To raise the Vince Lombardi trophy means victory, and victory means surviving the epic journey fraught with peril and adversity that is the game of professional football—a unique life-changing moment that is captured in exciting detail in this collection of sports history. Each year, the National Football League awards the prestigious trophy to the Super Bowl–winning team, an honor that some players will spend an entire career without experiencing. Bestselling sports author Ross Bernstein interviewed more than 100 of the fortunate few from NFL history, both players and coaches, who share the common thread of being championship winners. "What did it meant to raise Lombardi? It's almost indescribable. You're at a loss for words when it happens because it's such a profound moment. Your whole world changes in an instant."  —Joe Theismann, football broadcaster and former professional quarterback Ross Bernstein is the bestselling author of nearly 50 sports books and has been featured on CNN and ESPN as well as in the Wall Street Journal , New York Times , and USA TODAY . He is an internationally recognized motivational speaker. He lives in Eagan, Minnesota. Raising Lombardi What It Takes to Claim Football's Ultimate Prize By Ross Bernstein Triumph Books Copyright © 2011 Ross Bernstein All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-60078-616-7 Contents Foreword by Michael Strahan, Foreword by Daryl "Moose" Johnston, Introduction, 1. Being a Champion, 2. Championship Teams, 3. Defining Moments, 4. Championship Coaches, 5. Champions for Life, Appendix: All-Time NFL Champions, Sources, Additional Material, Photo Gallery, CHAPTER 1 Being a Champion Winning the championship is the pinnacle of football success, and when it happens the players' emotions simply take over. In this chapter I wanted to find out just what it meant for them to win it all and to finally become a champion. Each player's journey to get to that point is unique. When the reality of living out a childhood dream finally comes true, however, the emotion is raw, and the tears begin to flow freely. Some laughed, some cried, and some were just still too numb to feel anything. Yes, it was that profound. WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR YOU TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP? "It's what you play for. Under Lombardi's reign, that was the only goal that you had, to win that final game. I was fortunate enough to be on two Super Bowl teams in Green Bay, and it meant a great deal. The Packers have a very rich history of winning, and that really motivated us to win." Donny Anderson RB/P, Green Bay Packers, 1966, 1967 "It meant a great deal. I had played in Super Bowl I and lost, so to get a second chance at it and win it, that was a very special and proud moment in my life. We were so determined not to lose it again; we really wanted to redeem ourselves. We had such a great team that year. We had seven Hall of Famers on that team, and there should be a couple more as well. We had a great defense too, one of the best of all time in my book. No doubt about it, we were that good. We all believed in each other too; we really had each other's backs out there. You don't see that all the time in professional sports, but we had that type of camaraderie on that team. Because our defense was that good, we knew that if the offense could hang in there and put up some points, then we would do the rest. We knew that nobody was going to blow us out, so they were going to be close games. We had to overcome a lot of adversity that year as well. Our quarterback, Len Dawson, got hurt and missed half the season. Mike Livingston played great as his backup though, and it was because of him that we were even in a position to get into the playoffs. So, that was huge for us. We hung on though and made it to the playoffs as a wild-card. From there we had to get past the defending champion Jets in the first round, which was no easy task. I will never forget that game out in New York — it was just a classic. I was so determined to do whatever I could to help my team win. I was a man possessed. I wound up making a couple of big plays, including stuffing [Jets quarterback] Joe Namath on a goal-line bootleg, and was awarded with the game ball afterward. That was a huge honor. Winning that game gave us a whole lot of momentum, and we used that to beat Oakland the next week. Oakland had already beaten us twice that season, but we dug in and took care of business. Next up were the big bad Purple People Eaters from Minnesota, who we met up with down in New Orleans. We were 14-point underdogs to those guys — talk about feeling disrespected! They thought they were gonna come in and dominate us, and we were not going to have any part of that. We were hungry and just took it to 'em. We played a complete game: offense, defense, and special teams. We scored three quick field goals, and then Mike Garrett scored on a short touchdown run to make it 16–0. Lenny Dawson hit Otis Ta