When Pride Still Mattered

The New York Times–bestselling biography that captures all of football great Vince Lombardi: the myth, the man, his game, and his God.

More than any other sports figure, Vince Lombardi transformed football into a metaphor of the American experience. The son of an Italian immigrant butcher, Lombardi toiled for twenty frustrating years as a high school coach and then as an assistant at Fordham, West Point, and the New York Giants before his big break came at age forty-six with the chance to coach a struggling team in snowbound Wisconsin. His leadership of the Green Bay Packers to five world championships in nine seasons is the most storied period in NFL history. Lombardi became a living legend, a symbol to many of leadership, discipline, perseverance, and teamwork, and to others of an obsession with winning.

Written by Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss, When Pride Still Mattered “forges a near-perfect synthesis of fine writing and fascinating material. May be the best sports biography ever published” (Sports Illustrated).

“An astonishingly good book . . . A triumph, a classic American biography.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Both the reach of the research and the grasp of Lombardi’s character are impressive. It is a wonderful work.” —Chicago Tribune

“A superb book, one of the best on football that we have.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“A monumental biography.” —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel