Whipping Up the Redskins

He treats us all the same--like dogs. --Green Bay Tackle Henry Jordan, describing Coach Vince Lombardi.

While Lombardi was lashing them on, the Green Bay dogs had their day every Sunday. Under Lombardi's iron rule, they terrorized the National Football League for eight years. No more, for this year Mr. Lombardi, as he is known to his players, went to Washington to apply his whip to the mor-bund Redskins.

While other football fans anxiously await the battles between the N.F.L. and A.F.L. divisional champions, Washington fans can relax and contemplate their bright future. The Redskins, who had not enjoyed a winning season since 1955, had by week's end fashioned a 7-4-2 record to clinch a second-place finish behind Dallas in the N.F.L.'s Capitol Division. Good as that was, Lombardi was not satisfied: "Let's not get all worked up about this team. We still have a long way to go, and a lot of areas need shoring up."

Making Breaks. He is just the man to do the shoring. When he left his post as general manager of the Packers to accept the Redskins' offer (of about 5% of the stock), the first thing Lombardi did was to lure Sam Huff out of retirement. A four-time All-Pro middle linebacker, Huff came back simply because "Lombardi is my kind of guy." Sam proved as rugged and mobile as ever. In the first game against Philadelphia, he came from nowhere to pick off a Norm Snead pass and lumber 18 yds. for a touchdown.

Vince made a point of establishing good rapport with the Peck's Bad Boy of pro football Quarterback Sonny Jurgensen. Lombardi has an unaccountable soft spot for rakehells--a good thing, because Jurgensen, despite his off-the-field antics, can throw farther and more accurately than any other man in the game. This season he completed 249 passes, a league-leading total supported by Lombardi's fundamentalist ground game. "That's one area we improved upon this year," says Vince, "just by making them run." One result of Lombardi's endless drills: Rookie Larry Brown averaged 4.4 yds. per carry to rank fifth among N.F.L. rushers.

The Redskins learned another bit of Lombardi orthodoxy as well: Make your own breaks. Against Philadelphia, Defensive End Carl Kammerer belted Quarterback Snead so hard in the end zone that the ball popped loose. Rookie Lineman John Hoffman dived onto the ball for a touchdown as the 'Skins went on to win 34-29.

Building a championship team in Washington will be no mean feat--even for Lombardi. Huff is retiring for good now, and Jurgensen will be 36 next August. Still, N.F.L. coaches have noted that Washington's won-lost record is almost the same as the 7-5 compiled by Green Bay in 1959--the year Lombardi took over as head coach. Says Dallas Coach Tom Landry: "Like everyone else, Vince will have to build his team up with the draft. Only in his case, he makes things happen quicker."

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