Wit and Wisdom of Football

[MichiganPackerFan]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1009/nfl.ncaa.football.wit.and.wisdom/content.1.html

This is a great slideshow with some of the most memorable quotes in football. Here are four of my favorites (but take the time to go through them: they're great!):

Mike Ditka
Chicago Bears head coach
"The shoulder surgery was a success. The lobotomy failed." – on quarterback Jim McMahon

Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson
Dallas Cowboys linebacker
"Terry Bradshaw is so dumb he couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him the C and the T."

John McKay
Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach
"It’s a good idea. I’m in favor of it." – When asked what he thought of his team’s execution after a 21-0 loss to Cincinnati in 1976.

Vince Lombardi
NFL head coach
"Winning isn’t everything, but the will to win is everything."

[vince]

I want to clear up a bit of history here. There's a common misconception that I've heard often about Lombardi and that quote. If you click through and see the page containing the quote, you see that Sports Illustrated suggests, as many other credible sources have, that the cited quote is often "mis-quoted" as:

"Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing."

People who use that quote are routinely corrected by those who repeat the same mantra as SI - that Lombardi never actually said that. Rather, he said what SI quoted, or something similar. Here's an example of that from this offseason.

http://www.jerseyal.com/GBP/2010/07/23/weekly-packers-news-with-a-twist-cheesehead-radio-71610-72210/

I noticed a twitter conversation where some fans were tweeting Vince Lombardi quotes. Of course, his most famous quote got mentioned. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Well the problem with that quote is that Vince Lombardi never said it. What he did say was “Winning isn’t everything, but making the effort to win is”. This was explained by Lombardi himself in a book I have called “Vince Lombardi on football.” which was based on a film series Lombardi did for players and coaches called The Science and Art of Football” Whoever first reported that quote decided to change it up a bit to make it sound better. And that’s your Vince Lombardi history lesson for today…

Well, that “history lesson” regardless of whether it came from Lombardi himself, is wrong. He may also have said at some point, "...But the will to win is everything." but he also said, "Winning isn't everything, but it's the only thing." Here's the proof.

Winning isn't everything, but it's the only thing.

As it became so commonly quoted and criticized for the message it sent to children, Lombardi probably regretted placing too much emphasis on the actual result, but he did say it, probably numerous times.

[channtheman]

Funnily enough, my dad was talking to me about that quote a couple of weeks ago. Lombardi did say that, but according to my dad, what he meant by it was that when on the football field winning is the only thing that matters.

Let me explain. Lombardi's priorities were faith, family, then football. Lombardi believed that faith and family were more important than football. However, when you were playing football the only thing that mattered was winning. The loser got nothing, won nothing, and basically no one cared about the loser. So the statement is true, winning isn't everything it's the only thing. It IS the only thing that matters when talking in reference to a football game, because the loser gets nothing.

All of that is according to my dad, but it makes sense if you think about it. Lombardi probably is kicking himself over the quote because of the misconceptions it can easily spawn that place winning at the top of everything though.

EDIT: I just watched Vince's video and what my dad was saying makes even more sense. "In our business, either you're first or you're last." I'll reiterate, Lombardi was not saying winning is the most important thing in the world, he was saying that in the business of football and when you are on the football field, winning is the only thing that matters.

[pbmax]

I want to clear up a bit of history here. There's a common misconception that I've heard often about Lombardi and that quote. If you click through and see the page containing the quote, you see that Sports Illustrated suggests, as many other credible sources have, that the cited quote is often "mis-quoted" as:

"Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing."

People who use that quote are routinely corrected by those who repeat the same mantra as SI - that Lombardi never actually said that. Rather, he said what SI quoted, or something similar. Here's an example of that from this offseason.

http://www.jerseyal.com/GBP/2010/07/23/weekly-packers-news-with-a-twist-cheesehead-radio-71610-72210/

I noticed a twitter conversation where some fans were tweeting Vince Lombardi quotes. Of course, his most famous quote got mentioned. “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Well the problem with that quote is that Vince Lombardi never said it. What he did say was “Winning isn’t everything, but making the effort to win is”. This was explained by Lombardi himself in a book I have called “Vince Lombardi on football.” which was based on a film series Lombardi did for players and coaches called The Science and Art of Football” Whoever first reported that quote decided to change it up a bit to make it sound better. And that’s your Vince Lombardi history lesson for today…

Well, that “history lesson” regardless of whether it came from Lombardi himself, is wrong. He may also have said at some point, "...But the will to win is everything." but he also said, "Winning isn't everything, but it's the only thing." Here's the proof.

Winning isn't everything, but it's the only thing.

As it became so commonly quoted and criticized for the message it sent to children, Lombardi probably regretted placing too much emphasis on the actual result, but he did say it, probably numerous times.

In the video, he seems to be commenting strictly on professional football. "In our business" is the preface he uses. If that reading is correct, he may value the "will to win" higher as a lesson for others, but recognize the cutthroat nature of his chosen profession. The two do not need to be in conflict necessarily.

[vince]

That makes sense. Lombardi probably stated that he didn't say it because he obviously couldn't control the fact that the quote was used so regularly out of context and therefore misrepresented his true values away from the football field.

[Little Whiskey]

Lombardi's priorities were faith, family, then football.

just not always in that order......well, never in that order.

Read the book "when pride still mattered". you'll see that Lombardi was not much of a family man or even much of a dad. He put football above both of them. the book also dispells a bunch of the Lombardi myths.