Super Bowl winners always giddily hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Even dour, determined Bill Belichick smiled like a kid on a swing when he lifted the prize twice in the last three years.
If coach Belichick leads his New England Patriots to another NFL title next Sunday, he will be mentioned with the great Lombardi.
PHOTO: AP
A third Super Bowl in four years would give Belichick victories in nine successive NFL playoff games, tying Lombardi.
Lombardi reigned with the Green Bay Packers for nine seasons, winning five league championships, including three straight (1965, 1966 and 1967), the final two in what then was called the AFL-NFL Championship. He then resigned.
Belichick is in his fifth season in charge of the Patriots; he also had a mostly failed four-year stint as Cleveland Browns coach. Like Lombardi, Belichick made his reputation as a coordinator with the New York Giants, specializing in befuddling opponents with his defensive schemes.
And like Lombardi, Belichick guided the Patriots to the title game in his second season. The difference: Lombardi's Packers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1960; Belichick's Pats beat the St. Louis Rams in the 2002 Super Bowl.
Just like Lombardi, Belichick has taken few steps backward after getting to the top. Green Bay won championships in 1961, 1962 and then the three in a row. Lombardi lost only once in title games.
New England took last year's Super Bowl and heads into next week's game as a seven-point favorite over Philadelphia.
Other coaches have had similar success to what Lombardi experienced and what Belichick is compiling. Chuck Noll won four Super Bowls in six years with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s -- but he never won nine straight postseason games. Neither did Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins, nor Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers, who each won three Super Bowls.
Only Belichick has reached the Lombardiesque winning streak.
"It's very flattering to be mentioned in the same breath with Vince Lombardi," says Belichick. "That's why the trophy has his name on it. I don't think I deserve it."
Ah, but maybe he does.
"I look at Bill and Lombardi and I see major similarities in the guys," says Hall of Fame defensive end Willie Davis, a mainstay for the Lombardi Packers. ``You need to come up with whatever is necessary and Bill can come up with it, and Vince did that. He will have his team playing up to the max. So did coach Lombardi.
"I see the Patriots play and I say you don't have to look too far to see why this team is able to sustain. It's not that they have better players, but when they line up, each player through execution of assignments -- all 11 players -- can contribute.
"That was one of the things we did, one of the things Lombardi insisted on. If you wanted to get him upset, just have a breakdown.
``I measure the similarities in the product they put on the field. That product is a winner."
Belichick is one of the more stoic coaches in today's NFL. Lombardi was so excitable he often had a running conversation on the sideline with coaches, players, officials and ball boys.
Lombardi was involved in every facet of the team. So is Belichick. Lombardi understood his deep knowledge of offense translated to helping his defense. Belichick knows that, too, simply in the opposite direction.
Still, Belichick, 52, doesn't like to hear that his game plans are masterful, along with his motivational skills.
"The team has done it. I didn't complete one pass out there. I didn't make one tackle. I didn't kick a ball. I didn't do anything. The team did it and that is who should really be recognized. So, I will just get that on the record."
Veteran linebacker Ted Johnson says, "He just has it, whatever it is. He just finds a way, the way he motivates us, the way he can get a team ready mentally and physically. He's so tuned in to his players. He just says and does the right thing at the right time."
As did Lombardi.
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