That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory [Paperback]

Vince Lombardi is the most famous of NFL coaches. His legendary tenure with the Green Bay Packers resurrected the once mighty franchise to the peak of its prowess in the early 1960s. Lombardi's tale is of the brilliant but difficult man who willed a team to victory including taking home the first two Super Bowls. That First Season is an addition to the legend in spelling out where it started for Lombardi in Green Bay. His first season took the team from the depths of the league and rumours of the franchise being moved to respectable upper mid-table. It would take until Lombardi's third season for the dynasty to really begin but Eisenberg runs through the year that started it and his work is a scene setter for those who know of or are interested in this most iconic of sporting successes.

Eisenberg starts off with the Packers at a real low. Unable to thrive under the previous head coach, the team and the franchise were in disarray. Eisenberg's analysis of the problem may be shallow and unchallenging but the depths to which the team had plummeted were remarkable. Wholesale change was clearly needed in the organisation's structure and a key to that was finding the right head coach. The Packers found their man in the form of New York Giants offensive coordinator Vince Lombardi. It is a little strange to read that coordinators were not known of at the time so Lombardi was a surprise pick. While some analysis of why coordinators remained in the shadow during those times might be useful given that Lombardi and Tom Landry were the men who staffed the Giants positions and went on to become legends, it is telling that the Packers did not take the easy or obvious option but went with the person they felt had the talent regardless of any marquee name.

That First Season takes the reader through the tribulations Lombardi struggled with as he turned around the team. It details the brutal fitness regime he put the players through but also touches briefly on the innovations that players such as Jim Taylor generated in using strength coaching. The Packers were loaded with talent, they just didn't realise it. One of the most interesting tales is that of Bart Starr. Hailed by some such as those who like their football facts cold and hard as the greatest quarterback of all time, Starr seemed at times close to being cut but Eisenberg details the work ethic and intelligence that put him in position to be the on-field leader the team needed.

Throughout NFL history players and coaches have been in the right or wrong place at the right time. Lombardi's approach worked and the team won. He brought in a refreshingly physical style reminiscent of earlier days in the NFL at a time when others were trending towards complex plays without the players to achieve them. The approach didn't work all the time and during That First Season there were some surprising setbacks. Indeed Lombardi's approach to leadership cost the team a highly talented player who was cut and went on to have a great career - nobody is perfect but the army general approach to being a coach has downsides.

Eisenberg does not delve into any downsides. His work is a paean to Lombardi's greatness. It seems that the reason the team were not sucessful prior to That First Season is because Lombardi was not there, the reason they struggled at times during That First Season is because the players were not achieving what Lombardi wanted, and I guess the reason Lombardi was eventually fired was probably someone else's fault. Eisenberg is a typically American sports-writer. His work is about the glory of the individual in a team game and euologising that greatness. Eisenberg challenges nothing and accepts every conventional wisdom going. His writing is also not inspiring and his game reports are pretty dull. The material is good and it is an angle on Lombardi that is less covered than most but NFL writing is clearly difficult because few can do it well. It also isn't clear why Eisenberg scatters some cliches and inanities in italics throughout the book. They aren't uuotes unless he has heard film of fans speaking during and after matches and they aren't insightful because they are without fail the most bland of sports-talk phrases.

That First Season is a book about the greatest phase in the greatest team in the greatest sport. It shows where it started and introduces the legendary Lombardi at the point where he stepped in to turn the team around. It is fascinating and an NFL fan will want to read it. A Packer fan will definitely need to read it. Like most NFL books, it follows one season and like most of them except "You're Okay, it's Just a Bruise" it is not a particularly passionate account. Eisenberg is not an inspiring writer and the material he had could have been treated better but it is a nice addition to the legend.

John Eisenberg's well-written book about Vince Lombardi's first year - 1959 - as the Green Bay Packer's head coach and general manager, clearly shows how one man (or woman, come to that!) can make the difference between winning and losing. The Packers, located in Green Bay - the smallest of all the NFL cities - had, by the late 1950's - lost the vim and vigor that had for many seasons placed them near the top of the NFL.

By 1958, with a lazy coach and a lazy team, the Green Bay city-owned team had reached rock bottom. They won one game that year, and tied another.

No one, coach, players, management, fans, knew how to rekindle the spark. No one knew how to put together a winning team with the actually-not-so-bad players they had. Players like Bart Starr, who spent his first three years as Green Bay quarterback, stuck on the bench, behind other QBs less skilled both on the field and in training. Players like "golden boy" Paul Hornung and Ray Nitschke - who needed push and guidance to reach their Hall of Fame potential.

This push and guidance was provided by the team's hiring of NY Giant's assistant coach, 45 year old Vince Lombardi, who accepted the onerous task of taking the last place Packer's to first place play in less than his first five year contract with the Packers. Eisenberg's book is the well-told story of that first season - 1959 - and the difference he made with his players. If you like football and like reading about football, you'll enjoy Eisenberg's book.l

I found this book to be an enjoyable read. Having my interest in American Football rekindled by the fact I can watch it every Sunday during the season now on the satellite channels, it's good to read books about the characters who have made the sport into what it is today. As the title goes this book revolves around how Lombardi was hired by the Packers to turn it from a bunch of losers back to their early glory days. Thankfully for the new initiate into the sport Eisenberg does a good job of making the book accessible I think to anybody.