WINNING!

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t do things right once in a while; you do things right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only on place in a game, and that’s the first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don’t ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he’s got to play from the ground up- from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That’s O.K. you’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different from running any other kind of organization-an army, a political party or a business. The principles are the same. The object is to win- to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel. I don’t think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men. That’s why they are there-to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get into the game. The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules-but to win.

And in truth, I’ve never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn’t appreciate the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of head to head combat.

I don’t say these things because I believe in the "brute" nature of man or the man must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in GOD, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour- his greatest fulfillment to all the he holds dear-is that moment when he has to work his heart out for a good cause and he’s exhausted on the field of battle-victorious.

---- Vince Lombardi
(P.S. For those of you who dont know, Vince Lombardi was one of the most successful head coaches in the history of American Football. He was the driving force of Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967 and won 5 NFL tournaments during his 9 year tenure.