More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Sam Walker
Read between
July 17, 2017 - June 1, 2022
The sports world has had its fair share of talent clusters. Some of the most prominent examples are the U.S. basketball “Dream Team” at the 1992 Olympics, which included Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Earvin “Magic” Johnson; the 1981–90 San Francisco 49ers of the NFL, which paired Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Ronnie Lott with the legendary coach Bill Walsh; and Real Madrid from the late 1950s, whose roster included Alfredo di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Francisco Gento, and Raymond Kopa. These teams all wound up in Tier Two.
Theory 4: It’s a question of management.
“Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing” and “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection we can catch excellence” and “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”
“I want to talk to you men,” he began. “I want to tell you something….”
“You’ve played thirty minutes adjusting to Kansas City, and you probably experienced everything that they had to throw at you,” Lombardi said.
“Are you the world-champion Green Bay Packers? Get out on that field and answer me!”
“It was just so strange, the way it resonated,” he said. “For each one of us, looking at each other as we were going on the field, it was like, ‘Remember what Coach said. We’ve got to go and show ’em what we can do now.’
Davis believed that the quality at the center of Lombardi’s character was an overwhelming desperation to prove his value. He used his words, and the blunt force of his personality, to make this sense of longing contagious. “He dwelled so heavily on that,” Davis said, “until he had every player feeling absolutely the same way.”
“It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men,”
“Men respond to leadership in a most remarkable way and once you have won his heart, he will follow you anywhere.”
Leadership, Lombardi added, “is based on a spiritual quality—the power to inspire, the power t...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Coaches who can outline plays on a blackboard are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
While inspiration may be a valuable asset in a coach, it didn’t seem to be the common thread, either. —
