Rating: 
Summary: Packer Fan says 'Must Own'
Review: As a life long Packer fan that was not able to see Mr. Lombardi and the 'Glory Years' of the Packers, this book brought all of the stories and myths together and made them facts. David Maraniss did his homework. From ties to Bobby Knight and Douglas McCarther at Army, to RFK and Hornung (when Hornug was in the Military), to Pat Richter (University of Wisconsin Athletic Diretor) at the Redskins. There's a story about Howard Cosell and Lombardi that had me laughing out loud. And anything the Max McGee said is great for comic relief. David Maraniss did a fantastic job of bring all aspects of Lombardi's life together including his family problems caused by his coaching determination. As a Packer fan, or just a fan football this is a must.
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Summary: A memorable account of an inspiring and flawed man
Review: I truly enjoyed this biography. I am an avid fan of NFL football, and a former high-school player who, in his early 30s, still regards his playing days as the most challenging years of his life.Born a few months before Lombardi died, I wanted to learn more about the figure who time and a desperate cultural thirst for heroes has reduced to 2-dimensional apocryphy. Maraniss does a sensitive and honest job of bringing Lombardi down to earth for examination. The Old Man wasn't brilliant or worldly, but he was insightful. He was insecure and utilized a melange of his mentors' philosophies as a blueprint for dynasty building. His single-mindedness was reviled by many of his players, but in the end (and HIS end) most realized that Lombardi's "seven blocks" empowered the Packers (and, for one year, the Redskins) to accomplish what myriad predecessors couldn't.
Rating: 
Summary: Not What I Expected
Review: The story of Vince's life reminds me of a dinner I had with a reknowned Economist (Greg Mankiw for those Economists, bean counters and Fortune readers who may recognize him). I was new to the publishing industry and I wanted to know if a guy of his remarkable and precocious sucess had always known he'd wanted to be an Economist. His answer was surprisingly that he more or less embarked upon his career by chance while clerking in DC during law school. Similiarly Lombardi seems to have backed into his chosen profession in the throes of the Depression. Granted he was a block of granite at Fordham, but nonetheless, just a few years prior to becoming America's most recognized coaching icon, he was laboring in realitive obscurity under Red Blake. His life was not nearly as orchestrated as his legendary game plans. Regardless this is a compelling, thorough and well written account of Lombardi's rise to immortality. It won't leave you envious of him, but it will keep you turning pages. A must read for any fooball fan, and a damn worthy endeavor for anybody who likes to read non-fiction. (likely Chinese water torture for Danielle Steele fans, but I would rather be walked upon with spiked heels than consume a whole Steele book). SWG
Rating:
Summary: A perfect book to learn more about Vince Lombardi
Review: This book kept my interest from the time I began reading it till the moment I finished it. So many emotions leaped from the pages that I need to find more books on Mr. Lombardi. The author set forth to give a complete look inside the makings of this wonderful, yet abrasive man. His remarkable details of Lombardi's relationships with his wife, children, special players, and those that influenced and formed him is what makes this book truely memorable. I felt Hornung's favored son treatment, along with the pain his own son felt as the chapters revealed Lombardi's strengths and weaknesses. As a Catholic, I appreciated every reference to Lombardi's Catholicism, and what a "Saintly" one he was, attending daily mass, clinging to his rosary in times of need. I believe these are the qualities that will always keep me in awe of this man. How I wish our country had men of his resolve, around to lead!
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for any Packer Backer
Review: I couldn't put the book down. The book made me feel like I was there, feeling like I was part of the Lombardi family and experiencing his life first hand. Being a Packer Backer from the days that Lombardi was alive, the book enabled me to understand what really happened during the sixties for the Packers, Green Bay and Lombardi. I enjoyed the book from cover to cover.
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Summary: More Than Just a Football Coach...
Review: You will not be bored with this one. David Maraniss does an excellent job of uncovering the private side of Lombardi. And what a complex character he was. An ultra-conservative who attended mass daily, Lombardi was not exempt from being surrounded by controversy throughout his life. He had an alcoholic wife, a son he rarely connected with, and a daughter who became pregnant out of wedlock (a big thing back in the 1960s!). In addition, his brother was gay and his father-in-law left his wife to go off with the wife's sister... There's plenty of football as well. The "Ice Bowl" against Dallas was a particularly interesting part of the story... Maraniss makes you feel like you're actually at the basement "socials" Lombardi would host on Sunday nights after each home game. Well done.
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Summary: A great American biography
Review: I just finished this book today and loved it--LOVED IT! I have been a long time athlete and fan. I remember as a kid we used to watch those old great NFL Films and I thought Lombardi was the greatest. This book captures the mystic of Vince without being too sentimental and soft. Mr. Moraniss paints a beautiful picture of one of the most celebrated Americans in history. I could not stop reading the book. I will look for other books by this author. His writing is divine.
Rating:
Summary: In simple words: Buy this book, it is awesome work.
Review: If you thought that Vince Lombardi was merely a powerful voice and just a great football coach, think again. In this book, you will learn the full story behind the man whose name graces the Super Bowl trophy. You can actually feel for the people who encompassed his life, and what he went through just to become head coach of the Packers. I am a Buffalo Bills fan, so this book is not just meant for the green and gold faithful, but for anyone who wishes to learn about the greatest football figure ever. When you read this, you will soon learn why he was so successful in his life.
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Summary: A big book about a big man...
Review: ... and some would say both were too big. Assuming you buy into the presumption that a biography on an NFL football coach (even if that coach is Lombardi himself) is worthy of 500 pages, than you will, no doubt, enjoy this particular tome. Maraniss is a terrific writer and researcher and it comes through clearly. However, during certain passages, I felt he was either striving to make it to the magical 500-page hurdle, or simply would have benefited from better editing. He excels at humanizing this mythical character and, in fact, tackles (sorry) head on the myth surrounding Lombardi that has been created during the 30 years since his death. Lombardi was no saint, and Maraniss is not afraid to point that out, unlike certain biographers (such as A. Scott Berg's treatment of Lindbergh) who end up "liking" their subjects so much that they end up apologizing for certain actions. Maraniss is not afraid to point out Lombardi's flaws, and he had several of them, primarily in the treatment of his wife and children. Maraniss paints scenes beautifully, and in so doing brings his subject to life. There is a wonderful description of a dinner-table scene in which Lombardi's wife, Marie, and two children, Vincent and Susan, sit silently and expectantly waiting for Vince to say something. He finally clears his throat... Marie and children sit up with great expectation, waiting for the jewels of wisdom to pour forth from the coach... a greeting... a story from his busy day... anything that recognizes their presence. All that is said, however, is, "Pass the salt, Marie." Could there be a better way to convey the isolation each of the family members experienced? Lombardi was terrifically successful on the football field, and that is how his true worth will always be measured. Unfortunately, his family members may have been using a different measuring stick.
Rating: 
Summary: Lombardi Deserves Better Than This
Review: I came to David Maraniss' "When Pride Still Mattered" a big fan of Vince Lombardi's, and I left it the same way. At first the book's condescension toward Lombardi bothered me; but by the time I finished I realized that it didn't matter if Maraniss never "got" Lombardi -- as he certainly never got American football. Maraniss notes in his foreword that the title is meant ironically -- which will be news to thousands who bought the book because Lombardi's name and picture were on the cover, and because they mourn the loss of a time when pride did, indeed, matter. The modern urge to deconstruct is unnervingly present in the first few chapters of WPSM, as Maraniss traces Lombardi's unbending pursuit of victory to everything from his father's Elmer Gantryesque tattooed knuckles ("WORK and PLAY") to the philosophical musings of St. Ignatius. As someone who has personally experienced the contradictions of football -- of losing the self in the expression of eleven wills striving for perfection, thereby paradoxically achieving great personal satisfaction and, yes, self-expression -- I have always been perfectly happy taking Lombardi at face value. Why yes -- you DO have to pay the price to achieve success, as Lombardi's great mentor Earl "Red" Blaik liked to say. And indeed, fatigue DOES make cowards of us all, which drove Lombardi to push his players to the edge of physical exhaustion -- but in pursuit of physical excellence, not as an exercise in sadism. Maraniss brings his work habits from the Washington Post with him the way Lombardi carried all the lessons learned from football immortals like Blaik of Army and Frank Leahy of Notre Dame. In Maraniss' case, this means subtly inserting questions about Lombardi's character and intelligence, not once but throughout the book. All are delivered in such a way as to preserve the great prerogative of modern Washingtonians -- plausible deniability. Having read Maraniss' other modern biography, "First in His Class", it is apparent that Maraniss understands Bill Clinton in ways that he can never understand Lombardi. This is not just because Maraniss knows so little about football (the book is full of groaners for even the casual fan -- when Maraniss attempts to explain why Lombardi's ability to convey four vital pieces of information in the phrase "Red Right 49" is so significant, he gets three of them wrong). Clinton gets a free pass from Maraniss not once, but many times during FIHC, while Lombardi's shortcomings as husband and father are related ad nauseam. Maraniss' inability to connect personally with Lombardi is simply a question of generation -- Maraniss is cut from the same cloth as Bill Clinton, so of course he needs to deconstruct Lombardi to the point where the great man appears to be a complete fraud. OF COURSE Lombardi was a fraud, I found myself yelling -- all football coaches are frauds, at least the good ones. The coach can only succeed in getting his players to regularly commit acts which are the physical and psychological equivalents of racing a car at full speed into a brick wall -- not once, but over and over again, month after month -- by building myths. The myth of indestructibility, the myth of moral superiority, the myth of Divine favor -- these are all frauds. Without a large dollop of Barnum in his makeup, the football coach is nothing more than a teacher who has taken a disastrous career detour -- as Lombardi's successor at Green Bay, Phil Bengston, discovered in 1968. For all its shortcomings, the book moved me for the simple reason that the stories of all great men and women are moving -- we see the subject touched with grace, moving among normal human beings, then making his or her exit from the stage. This moves us to awe when the protagonist changes the world in some way that is important to us. Maraniss attempts to chronicle that awe among Lombardi's contemporaries, but he does so as a cultural anrthropologist would, observing and recording, but never really understanding. If you want to learn some interesting details about Lombardi's life, by all means, read this book -- but if you want to understand Lombardi, read Lombardi.
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