because I was impressed with a more recent work by David Maraniss, especially They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967

What Maraniss has done here is write a serious biography about an important sports figure, and he presents him warts and all. He shows Lombardi to be not just an effective, charismatic coach, but also a much less than devoted parent and husband.

The actual football sections of the book could have been stronger, fuller, more detailed. Frankly, a lot of the book, particularly the chapters that recap seasons of the Packer dynasty are redundant and pretty lightweight - just rehashing the sports pages of the day.

I enjoyed reading it, as I am sure most football fans will. It is better than the author's book about the Rome 1960 Olympics, but it is far short of his masterful account of the Vietnam war and the anti-war movement in America.

Uneven - Randy Cook - Newtown, PA United States
I was looking forward to reading this biography on one of my favorite coaches - Vince Lombardi. 'When Pride Still Mattered' is a complete biography of the life of Vince Lombardi. From his humble beginnings as the son of a butcher to one of the all time greatest coaches.

I found the book a bit uneven. There were segments of this book that I couldn't stop reading. While there were other parts that were dry and slow moving. I enjoyed reading about Lombardi' early career and the frustrations of waiting for his chance at a head coaching position.

It was sobering to learn how distant he was from his children. It was sad to see how he loved his players so much, but couldn't find the time or the ability to communicate with his kids. It was clear that he loved his children, bhut had a very difficult time showing that affection.

It was difficult to read the end of the book. It was hard to see the great coach, teacher, and leader being ravaged by cancer. For a fan of football this is a book well worth reading.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 01, 2010 18:45:08

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Monday, November 1, 2010