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Two Little Things. "Some people try to find things in this game that don't exist," sniffs Packer Coach Lombardi. "Football is two things. It's blocking and tackling. You block and tackle better than the team you're playing, you win." To do his blocking. Lombard! has the quickest and one of the heaviest (239 Ibs. per man) offensive lines in pro football. To do his tackling, he has a sturdy, stingy defensive team that has permitted its opponents an average of only 102 yds. rushing. 127 yds. passing and 10 points a game. To spearhead the awesome (30 points per game) Packer attack. Lombardi boasts the league's most accurate passer. Quarterback Starr, who has completed 64f'f of his passes this season. He has the N.F.L.'s top ground gainer (1.318 yds.) in Jim Taylor, an oak-ribbed fullback who never runs around a defender when he can run over him and is a strong candidate for 1962—3 Most Valuable Player.
Breaking Their Morale. Last year Lombardi also had the impressive services of Paul Hornung. a wondrous halfback who, in the day of the specialist, can run, pass, kick or block—and proved it by scoring a record 176 points in 1960. This year Hornung wrenched his knee badly. sat it out on the bench half the season—when he was not posing for ads. The loss would cripple almost any other team. Yet, filling in for Hornung at halfback. Tom Moore scored seven touchdowns, averaged 3.1 yds. every time he carried the ball. Handling Hornung's place-kicking chores. Guard Jerry Kramer booted nine field goals, 36 straight extra points.
With that kind of trained talent, Lombardi can go easy on the extra razzle-dazzle. His game is disconcertingly simple. Or so it appears. ''We always hit them at their strongest point." he says. "We attack their best men in an effort to break their morale. If you can bring down their best men, it's all over." Opponents respect the tactic. On defense, explains Philadelphia Linebacker Chuck Bednarik. "the Packers just hand you the ball and say. 'Here it is, see what you can do with it.' " On offense, says Pittsburgh Quarterback Bobby Layne. "everybody knows what's coming, but the point is that you can't stop it any way.':
Reluctant Donation. Had it not been for a sore throat, Green Bay might still be just the paper napkin capital of the U.S. In 1918, Earl Louis Lambeau, a tousleheaded Notre Dame fullback and a disciple of Knute Rockne, came home to Green Bay to have his tonsils removed, stayed on as a $250-a-month shipping clerk at the Indian Packing Co. "Curly" Lambeau liked his job, but he still pined to play football. Within the year, he scraped up $500 to start a professional team. By naming his motley squad the Packers, Curly persuaded his reluctant employers to donate the money for jerseys and stockings—a transaction for which the Indian Packing Co. might be eternally grateful if it had not gone out of business in 1920. Lambeau's Packers started strong: they won their first ten games, shellacking Sheboygan 87-0 and walloping Racine 76-6. Green Bay was all set to claim the championship of the world (or at least Wisconsin) when the Packers lost to Beloit, 6-0, in their last game of the season.