That First Season by John Eisenberg

Author:John Eisenberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mariner Books

PART II

12

TWO HOURS BEFORE kickoff on September 27, Lombardi was at City Stadium. It had rained on and off during the night, and he wanted to check on the grass. He put on his tan overcoat and dark fedora in the locker room, walked down the tunnel, and stepped onto the field. A light mist fell and a breeze blew the tails of his coat as he tapped a shoe into the thick green turf.

Good, it’s firm. We should be able to run the ball.

Looking up, he envisioned the now-silent stadium as it soon would be, filled with cheering fans. But would the damp conditions limit the passing game? McHan was experienced, having made fifty-three starts for the Cardinals, but he was prone to self-doubt. The Bears are tough on defense. I hope his confidence doesn’t sag.

Lombardi and Marie had entertained friends the night before, but amid the laughter, clinking ice, and cigarette smoke, his mind seldom strayed far from the looming occasion, his first regular-season game as an NFL head coach. He had awakened early, collected Vincent, and driven across town to the stadium, stopping at St. Willebrords for mass. (Vincent, whose high school football season had started, would watch the game from the end of the bench. Marie Lombardi would sit in the stands with the wives of the other coaches.) The rain, wind, and chilly temperatures gave the day a wintry feel, and it wasn’t even October. Welcome to Green Bay.

The game had been sold out for more than a month, with all but a few of the 32,500 tickets in the hands of Packer fans curious to see if this coach could succeed where Scooter McLean, Lisle Blackbourn, and Gene Ronzani had failed. Could Lombardi make the Packers respectable again? He believed he could. His players were in better shape and more disciplined and confident, and although most had played on the horrid 1958 squad, Lombardi had added talent, especially on defense. If the exhibition season was any indication, the Packers would at least no longer lose by 56–0 scores.

Of course, Lombardi knew better than to attach significance to meaningless contests. Even though the Packers had won four exhibition games, Sports Illustrated and Sport magazines had still picked them to finish last in the Western Division—they had so far to climb. Even the ever-optimistic Press-Gazette had predicted they could win “three or four games, maybe more.”

The Bears, meanwhile, were expected to challenge the Colts for the Western Division title. They had won eight of twelve games in 1958 and had a bruising defense led by Bill George, regarded as the game’s best middle linebacker along with the Giants’ Sam Huff and Detroit’s Joe Schmidt. Smart, quick, and almost impossible to block, George had started out as a lineman until Halas discovered that, with his agility and reactions, he could make plays all over the field when positioned just behind the line instead of on it. His supporting cast included Doug Atkins, a vicious, tackle-tossing 260-pound end, and veteran pass defenders Erich Barnes and J.

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