Lombardi and Landry: How Two of Pro Football’s Greatest Coaches Launched Their Legends and Changed the Game Forever

Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry could not have had two moredivergent personalities. Yet, while working for the New York Giants of themid-to-late ��0s under head coach Jim Lee Howell, the pair formed what stands,to this day, as the greatest set of coordinators on one team. Given theirpersonalities, one might have likened Howell�� job to that of Dwight Eisenhoweras the general struggled to control the egos and politics of his alliedsubordinates during WWII. But for some reason, Lombardi and Landry workedalmost seamlessly, and as a result, the Giants rose to the top of the NFL. Inthe five seasons they coached together between 1956 and 1959, the Giants appearedin three championship games, winning the NFL title in ��6.

Both coaches would go on to NFL stardom, Lombardi with the GreenBay Packers and Landry with the Dallas Cowboys. But it was during their yearsas Giants coordinators that they developed the coaching philosophies they wouldemploy later in their careers. For Lombardi, it was the reliance on the runninggame that started with Frank Gifford and would continue in the ��ackers Sweep��ays of Paul Hornung. For Landry, it was his own invention of the 4-3 defensethat led to the ��lex��defense of his Super Bowl winners in Dallas. How they developed their ideas, andhow they were allowed to implement them, was a testament not only to theirgenius, but to Howell�� willingness to let them handle the strategic matterswhile he looked after the big picture.

In Lombardi and Landry,veteran sportswriter Ernie Palladino takes an in-depth look at these two legends��ormative years in New York, offering up a vivid, revealing portrait of twobrilliant coaches just coming into an understanding of their formidable powers.