Lombardi trophy curse

Limitation on the Lombardi Trophy
"No team nor individual head coach shall ever hold high the Vince Lombardi Trophy as NFL world champions more than 2 consecutive seasons, corresponding to the longest streak achieved by Coach Lombardi himself."

This 'good' curse, originally theorized by noted NFL luminary Mr. Aslam Rawoof, is currently 37 years in effect, is unbroken, and applies only to consecutive NFL championship streaks, and NOT a sum total of championships.

Among his many accomplishments, Vince Lombardi guided the Packers to three straight NFL championships, in 1965, '66, and '67, to finish out his superlative career as head coach in Green Bay. However, due to the preliminary AFL-NFL merger occurring long after the conclusion of the 1965 season, only the last two of those three campaigns actually resulted in a World Championship. Because the AFL was a competing professional American football league at the time, it was only by way of this merger agreement that Lombardi & his NFL-champ Packers were permitted to face the AFL's champs in '66 and '67, and legitimately lay claim to world championships after beating them. This annual tradition to crown the world champions of football has come to be known famously as the Super Bowl.

So while the Packers of 1966 and 1967 soundly defeated the AFL's Chiefs and Raiders to become World Champions, the 1965 NFL champion Packers were unfortunately deprived of the chance to face their AFL counterpart that year, the Buffalo Bills, to also have their shot at a world title. What is particularly irksome to both Packers' fans and Lombardi's admirers is the nearly unanimous opinion among experts of 1960's-era pro football that the 1965 Packers would have easily bested the 1965 Bills, had the game taken place. After the 1967 season, Coach Lombardi stepped down as head coach of the 'Pack'; the following year the Packers failed to make the playoffs under their new head coach.

Because the powers-that-be in the NFL and AFL couldn't get their act together just one year earlier, Coach Lombardi was shortchanged of a chance to lead his squad to the first of likely 3 straight world championships. Through no fault of his own, circumstances dictated that Lombardi settle for two world titles in his career, to go along with annoying conjecture from the football community about whether or not he and his team would have captured a third back in 1965. This best explains why Every Effort Towards Uninterrupted NFL Success Thereafter May Equal But May Not Surpass Lombardi's Standard Of 2 Consecutive World Titles.

The limitation curse became real in 1970 after Lombardi's death from cancer compelled the NFL to immediately rename the trophy that is awarded yearly to the world champion Super Bowl winners as the Lombardi Trophy. Many, though, believe that the curse was unofficially in effect after Lombardi retired as coach from the Packers, which would add two more years to its total duration. It should be mentioned that Coach Lombardi has never publicly made any remarks to indicate resentment over the first Super Bowl arriving one year 'late.'

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu