The fourteenth Sports Illustrated cover for the Packers was when former head coach and then-current general manager Vince Lombardi announced that he was taking the job of turning around the fortunes of the Washington Redskins in March of 1969. A smiling Lombardi is depicted on the cover along with the headline, “Vince Lombardi Puts a Legend on the Line.”
After only one season off the sidelines, Lombardi couldn’t stand being cooped up in the press box on Sundays and only tending to the mundane duties of the average general manager during the week. By many accounts, giving up coaching was for him a “horrible mistake.” But leaving the successful history of his Green Bay teams and the town where he was revered as “St. Vincent” meant starting over and putting his reputation in jeopardy.
As SI said, “Vince Lombardi knows full well that, however rich the idolatry may be now, his reputation as America’s leading Success Symbol and Dean of Champions is on the line in Washington. Insisting that he is spurred less by profit motives than by internal complusion, he passes off his $100,000 salary and his $500,000 worth of Redskin stock by saying ‘I don’t need the money. Money I’ve got. I need to COACH!’ ”
“Lombardi’s own version of why he quit coaching in January 1968 offers an insight into the weird and unexpected pressure a man encounters at a pinnacle of success. ‘When I quit,’ says Lombardi, ‘I knew I’d never be back coaching. I knew I wouldn’t be able to take it again. The pressures were so horrible. The pressure of losing is bad — awful... but the pressure of winning is worse — infinitely worse, because it keeps on torturing you and torturing you. At Green Bay, I was winning one championship after another (he quit after three straight). I couldn’t take it because I blamed myself after every loss. I felt I’d let them down. You know, if we’d just won every other title, or if we’d lost to Dallas in ’66 or ’67, I’d still be in Green Bay. Forever.’ ”
In 1969, Lombardi did turn the Redskins around that season to some degree, improving them from a 5-9 record in 1968 to a 7-5-2 record. But before he could accomplish more, he was stricken with cancer and died in September 1970.
