Lambeau: The Man Behind The Mystique
by David Zimmerman

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Book Reviews of Lambeau: The Man Behind The Mystique

Book Review: Great Niche, but not the best bio.
Summary: 4 Stars

To me (and she admitted as much) the book read at times like a low-scoring football game. By this I mean that it appeared the author had several anecdotes which he strung together into chapters, not paying great amounts of attention as to whether or not he had already introduced a trainer here, or used a turn of phrase there. The reader, therefore, is left going over the same phrases repeatedly, with their repetition distracting from the overall telling of the story of Lambeau. You read one account, skip back several years for another account, and then read the first account as a natrual terminus of the second. Like a low scoring football game, on each play you main gain a few yards or lose a few, and find yourself forced recover the same yardage.

That said, the author seems to both idolize Lambeau as the patriarch of the team, and find little for which to do so. He repeatedly shows players that did not much like the guy, nor respect his actual abilities as a football coach. Players would have to explain where plays wouldn't work, and though his dependency on the forward pass was innovative in 1919, he was unable to modify his game as football evolved in the 30's and 40's. He's portrayed as a vain, egotistical salesman who (quoted some three times in the book ver batim) "did more for his hometown than anyone else" and founded a great tradition in professional sports.

A recurring theme in Packers History seems to be frustration with intervention by the executive committees governing the franchise causing the head coach to leave. Lambeau cited this when he left the Packers (and later the Cardinals). Lombardi warned against interference when he stepped up to the plate, and of course as Packer fans of this era remember, Holmgren went to Seattle largely to enjoy the general managership denied him at Green Bay. Ironically, Sherman has the dual role today, and Holmgren has been stripped of the same in Seattle.

Anyway, the book provides a light and interesting look at an era I've not seen well covered elsewhere. It covers the first 31 seasons relatively well, and Green Bay at the time as well. It identifies the times this unlikely team faced dissolution early in their institutional life, and how the means by which it was saved sets the team apart from every other team in professional sports. It covers the Packer-Bear rivalry through the years (although showing Halas as quite the protagonist and Packer Backer by the end) and provides a cursory look at Lambeau's Post-Packer life.

I'm glad I read it, but it's not exactly 5-star material.

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