Pro Pecunia Sunt

There they stood, ranging on up to 6 1/2 ft. tall, bulging with the kind of muscles it takes to bend a railroad spike between thumb and forefinger. Their team had already won its fifth National Football League division championship in seven years, and chances were, they could hardly have cared less that they still had one regular-season game to play against the Los Angeles Rams. So why were they doing pushups, and running wind sprints? Could it really have been because a chubby pipsqueak with glasses was screaming at them: "You don't have any pride. All you have is shame. You're a disgrace to the National Football League."

It could indeed. When Coach Vince Lombardi chews out his Green Bay Packers, they say, "Yessir, Coach Lombardi-sir." And they mean it. At 53, Lombardi is the toughest coach of the toughest team in pro football, a team that has won 12 out of 14 games this year, come within four points of an undefeated season, held its opponents to an average of 11.6 points a game. It is a team that is a strong favorite (by seven points) to beat the Dallas Cowboys for the N.F.L. title next week, and it will be an even stronger favorite -- once past the Cowboys -- to annihilate the American Football League's champions in the Super Bowl on Jan. 15. That double victory would be worth a bonus of $23,000 per man to the Packers.

Best Ever. There is nothing subtle about the Packers. "Football is blocking and tackling," says Lombardi. "If you block and tackle better than the other people, you win." No fancy offensive formations for him, no kamikaze blitzes on defense. "You always know what those goddam Packers are going to do," says a rival coach, "but you still can't stop them -- they never make mistakes." Well, almost never. "I remember that game against Minnesota last year," says Lombardi, "when we had a 7-0 lead early and went right down again to fourth and one for the goal, and decided to go for the touchdown instead of the field goal, and we fumbled, and . . ."

But that was last year. Before the 1966 season even started, Lombardi ventured the guess that this year's Packers would be "the best team I ever coached." They have done nothing to prove him wrong--despite their advancing age. Fullback Jimmy Taylor is 31, and it is an open secret that he will be playing for somebody else next year; but he has gained 705 yds. on the ground, another 331 yds. on pass receptions. Tight End Max McGee is 34 and has caught only three passes all year, but one of them set up the game-winning touchdown when the Packers beat the Baltimore Colts three weeks ago to clinch the N.F.L.'s Western Division championship. Halfback Paul Hornung, 30, and painfully burdened by a pinched nerve in his neck, is still, by the consensus of his fellow pros, "the greatest money player in the game." And Quarterback Bart Starr, at 32, is the No. 1 passer in the N.F.L. (156 completions in 251 attempts, for 2,257 yds.); last week he was voted the most valuable player in the league.

Rebuilding While Winning. The oldsters may falter now and then, but Lombardi is a master of the delicate art of rebuilding while winning. To replace Taylor, there is Jim Grabowski, a $300,000 bonus rookie from Illinois who has averaged 4.4 yds. in 29 carries. For Max McGee, Lombardi has Marv Fleming, a 6-ft. 4-in. 240-pounder from Utah. For Hornung, he has two replacements: Elijah Pitts, who has scored ten touchdowns this year, and Donny Anderson, the highest-priced (at $600,000) bonus rookie in history, who has already repaid part of the investment by averaging 5 yds. per carry and running a kickoff back 61 yds. for a TD. Behind Starr is Zeke Bratkowski, as good a No. 2 quarterback as there is in the game; Bratkowski has started only seven games for the Packers -- and Green Bay has won all seven.

One of those seven came last week against the Rams. Bratkowski threw 23 passes and completed 13 for 245 yds. and one touchdown; Anderson scored another touchdown on a plunge up the middle; Cornerback Bob Jeter helped the Packers tie an N.F.L. record when he picked off a Los Angeles pass and raced 75 yds. -- the sixth time this season that Green Bay defenders have run back an interception for a TD. After the Packers had won 27-23, Coach Lombardi permitted himself the smallest of smiles. "We are," he allowed, "in the money now."

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