WHAT IT TAKES TO BE NO. 1

Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right
once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished
second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl
game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything
we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Every time a football player goes to play his trade he's got to play from the ground up-from the soles of his feet
right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to be
smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber
of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off
the field second.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of organization-an army, a political party or a
business. The principles are the same. The object is to win-to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds hard or cruel.
I don't think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive games draw the most competitive men.
That's why they are there-to compete. To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to
win fairly, squarely, by the rules-but to win.

And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate
the grind, the discipline. There is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh reality of
head to head combat.

I don't say these things because I believe in the "brute" nature of man or that men must be brutalized to be
combative. I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the
greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and
lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.

...Vince Lombardi

 
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