Today, I’m thankful for dynamic duos that set the standard for others to follow.
On this exact day (Nov 25) in 1956, the New York Giants entered the final quarter of their hard-fought, gridiron battle against the Chicago Bears with a comfortable lead, 17-3. Feeling the game was well in hand, the offensive coordinator for the mighty Giants informed his players to pursue a more conservative approach in an effort to ‘kill the clock.’ What he would soon appreciate is that ‘milking’ fifteen minutes off the game clock is never easy, especially when dealing with an elite team like the Monsters of Midway. The Bears gradually clawed their way back into the game in the last 10 minutes of the final quarter, eventually eking out a 17-17 tie. Well, after the game, the offensive coordinator for the Giants was furious at himself, vowing never to allow a similar travesty to occur. As he noted to his quiet defensive coordinator, who incidentally was also a bit flabbergasted to see the lead slip away: “From then on, we will play every game like the score is 0 to 0.”
A few weeks later, the two teams met again in the 1956 NFL Championship Game. The 9-2-1 Bears were favorites in that rematch against the 8-3-1 Giants, but the team’s new offensive philosophy of keeping the ‘pedal to the metal’ would turn the contest into a laugher. By the time it was all over, the New York Giants had secured their first championship in over 18 years, defeating the Bears, 47-7. The Giants would continue as a winning franchise for the remainder of the decade, returning to the NFL Championship game for two of the next three years.
It’s impossible to say that the offensive and defensive coordinators were the only reason for the Giants’ success during that era, but the ‘dynamic duo’ of Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry would set a standard for greatness that would follow them long after they departed the Big Apple. Even the head coach of the New York Giants, Jim Lee Howell, joked that he let his coordinators run the show: “Basically, my job was to ensure that the footballs had air in them.”
In 1959, Vince Lombardi would take his offensive prowess to the Midwest, where the lowly Green Bay Packers had just finished the season with a miserable 1-10-1 record. From that lowest of starting points, he would convert the Packers into a dynasty that we’ve not seen since in the game of professional football. Over a span of a decade, between 1960-1969, the Packers would go on to the NFL Championship Game on seven different occasions, and Lombardi would lift the championship trophy 6 of those times – including the first two Super Bowls in 1967 and 1968. Lombardi was part of another dynamic duo in Wisconsin, fittingly paired with the Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr. Centered around a robust offensive line stacked with ‘gentlemen’ of enormous proportions, Lombardi would perfect the ‘Packers Sweep’, a simple running play that most defenses could not stop, even when they fully knew it was coming.
Eventually, it took the brains of a defensive-minded coach to figure out how to protect against the Packers Sweep. That man was, ironically enough, Lombardi‘s colleague on his former team - the venerable Tom Landry. Following his final season as defensive coordinator in New York, Landry assumed the head coach job for a newly-minted team in the heart of Texas, the Dallas Cowboys. Unlike the loud personality characteristic of Lombardi, Tom Landry’s soft-spoken approach to leadership was by no means a sign of weakness. Adorning his classic, grey cowboy hat, Landry would sit quietly on the sideline, cross-armed, while his 4-3 scheme and ‘flex system’ (both his own personal creations) would dominate on the defensive side of the ball. Dallas’ Doomsday Defense would allow Landry to have a run of 20 consecutive winning seasons, culminating in 13 divisional titles, 5 NFL titles, and 2 Super Bowl rings. Like Lombardi, Landry found himself paired with another Hall of Fame quarterback, Roger Staubach, thereby creating a powerful ‘dynamic duo’ deep in the heart of the Lone Star State. In due time, the Cowboys grew in popularity to become ‘America’s Team’, and a tradition was born of watching the Cowboys play football on Thanksgiving Day.
In fact, tomorrow will be another one of those days when the Cowboys will adorn their silver and blue uniforms and entertain millions of Americans while we sit at home eating our turkey, stuffing, and, of course, the dynamic duo of Thanksgiving cuisine – mashed potatoes and gravy. We will be thankful for the cornucopia of delicious foods we have on the Thanksgiving table, as we watch Joe Buck and Troy Aikman broadcast the game from ‘Jerry’s World’, formally known as AT&T Stadium. Although I enjoy listening to the oratory magic of this broadcasting pair, I do miss Thanksgiving games being broadcast by the greatest television ‘dynamic duo’ of all time – John Madden and Pat Summerall.
Both Madden and Summerall played football in the NFL, and both had an affiliation with the great Vince Lombardi. Ironically enough, Summerall was the placekicker on the mighty Giants in the late 1950s. He’s most remembered for the final regular game of the 1958 season, wherein the Giants found themselves in a grudge match with the Cleveland Browns. Tied 10-10 and only a few seconds on the clock, Summerall pleaded with Lombardi to give him a chance to kick the game-winning 49-yard field goal. With the wind swirling and snow piled on the field, Lombardi chastised his kicker: ‘Damn it, you know you can’t kick a ball that far.” But, Giants Head Coach Howell gave Summerall the chance, and he nailed the kick. Unfortunately, the Giants would lose the championship game against the Colts that season in a game forever remembered as the ‘Ice Bowl’ – the first ever to be captured by another dynamic duo, the father-and-son Sabol team that created the masterful NFL Films.
As for John Madden, well, he got a chance to meet Lombardi at a coach’s clinic in Reno, Nevada, in June 1963. At that time, Madden was a braggadocious, know-it-all head football coach at a community college in California. At that point in his career, he was convinced that he knew the game of football; nevertheless, he purchased a bus ticket to Reno with the hopes he might exchange a few words with the legendary coach of the Packers. He opted to sit in the back of the packed-filled room where Lombardi was speaking. For a full day, Lombardi would proceed to hold court, teaching the clinic attendees the strategy surrounding football. The best part is that he talked consecutively for the next 8 hours, with just a short break to grab lunch; in fact, all he talked about over that 8-hour span was how to execute a single play, the Packers Sweep. As Madden would later describe it, Lombardi proceeded to meticulously break down every aspect of that famous play call, including the role each of the 11 players needed to play, to ensure the Sweep was run to perfection. At the end of the day, Madden sat in the back of the room facing a stark realization: He knew absolutely nothing about football.
Well, in due time, Madden would learn a thing or two himself, ultimately rising to become a venerable icon of coaching. He would commandeer the Oakland Raiders to secure the Lombardi Trophy (ironically enough) as Super Bowl Champions in 1977. Soon after that win, Madden opted to step down from the relentless, strenuous pace of life as head coach, but he could never separate himself from the game he loved. On this day (Nov 25) in 1979, he would broadcast his first game in the booth as the analyst, while Summerall served as the play-by-play man. Together, this dynamic duo would work together flawlessly, with Summerall providing a matter-of-fact description of the game, while Madden talked non-stop, using his ‘Telestrator’ to diagram and analyze each play. Thanksgivings with Summerall and Madden were always entertaining; the duo kept America satisfied for 22 years, chanting up everything about offense, defense, and, of course, turkey.
Or should I say ‘turducken’ – a dish consisting of a deboned chicken stuffed within a deboned duck, which itself is then stuffed within a deboned turkey. Add on 8 legs, and you will have a ‘nuclear’ version of a meal that was best attacked with one’s hands – as Madden would illustrate to the world in a 2002 broadcast (much to the dismay of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).
As we approach Thanksgiving tomorrow, I’m grateful for many wonderful things – such as my family, my friends, and the festive food on the table. I’m also thankful for those ‘dynamic duos’ in the broadcast booth that remind me that there’s nothing like a Thanksgiving meal surrounded by the emanating sounds of football on the adjacent television screen. Pat Summerall and John Madden may no longer call games, but their memory as the dynamic duo of football reigns particularly true every time I watch football on television – and especially on Thanksgiving Day.
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