Lombardi and Landry: How Two of Pro Football's Greatest Coaches Launched Their Legends and Changed the Game Forever [Hardcover]

Ernie Palladino (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2011

An in-depth look at the years legendary coaches Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry spent as young assistants with the New York Giants, and how they changed the course of pro football.

Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry could not have had two more divergent personalities. Yet, while working for the New York Giants in the mid-1950s under head coach Jim Lee Howell, the pair formed what still stands as the greatest set of coordinators on one team. Given their personalities, one might have likened Howell’s job to that of Dwight Eisenhower’s as the general struggled to control the egos and politics of his allied subordinates during WWII. But for some reason, Lombardi and Landry worked almost seamlessly, leading the Giants to the top of the NFL. In the five seasons the two men coached together between 1956 and 1959, the Giants appeared in three championship games, winning the NFL title in ‘56.

Both coaches would go on to NFL stardom, Lombardi with the Green Bay Packers and Landry with the Dallas Cowboys. But it was during their years as Giants coordinators that they developed the coaching philosophies they would employ later in their careers. For Lombardi, it was the reliance on the running game that started with Frank Gifford and would continue in the “Packers Sweep” days of Paul Hornung. For Landry, it was his own invention of the 4-3 defense that led to the “Flex” defense of his Super Bowl winners in Dallas. How they developed their ideas, and how they were allowed to implement them, was a testament not only to their genius, but Howell’s willingness to let them handle the strategic matters while he looked after the big picture.

In Lombardi and Landry, veteran sportswriter Ernie Palladino takes an in-depth look at these two legends’ formative years in New York, offering up a vivid, revealing portrait of two brilliant coaches just coming into an understanding of their formidable powers.

25 black-and-white photographs

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A riveting look back at two Hall of Fame coaches who were instrumental in making pro football the great game it is today. It's one of the best books I've ever read about this momentous era in Giants history." --Frank Gifford, New York Giants Hall of Famer

"This is a fascinating behind the scenes look at arguably the two greatest assistant coaches on one staff in NFL history. The dynamics of these very different but brilliant men is compelling. Once you start this book, you will not be able to put it down." --Ernie Accorsi, former General Manager, New York Giants

"Greatness is not born; it's developed and honed. The history and greatness of Coach Landry and Coach Lombardi is developed and honed by Ernie Palladino is his page-turning book. It's a great read for all of us who love sports and who love a challenge." --Dan Lauria, star of the Broadway play "Lombardi"

"In accessible, exciting prose, sportswriter and Giants beat reporter Palladino highlights the achievements of legends Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, who both worked as assistant coaches under the New York Giants' Jim Lee Howell." --Publishers Weekly --Publishers Weekly

"A revealing look at a significant period in NFL history." --Booklist --Booklist Publishers Wee

About the Author

Ernie Palladino is a sportswriter with nearly fifty years of experience. He spent thirty-three of those years at the Journal News (Westchester, N.Y.), including twenty covering the New York Giants as a beat reporter. Presently, he writes Ernie Palladino’s Giants Beat for Scout.com, part of the Fox Sports Blog Network. He lives in Staten Island, New York.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing; 1 edition (September 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616084413
• ISBN-13: 978-1616084417
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #292,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #75 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Coaching > Football (American)

More About the Author

I am a sportswriter with four decades of experience, the last 22 years as a New York Giants beat writer.

In a 33-year career at The Journal News (Gannett Westchester) I covered just about every sport imaginable, on every level. But telling the story of the New York Giants has easily been the biggest thrill of my pro career. Since I started on the beat in 1989, I covered a dozen Super Bowls, including three with the Giants starting with their victory in Super Bowl XXV, or "Wide Right" as Giants fans have come to know it, as well as the loss to Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV, and the stirring victory over the then-undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII that was highlighted by "The Catch" by David Tyree.

I have won numerous writing awards, including my newspaper's Mighty Pen end-of-the-year award for my coverage of Super Bowl XXV, several national Gannett Well Done awards, and several New York Associated Press Sports Editors Association plaudits.

I have also covered the Yanks and Mets, where my infamy in bringing torrential rains upon the proceedings was matched only by my fame in entertaining readers with compelling writing. My crowning achievement, much to the dismay of my Yankee Stadium colleagues, was the 7 1/2-hour rain delay we sat through in 2009 as a 1:30 p.m. start against the Washington Nationals turned into a 9 p.m. first-pitch. One writer offered to pay my salary for the day if I would just go home. Heartwarming bunch, those guys.

I also broke three ribs at the Roberto Duran-Davey Moore fight at Madison Square Garden in the mid-1980s, and grew close to legendary St. John's coach Lou Carnesecca during my years covering that school and college basketball in general.

An educator as well, I am a frequent guest lecturer in college journalism course, most notably at my alma mater, Fordham University. I taught his own sports writing and basic reporting classes at Long Island University for 10 years between 1986 and 1996 and was regarded as one of the toughest, though fairest, professors in the journalism department. Among my several success stories were Daily News assistant news editor Rocco Parascandola and Hall-of-Fame fantasy football writer Scott Engel of Rotoexperts.com.

Since departing from the Journal News in August of 2009, I have been busy freelancing for such publications and services as AM-New York, the Staten Island Advance, and the Associated Press, among others. I currently serve as publisher and editor of Ernie Palladino's "The Giants Beat" website (http://nyg.scout.com) on the Scout.com network, a subsidiary of FOXSports.com.

"Lombardi and Landry" marks my debut as an author. I hold it as my proudest career achievement.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A great look back at how two legends got their start October 4, 2011

By Fred Goodwin

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Review: "Lombardi and Landry" by Ernie Palladino

Palladino, Ernie. Lombardi and Landry: How Two of Pro Football's Greatest Coaches Launched Their Legends and Changed the Game Forever, New York: Skyhorse Publishing. 2011. HB, 284 pages, illus. List: 24.95, ISBN: 978-1-61608-441-7

Palladino does a great job of bringing to life a golden age of pro football that few current fans were around to see. I was born in the mid-50s and became a Cowboys fan in the mid-60s so I missed the Giants era of greatness that Palladino describes. But having read his book, now I understand why the Giants were so good during that time.

As a Cowboy fan, I wanted to read this book to learn more about Tom Landry's early coaching days, and I wanted to know what it was about him that attracted the attention of Clint Murchison (Cowboys owner at the time) and Tex Schramm (Cowboys then-GM). Palladino covers much of the usual ground about Landry's innovations: e.g., reading defensive "keys", fine tuning the 4-3 defense into the 4-3 "inside" and the 4-3 "outside" (although I must admit I'm still not exactly sure of the difference between those two), and the evolution of the middle linebacker position, in particular how Sam Huff played it. It's all very fascinating stuff, but many true Cowboy fans will already know a lot of this.

What I didn't know until reading this book was how intense was the rivalry between not just Landry and Lombardi, but between the offensive and defensive units, the competition between the units for practice time and between the coaches for players (this was long before the era of 53-man rosters and complete 2-deep units on both sides of the ball). And while I was generally aware of Paul Brown's influence on the game, I was not aware of how much he influenced Lombardi and Landry (albeit in different ways).

The book goes into some detail about the personal lives of both Landry and Lombardi. The coverage of head coach Jim Lee Howell is much more two dimensional; I imagine current Giants fans would've like more detail on his life, but the book isn't really about him, so it's hard to criticize Palladino on that.

The only criticism I have is somewhat minor: I got the impression after finishing the book that it's mostly about Lombardi, with just enough Landry thrown in so it couldn't be called a Lombardi biography. Understand I didn't do a line-by-line, page-by-page or even chapter-by-chapter comparison between the two -- it's just a feeling. I think the book is probably more than 60-40 tilted to Lombardi but certainly not as much as 75-25.

And the only reason I bring it up is so Cowboy fans will know before they pick up the book that I don't think the coverage of the two coaches was exactly 50-50, as if that's even possible. Let's face it, Lombardi was a far more colorful character, and his constant longing for a head coaching position is a major theme throughout the book, whereas Landry comes across as much more reserved (which was in fact true) and much less interested in a head coaching position (also true, for the most part).

The theme for Landry was about him wanting to get himself and his family back home to Texas. By the end of the '59 season, he was entertaining offers from both the AFL Houston Oilers and the NFL Dallas Cowboys. One wonders how the fortunes of the two franchises would've diverged had Landry chosen the Oilers instead.

The book closes with a what-if that I'm sure Giants fans have puzzled over for years: what if owner Wellington Mara had been able to keep one or both men on the staff of the Giants? I think Palladino makes a solid case for why that would not have happened. Lombardi's desire for a head coaching job and Landry's desire to get back to Texas would not have allowed Mara to keep them together. So I think Giants fans can rest easy on that score.

Bottom line: whether you're a fan of the Giants, Packers, Cowboys, or the NFL in general, I think you will really enjoy this look back at football in the 50s and how two coaching legends got their start.

© Copyright Fred Goodwin, October 4, 2011
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Before They Became Legendary Head Coaches August 28, 2011

By Eric Mayforth

Format:Hardcover

Virtually all serious NFL fans know about the storied coaching careers of Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers and Tom Landry of the Dallas Cowboys, but there are many younger fans that do not know that in the 1950s both of these legends served together as assistant coaches for the New York Giants under Jim Lee Howell. In "Lombardi and Landry," author Ernie Palladino looks back at the era when the two coached in the Big Apple.

Palladino recalls how the Giants' superlative coaching staff was assembled, how fortunate Lombardi and Landry were to work for Howell, and describes the working relationship between the two. The author notes some of the innovations Lombardi made on offense and Landry made on defense, and relates some of the personal characteristics of each that were integral to their coaching success.

The book provides good detail of the key games in Giants history during the five seasons (1954 through 1958) that Lombardi and Landry were both assistants for the team, with special emphasis on the 1956 title season and the 1958 campaign in which the team fell to the Baltimore Colts in the famous title game. The author closes by chronicling the post-New York years of the two coaches.

Since it has now been almost a half-century since the first Super Bowl was played, many tend to focus on the Super Bowl era only and forget that the NFL had much rich, interesting history prior to 1967. In "Lombardi and Landry," Palladino does fans of the league a service by providing a thoroughly researched, well-written look back at the role of two legendary coaches in an era of NFL history that deserves to be remembered.

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of personal insights May 19, 2013

By J Walsh

Format:Kindle Edition

Brought up a lot of old memories. Ideal for an older Giant fan. Probably not for the Packer or Cowboy fan.