Could you make Coach Lombardi’s team?

  • Published
  • By Capt Leah Fry
  • 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  "I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle -- victorious.”

This quote doesn’t belong to George Patton or Curtis Lemay, but to one of the most successful football coaches of all time, Vince Lombardi. The principles of intensity, sacrifice, discipline and leadership on which he coached are the same principles on which we build our future leaders in basic training and commissioning sources.

He took one of the least successful teams of its time, the Green Bay Packers, to an NFL-dominating six divisional titles and five NFL championships, as well as Super Bowls I and II and a record of 98-30-4.

How did he do it? And most importantly, how can we apply this great coach’s principles to our daily military lives to both motivate and measure our commitment to our task.

-- Intensity: “You never win a game unless you beat the guy in front of you. The score on the board doesn't mean a thing. That's for the fans. You've got to win the war with the man in front of you. You've got to get your man."

It doesn't matter how well you did the task the day before, what matters is doing that task now -- the task at hand. We don’t get to look the enemy in the eye when we kill him, but we directly support those who do, and getting our stuff done right the first time means they kill the bad guys the first time they get the chance.

-- Sacrifice: "Success is like anything worthwhile. It has a price. You have to pay the price to win and you have to pay the price to get to the point where success is possible. Most important, you must pay the price to stay there."

Nobody gave us the status of the world’s greatest military machine. It was earned with blood. Yet it isn't just about the price we have paid as much as it is about the price we're willing to pay today, tomorrow, and the next day. It’s through unwavering conviction of character and commitment to our cause that we remain a world power.

-- Discipline: “Teams do not go physically flat, they go mentally stale."

Sometimes, when it comes right down to it, is your task really so tough? Are the conditions so terrible as to prevent you from exercising perfect discipline in your task? In some cases, if we go ‘mentally stale’ for a single moment, people may die. Mental toughness is paramount to our success.

-- Leadership: "Leadership rests not only upon ability, not only upon capacity; having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it. His leadership is then based on truth and character. There must be truth in the purpose and will power in the character."

Step up to make the tough call when it’s unpopular. Have the integrity and initiative to step ahead of your peers to make the difference, no matter the career field, no matter the task, whether you’ve been ordered to do so or just see something that needs to be fixed.

Vince Lombardi’s ideals and character would have served amongst the greatest of generals. Although he chose football instead of a military career, his standards transcend one profession and apply to all of us in our endeavors to defeat an enemy. I challenge you to play on Coach Lombardi’s team.