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  • That First Season

  • How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory
  • Written by: John Eisenberg
  • Narrated by: Pat Young
  • Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

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That First Season cover art

That First Season

Written by: John Eisenberg
Narrated by: Pat Young
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Publisher's Summary

John Eisenberg's That First Season is the seldom-studied prequel to a phenomenal football career for Vince Lombardi and the Packers, drawing on exhaustive new research and interviews to tell an incredible ensemble tale of a team, a town, and their leader.

The once-vaunted Green Bay Packers were a laughingstock by the late 1950s. They hadn't fielded a winning team in more than a decade and were close to losing their franchise to another city. They were in desperate need of a savior, and he arrived in a wood-paneled station wagon in the dead of winter from New York City. In a single year, Vince Lombardi - the grizzled coach who took no bull - transformed a team of underachievers into winners and resurrected a city known for its passion for sport.

That First Season chronicles Vince Lombardi's remarkable first year as head coach with the franchise he would reinvent and etch forever in football history. In a single year, as the grizzled coach who took no bull, he would transform a team of underachievers into winners and reignite a city known for its passion for its sport.

Eisenberg pushes away the mist that surrounds the Lombardi legend to bring listeners the real story of how the seeds of a football dynasty were sown. He also brings alive an incredible ensemble tale of a team, a town, and their leader.
©2009 John Eisenberg (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
History of Sports Coaching Football (American) United States
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for 121-MURC

OMG you MISPRONOUNCED Hornung's name!

it is unfathomable that Paul Hornung's name could be mispronounced every single time. the man's name must come up a thousand times in this book. didn't anyone notice? next to lombardi's name, Hornung's is probably the most repeated name in the world damn book.

and that's just the beginning, simple words, not even complex names, are mispronounced.

the actual reading is banal at best, more succinctly a dull monotone, read by someone who makes exciting football action about as interesting as a math textbook.

as for the book itself, there is a lot of interesting information. anecdotes about players who are long forgotten and not associated with the championship team. at times the writing is overly simplistic, we probably don't need to be told about ooo's and ahhh's.

i would say that there is too much play by play of games however it might have not been so bad were it not read in such a tediously dull manner.

all in all, if you are interested in the subject matter, and can endure the terrible presentation, you will come away with a better knowledge of this special team in it's infancy.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for J. Ryan

Great story. Terrible, comical mispronunciations

Morrall. Mispronounced as morale.

Nitschke as Nitskey.

Kesar as Kezzer.

Horrible, but with such a great story, you just shrug it off.

This fan has loved Lombardi and the Packers since I started to hear about Hornung and Taylor in 1959. I was first, last and always a Unitas fan, but the Packers were such a story.

So many stories. Lombardi destroying Jerry Kramer's hopes, then filling him up with motivation, with kind, inspirational words after practice. The way he handled different players --> his genius. Creating a QB from scratch with Starr. McGee. Taylor the rock hard loner. Hornung the golden boy. Gregg the perfect football player, after Lombardi's influence took hold. Teaching The Sweep. Execution. But also deception. Just wonderful stuff.

For Lombardi it was family, but a tough-love family. Most of the players remembered the love.

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