This article originally appeared in the January 1968, issue of Esquire under the headline "The Toughest Man in Pro Football." It may contain sensibilities and attitudes about race and class that are potentially triggering. To read every Esquire story ever published, upgrade to All Access.
One of the favorite things of Vince Lombardi, coach, general manager, and spiritual leader of the world-champion Green Bay Packers, is the grass drill. He lets an assistant coach lead the bending and stretching exercises, the calisthenics, but he himself must run the part of the drill that turns grown behemoths into groveling, gasping, sweat-soaked, foamy-mouthed animals without breath enough left to complain.