Vince Lombardi on The 2010 Detroit Lions: Part 3

The man after whom the most coveted trophy in all of professional sports is named left us with some of the best quotes in all of sports history.  Vincent Lombardi’s no-nonsense style and unabashed passion for the game he loved serves as an inspirational legacy for athletes, former athletes, and fans alike.  To that end, I’m offering three of Coach Lombardi’s quotes and applying them to the 2010 Detroit Lions.  This article is the third installment.

Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.

When I was a young, 23-year-old Sergeant, brand-new to recruiting command, my station commander had some words of wisdom for me, “John, don’t ever confuse efforts with results.  Nobody else does.”

And that sets the tone.

Ray Empie preached to his young recruiters that they needed to reach for the stars just in case they ended up a little bit short and landed on the moon.  We were to operate in the “band of excellence” in terms of the other real-time mission of the Army:  Provide The Strength.

In other words, if you didn’t make mission, you were a scumbag.

My first Battalion Sergeant Major was a fellow by the name of M.F. Whalen, and his motto was, “No Slack Due!”

A friend, and coincidently my chief instructor during Basic Non-Commission Officer Course, Frank Zepp, had an interesting formula on how to go about soldiering.  Then Staff Sergeant Zepp said, “Standards plus discipline equals professionalism.”

When you give your everything to an organization to exact its purpose, the demand is to achieve excellence.  A concept about which I learned in an introductory management course discussed the merits of management by objective for results.  When the person or people who write your “report card” issue your grade, will you be ashamed of what you accomplished, effort immaterial?

Results matter.  Obviously, and as stated by Vince himself, “If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?”  Winning matters because an 11-5 Patriots team didn’t qualify for the playoffs.

Do you know what would happen to the city of Detroit if the Lions went 11-5 and didn’t make the playoffs?  Twins bedlam and mayhem would be running wild to the first order.

Although Coach Lombardi says we will be judged by the results achieved, it is the results achieved with what we have to achieve them that establishes the height of the standard bar.   Regardless the 2009 Lions performance of 2-14, and despite the team’s 2008 winless season, there is a strong sense of hope among fans for solid progress for the 2010 Detroit Lions, championed by soon-to-be-sophomore-slump-busting QB Matthew Stafford.

Success demands singleness of purpose.

One heartbeat.  All for one and one for all.  Together everyone achieves more.  Say it however you will, but what we’re looking for is a laser-beam intensity focused on a single goal:  winning.

As the 2008 Detroit Lions coaching staff was largely released en masse, news starting coming forward about how disorganized matters really were for the winless team.  It was stated by the players that the neither position coach, the offensive coordinator, nor the head coach were on the same page with anybody else when it came to knowing the blocking scheme, and whose job it was to block whom.

The 2009 Detroit Lions players made it known there was a major paradigm shift when Jim Schwartz, Gunther Cunningham, and Scott Linehan came to Allen Park.  Despite only a two-game-winning season, one can sense from the outside looking in that the singleness of purpose to which Lombardi alluded is taking root in the Lions locker room.  Young Lions defenders have spent this offseason watching and learning from a respected player and a great mentor, Kyle Vanden Bosch.  The three-time pro bowler displays his work ethic to the pride and helps to show younger defensive ends more of the tricks of the trade.  With KVB as Cliff Avril’s mentor, I have even higher expectations for Cliff.

The singleness of purpose Lions fans are looking for right now is for the 2010 Detroit Lions to leap right off the page with a road-opening victory over the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on September 12th.  The Lions collective, top-down effort is to beat the Bears for the season opener.  A road win over Chicago would bring to fruition the results that ownership, management, leadership, players, staff, and fans all desperately covet.  The singleness of purpose?  Win now.

The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.

In many ways I believe the story of the widow’s mite serves us well yet today:

Mark 12:41-44 (King James Version)

 ⁴¹And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

 ⁴²And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

 ⁴³And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

 ⁴⁴For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

The point here is that she went “all in” – she gave her everything.  As He knew she gave her everything, and based on what she had, that was more than enough.

In a strange way, I believe that many Detroit Lions fans understand what the club had in terms of personnel and talent on the rosters assembled in 2008 and 2009.  Martin Mayhew seems to be “Charlie Hustle” when it comes to player acquisition in his effort to revamp and retool the four-time NFL Champion franchise.  People outside the organization can see it just as clear as the “Ren Cen” along the Detroit River skyline.

When we measure, we measure against a standard.  Standards are set for performance and the expectation is to achieve them.  I think what we are finding during the “ramp up” phase of selecting and adding the right mix of personnel, is that Lions fans give flexibility to their expectations for the 2010 team.  (See “put up or shut up” prognostications on www.mlive.com/lions .)

You can’t disassemble the 2008 team that went 0-16 and expect a playoff contender in 2010 – that isn’t realistic.  Should that be the Lions goal?  Absolutely and without fail every year.  What is the reality of the situation that drives expectations?  How many of the 2010 Detroit Lions have lined up next to each other to start a professional football game?  How many other teams in the NFL are in the same situation as the Detroit Lions?  How many other teams had their roster destroyed by an inept general manager?  Identifying the problem is one thing, while delivering a solution quite another.

Since 1957, Lions fans have languished through long spells of losing under the ownership of William Clay Ford.  During several of these campaigns, the Lions have been bad enough to place fifth in a four-team division.  Yes, that bad.  But the 2010 Detroit Lions are looking up, looking forward, and keeping focused on delivering more wins to the faithful.

What will the leadership of Schwartz, Cunningham, and Linehan be able to achieve in 2010 with “what he has”?  One win more than last year’s total of two is an improvement.  The slightest of incremental improvement may not be exactly what players and fans are looking for, but put the prospects for improvement for this team where you will, and be honest with yourself.

I expect Jim Schwartz & Company to do an outstanding job with the tools available at their disposal.  As each of us will measure in his own way whether or not those entrusted to the care of the franchise are living up to expectations.  Heading into the 2010 campaign, I believe the men leading this team are going to be tremendous stewards with the resources they have been entrusted to manage.  For me, a team who plays hungry every down, a team that displays intensity, passion, and enthusiasm for 60 minutes of play, and a team that builds chemistry, cohesion, and synergy as the season wears on will have achieved success.