Be Vince Lombardi’s nephew

Steve Werner
Rotary Club of Denver Southeast

I had a very good relationship with my uncle. We’re from a big Italian family, so we always had Sunday dinners together when we all lived in the New York metro area. He would have a lot of fun teasing all the kids. He would want us to bring our report cards, and he always grilled us if we got anything less than an A. Then he would break into a big laugh and we would realize he was pulling our legs. At the same time, he always admonished us to do well in school, because he started as a teacher and education was big in our family. 

 

He was a tough person and he could come off as cutting, but he wanted everybody to give 100 percent. There’s that famous quote everyone attributes to him: “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” But that’s not what he actually said. He said, “Winning isn’t everything; striving to win is the only thing.”

I was young when he started coaching in the pros. When we lived outside San Francisco and his Green Bay Packers would come out to play the 49ers, I would get to go to the practice on Friday, then to a huge reception that night. There would be another practice on Saturday, then the game on Sunday, and sometimes I would even be able to ride on the team bus to the airport, with my parents in a car behind the bus. 

I remember being on that team bus after a 49ers game. The Packers had won something like 42-3. There was a lot of talking and laughing, celebrating. But when my uncle got on the bus – he always got on last – he grabbed a microphone and just screamed at those guys. He told them they had played sloppy, that they hadn’t executed. He was angry because they hadn’t given their best effort. And they knew he was right. Those big guys just put their heads down. Nobody wanted to make eye contact with my uncle.

Another time, the Packers played the Colts and lost by a few points. I was on the team bus that time, too, and I was expecting my uncle to scream at his players again. Instead, he gave them a really positive pep talk. He said, “The clock just ran out on us. But you gave your best effort and I know that’s all I can ask of you.” I tell that story a lot, because it’s such a good example of my uncle as a coach and teacher.

I did feel a lot of pressure to play football. Unfortunately, I’m 5 foot 6 – about my uncle’s height and not as stocky – so I stopped playing when I was a sophomore in high school. He felt I should have stayed with it. I wasn’t surprised by that. I knew what he was like. But we had moved from New Jersey to Texas, and the players were so much bigger than me. I was giving away too much weight. 

We were living in Houston when my uncle passed away. The paper did a story about my mother, and some of the Rotarians of Houston called and talked to her about establishing an award in my uncle’s honor, with the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society. They asked her to be on the planning committee and made her an honorary Rotarian. That was the beginning of the Rotary Lombardi Award, which the Rotary Club of Houston gives to the outstanding lineman or linebacker in college. 

I knew my uncle had talked to Rotary clubs in Wisconsin, and those Rotarians in Houston really made an impression on me – so much so that I decided then to join Rotary. They were some of the top businessmen in town, and they were so nice and so devoted to service. I think I recognized [in them] the same philosophy that drove my uncle – that life is about dedication to a greater cause, about giving 100 percent. 

– As told to Steve Almond