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"Bring Back a Victory." Lombardi studied so many movies of old Green Bay games that his eyes were constantly bloodshot. He yelled so loud at practice that he lost his voice. ''I've never taught so much football in my life," he sighed wearily to his wife. "Mistakes decide ball games." he told the Packers, and any player who missed a block or dropped a pass instantly felt the sting of his acid tongue. In pre-game pep talks. Lombardi's speeches were like something out of the Spirit of Notre Dame. Once he got down on his knees in the locker room and led the team in the Lord's Prayer. ''You wouldn't think a pro coach could get away with that stuff." says a player. "But he did." "I'll never forget the speech he made before the first league game in 1959, his first year," says Linebacker Bill Forester. "He ended it by yelling 'Go through that door and bring back a victory!' I jumped up and hit my arm on my locker. That was my worst injury of the year.''
That first year. Lombardi's adrenaline-filled Packers won seven of twelve games —including, admits Hornung. "a fistful that we had no business winning." In 1960. they won the Western Conference championship with an 8-4 record, dropped a 17-13 squeaker to Philadelphia in the X.F.L. championship playoff. Last year the Packers went all the way—and the title game, praise be, was at Green Bay. Nothing like it has ever been seen, before or since. Wrote New York Herald Tribune Columnist Red Smith, after the Giants were demolished: ''The poisonous polish of the Packers was equaled only by the fortitude of the natives, who turtled down into their mackinaws and buffalo robes and parkas, and stayed on into the bitter dusk, yelping and bawling for blood."
The Winner's Share. Today, with the TY money rolling in. the standing-room crowds when the team plays home games at Milwaukee's 45,000-seat County Stadium, and the Packers' share of the full house on their away games. Green Bay can afford to be generous with its champions. Packers' salaries are among the highest in the league: raw rookies get $8.000; half a dozen players are in the $20.000 bracket. And there is plenty of frosting on the cake. Last year's championship playoff was worth $5,500 to each man on the Packer squad; this year the winner's share will probably hit $7,000. The Packers get free life insurance (minimum policy: $10.000) and a free medical plan that pays 80 of their families' ordinary doctors' bills, more in emergencies. Defensive Halfback Jesse Whittenton owns the King's (X). a supper club in Green Bay: End Gary Knafelc is vice president of a school supply company, and Bart Starr manages a downtown business building. Paul Hornung, who draws $25,000 in salary, makes another $25,000 or so each year modeling sports clothes for Jantzen. puffing Marlboros and falling asleep in front of his Zenith TV.