I played for three Hall of Fame Coaches – Eddie Robinson at Grambling, Paul Brown at Cleveland, and Vince Lombardi with Green Bay – and they were all great. But one of the things Coach Lombardi could do better than the others was motivate. He could chew you out one minute, but the next minute he’d say something to make you feel loved and ready to run through a brick wall for him.
I still think his ability to analyze and diagnose an opponent was unbelievable. … It was almost as if he had written the other team’s game plan.
Lombardi did more individual coaching than anybody I’ve ever seen. He really got tot know his players and what made the tick. Once he called me in and he said, “Willie, I know what makes you play the way you do.” And then he related my being black and him being Italian and coming up the hard way. He said, “It’s very important to me, because of my background, that people recognize me as being a great coach.” He knew just how to get me involved.
I would have gone through hellfire for that man.
Lombardi put purpose behind what you were doing. You knew what you were doing and why, and you didn’t want to make a mistake. I still think his ability to analyze and diagnose an opponent was unbelievable. He’d come up to you and say, “You’ve got to be ready for this or that,” and he was always right. It was almost as it he had written the other team’s game plan.
In many ways, he challenged me every week. Before a game, he’s say, “When you walk off that field today, I want people to say they’ve seen the finest defensive end in the league.” He made me believe I could do anything.
