Review: "That First Season"
Thursday, February 4, 2010 at 7:48 AM Just got through reading the Kindle version of "That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory" by John Eisenberg. It's a look at Vince Lombardi's first season as head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers, way back in 1959. 
I'm a longtime diehard Packer fan, jumping on board in 1971, just as the Lombardi era was drawing to a close (and leading to two decades of futility). So, I was really looking forward to this read, which isolates an amazing accomplishment: the Packers went from a one-win season in 1958 to a winning season in 1959, setting the stage for an appearance in the NFL championship game in 1960, and five NFL championships or Super Bowl titles between 1961-67.
Just what did Lombardi do to reinvent a struggling, undersized, thoroughly demoralized organization, laying the foundation for a decade of success to follow? What did he do to turn raw, misjudged or just average players into a mix of Hall of Famers and bit players who dominated their opponents? What were the secrets behind Lombardi's offensive strategy, which was to dramatically condense the playbook to roughly a dozen plays -- but run those dozen plays to perfection, making the Packers unstoppable even when you knew what play was coming?
For business people, those are intriguing questions, because they can translate to all kinds of workplace issues and challenges. So, for me, I not only embraced the book as a Packer fan but a manager looking for new ideas.
Unfortunately, the book goes so deep in the weeds on game-by-game action that the story behind Lombardi's strategic thinking gets only superficial treatment, repeating oft-told stories about Lombardi's brutal conditioning programs, verbal abuse of grown men and the focus on execution over gameplan creativity.
I picked up a lot of nuggets from a Packer-fan perspective and would recommend "That First Season" to hardcore Cheeseheads, but for casual fans or business people looking for some self-help reading, it's a pass.
;)
