Over Dinner

I recently saw a topic thread online that sounded like a fun experiment. It’s where you can invite any two people (living or dead) to join you for dinner, but you are not allowed to join in the conversation. Order your food and drinks, but otherwise just keep your mouth shut and don’t ask questions. Just listen to your two guests talk. Oh yeah, one parameter—you can’t invite God, Adolf Hitler, or Abraham Lincoln. Too easy. I came up with several pairs—some are diabolical, some are historic, but I hope you would find them entertaining. The thought is to share them over time.

The first pair I’ll throw out there is sports related—Vince Lombardi, longtime coach of the great Green Bay Packer teams of the 1960s, and Bill Belichick, current coach of the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots.

I’m not here to discuss Belichick’s ethics, which have been hashed and rehashed for a very long time. Neither he nor Lombardi should be considered saints.

Belichick is not exactly known for being a chatterbox, but I hear his players love playing for him, mainly because he wins football games. I don’t begrudge that—we all have our reasons. He knows part of his job is talking to the media, and that’s where his reputation comes into play. Coaches do not want to share anything that might clue an opponent in to a weakness, so he does not like to talk where there are cameras around. I imagine his players don’t care about that. Plus, I’m wiling to bet Belichick is more of a social being on the practice field or in meeting rooms. He is also a master at breaking down game film and getting many different parts to work together. He likely learned these skills as a boy when he would spend time with his father, who was an assistant at the Naval Academy.

Vince Lombardi lives on primarily through books and NFL Films videos. He was one of the Seven Blocks of Granite on the Fordham football team in the 1930s (interesting that he was the starting offensive tackle at 5’8” and 180 pounds). The image that comes to mind is one of a stereotypical old-school football man. He’s a world champion coach, winner of five NFL titles in seven years, including the first two Super Bowls. The man most definitely knew what he was doing.

Belichick graduated from Annapolis (Md.) High School in 1970, and Lombardi was coach of the Washington Redskins for the 1969 season, and he died in DC in 1970, so there may be some sort of connection there. It would be fascinating listening to nearly 100 years of football history, since these two men could form a timeline that runs as far back as the 1920s.

            I feel sure my food would get cold—I consider myself an (very) amateur historian and I don’t think I’d eat. I’d just listen to the stories and to the history lesson.