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Vince Lombardi. the architect of it all. gets an estimated $50.000 a year in salary. He lives in a comfortable $35,000 home whose den is filled with trophies won by Daughter Susan. 15. an accomplished horsewoman, and Son Vince. 20, a 195-lb. fullback for Minnesota's College of St. Thomas. If anybody in Green Bay had a $1.000.000 house, Lombardi would be that man. When he walks down the street, people greet him as some sort of demigod. After home games. Vince and his wife Marie eat dinner at Mancie's restaurant—in ''the Lombardi Room." of course. The hottest selling item in Green Bay bars is Macnish V.L. Scotch. Everywhere else, the V.L. stands for "Very Light," but in Green Bay it stands for Vince Lombardi. And the worst rumor that can sweep Green Bay is that Coach Lombardi might not stay on forever, that he might some day move on to another city and another club.
Offers Galore. There are times when Lombardi admits to a loneliness and a yearning for tall buildings. ''I'm a city man." he says. "I still go back to New York by myself now and then, just to take a room at the Waldorf and sit—surrounded by the city." Any time Lombardi wants to quit, he can take his pick of offers from half a dozen other pro teams. The latest, from the last-place Los Angeles Rams: $100,000 in cash, $100,000 worth of life insurance, title to a furnished house, and, natch, a piece of an oil well. Says N.F.L. Commissioner Pete Rozelle dryly: "Another club offered Vince a whole oil well."
But Lombardi's contract still has three years to run at Green Bay. And neither the adulation nor the covetous eyes of other clubs have changed his ways. He is still precisely punctual, expects the same of everybody else. Smart Packers keep their watches set ten minutes ahead of time—"Lombardi time.'' they call it. He still works 70 hours a week, still gets so wrapped up in his football thoughts that he sometimes misses his street on the drive home from the stadium and winds up on the highway to Milwaukee. "I don't think Vince was ever a child," says Marie Lombardi. "I think he was born conscientious.'' On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while he is absorbed in the task of preparing the Packers for their next game, ''we don't talk," she says. On Thursday, when practice tapers off, "we say hello." On Friday "he is civil"; on Saturday "he is downright pleasant." And then on Sunday, says Marie, "Vince feels the game is in the boys' hands. He has done all he can. Sometimes you have to poke him to keep him awake in the car, driving to the game."