When I was a kid and came of football appreciating age in the mid '70's, I was transfixed by the Green Bay Packers of the 1960's and their coach Vince Lombardi. I'm not a Packers fan, mind you; just an admirer of that team and their coach. NFL Film's series, "A Football Life", documents the lives of select NFL players, teams, owners and coaches and the expansive, ninety-minute episode they did several years ago on Lombardi is one of their finest. Recently, I watched it again for the first time and found myself more perplexed than ever by the enigmatic man; again, a man I unquestionably worshiped when I was growing up. The film, and this is a testament to how well it's done, much like the man doesn't leave much room for indifference.
Of course, this is a blog (primarily) about cars, and what inspired today's soliloquy were the two scenes in the documentary that featured Lombardi either driving or walking around Pontiac's. It surprised me too much in the same way I used to be occaisionally intrigued by what my school teachers drove. This scene in "A Football Life", originally, from a highlight film shot by NFL Films just before the historic 1967 NFL championship game between Lombardi's Packers and the Dallas Cowboys shows Lombardi behind the wheel of a brand-new 1968 Bonneville.
In this shot from another documentary on the game we see that Bonneville he's driving is a four-door model but not, from best I can tell, a top-of-the-line Brougham.
The tell-all it's a '68 is the chrome trim around the front end. 1965 models had stacked headlights, '66's had body-colored trim where the '68's have chrome. Also, obviously, seeing this footage was shot on December 31, 1967, it couldn't have been any newer than a 1968 model.
Seeing what a conservative man he was in outward physicality, dress, offensive play calling and his devotion to God, a Pontiac seems somewhat overt for him. Not quite sure what I'd expected him to be driving; there are other films about those great 1960's Packers teams and I swear they show Lombardi driving a 1963 Chrysler New Yorker that I find more fitting of him what with its more stantoiran, autoritarian aire. Then again, one of many remarkable things about Lombardi was that he could also be equally progressive and in many more ways than one. Famously color-blind with regards to race and a "Kennedy Democrat", the Bonneville perhaps were his way of showing the world there was more to him than just X's and O's.
If I was surprised by the Bonneville, imagine my delight later in the film seeing him next to this all-new for 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix. Based on the wheel-covers and vinyl top this is probably an "LJ" model as opposed to the somewhat sportier "SJ". Was Lombardi actually a passingly casual automobile enthusiast who, much like his ability to evaluate raw football-talent, knew of a trend-setting automobile when he saw one? After all, the 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix helped spur a market segment that would go onto to define much of 1970's domestic automobilia.
We are what we drive, right? So, who was Vince Lombardi based on the cars he porportedly drove? For the purpose of today's blog I'll look past any chance of his vehicle choices being happenstanial; after all, we are talking about Vince Lombardi who left nothing to chance. That aside, like most things, who he was and what fifty-plus years after his death of legend making have made him out to be now, the answer to that question lies somewhere in the middle.
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