As Usual, the Sequel Can Be More Difficult Than the Original

The Green Bay Packers did commercials, too, so that’s no excuse. Middle linebacker Ray Nitschke used to whine, “I want my Maypo” on national television, which easily could have been a team distraction.

Green Bay once had a player suspended, Paul Hornung getting a one-year hiatus for gambling. The Packers didn’t have any documented drug scandals, but they weren’t saints either. “We had some guys that liked to drink, sure,” Nitschke said. “So what?”

So, all these so-called modern-day problems that overwhelmed the Chicago Bears and New York Giants in their quest to repeat as Super Bowl champions are nothing revolutionary. Just because the Bears and Giants couldn’t win back-to-back titles doesn’t mean the Washington Redskins can’t either. Green Bay won six championships in eight seasons, so perhaps the Redskins can win two consecutive, as long as they don’t psyche themselves out of it.

The theory for the failure to repeat is that football has grown ten-fold--in talent and big money--which is why defending champions have heads the size of Goodyear blimps. Truth is, good teams only come along once or twice a decade.

For sure, the 1960s were Green Bay’s and the 1970s belonged to Miami and Pittsburgh. They are the only three teams to ever win consecutive championships in the Super Bowl era, and players from these teams mostly agree on the reasons for their redundancy.

First, every one of those teams had a strong-willed coach, a boar of a man with E.F. Hutton tendencies. Green Bay’s Vince Lombardi used to say it was his way or the highway. Don Shula’s whole life is dedicated to being No. 1 even if it means coaching the Dolphins until he’s 80 to match George Halas in career wins. And Pittsburgh’s Chuck Noll used to say, “Put your Super Bowl rings on a shelf,” which supposedly would motivate players to get one for their finger again.

Secondly, every one of those teams had avoided the fickle finger of fate, meaning Bart Starr, Bob Griese and Terry Bradshaw mostly stayed away from injury in championship years. Actually, Griese had a leg injury the year Miami went 17-0, but Earl Morrall gave them the perfect fix off the bench, so that’s all part of the luck.

Clearly, if anyone can grant advice to Redskins players, it’s former Packers, Dolphins and Steelers, who know what it’s like to be repetitive.

On the issue of all-out distraction:

Hornung: “I think it’s hard to keep people’s minds on the things the year after. Lombardi didn’t like that Max McGee and Fuzzy Thurston opened restaurants. From July to December and January, the Green Bay Packers owned your soul. . . . Let me tell you, the Bears and the Giants had the best chance (of repeating) I’d ever seen, and the fact that they didn’t surprised me. But they all got too healthy, know what I mean. They were all doing ads and appearances.

“True, some of us did commercials, but we were lucky being in Green Bay, isolated from a large market area. My God, you can’t even relate it to the way football is now. Refrigerator Perry could make $25,000 an hour for 6 hours a day. How hungry can that guy be, then? Uh, no pun intended. Anyway, no wonder the guy got to be 380 pounds. What if you don’t have discipline?

“On the other hand, if you’re Refrigerator, can you turn it all down? What are you supposed to do, not get distracted?”

Pittsburgh’s Rocky Bleier: “I rode on the coattails of Mean Joe Greene. I did a hungry man’s TV dinner spot, and a Uniroyal thing, when they came out with Steelers tires. But, all in all, we weren’t inundated as a team. There weren’t a whole lot of distractions. We didn’t have a drug thing, no one writing books. Bradshaw actually wrote a paperback, but no exposes, nobody tearing anyone down.”

Pittsburgh’s John Stallworth: “We had guys do endorsements, but nothing like now, no head coach writing a book, no quarterbacks or linebackers writing books. The endorsements didn’t prompt jealousy. Bradshaw did a Red Man commercial, which I didn’t care about. I don’t chew. Joe Greene did Coca Cola; I had a local savings and loan use me in commercials.”

Miami’s Nick Buoniconti: “We had very little in the way of endorsements when we won it. Maybe Csonka and Griese, but I don’t think anyone else. So getting prepared for the next year wasn’t tough. We liked the playoff money. Me? I never did a commercial when I was an active player.”

On the issue of all-out luck:

Bleier: “What it boils down to is you’ve got to be lucky and luck comes in the form of injuries. You’ll always have some, but you can’t have your defensive line decimated. Hell, the Bears halfway through (the 1986 season), Jim McMahon gets hurt, and they bring in three quarterbacks and end up with (Doug) Flutie. I give Ditka credit. Buddy Ryan had left and he’s without a quarterback, he’s clawing to hold the team together.

“Let me tell you, as a player, you’ve got to be able to look around and say, ‘We’ve got everyone in their spot.’ I’ve got to be able to say, ‘Lambert’s there, and Donnie Shell and Mel Blount and Mike Wagner.’ I can feel comfortable. But if I see Bradshaw’s not there, I say, ‘Oh no, the burden’s on me and Franco.’ You’ve broken up our continuity. That’s what I thought happened in Chicago. You’re saying, ‘We’ve really got to work to overcome this.’ ”

Hornung: “The Redskins are lucky Dexter Manley gets to play this season. That’s no discipline. If I’d been suspended a year for gambling in this era, I’d have been peeved. Some guys even get paid while in rehab now. You want to know how to influence a pro athlete? Take away his money, not his training camp. All Manley missed is training camp. That’s all any player wants. . . . Good thing I’m not commissioner or none of these guys nowadays (who’ve violated league drug policy) would be playing.

On the issue of all-out coaching:

Stallworth: “We had Chuck Noll, who was conscious of it (repeating). He said, ‘You never arrive.’ And we believed this. If you think you’re the greatest thing since canned peaches, you’ll carry yourself like that. And forget it.”

Nitschke: “Lombardi, he didn’t mess around. If guys wanted to win, they’d be around. If not, he’d replace you. That’s what his hallmark was.”

Buoniconti: “Shula set a goal. He said, ‘Look, the only team to win back-to-back championships was Green Bay. And if you guys want to be one of the best ever, you have to do it, too, to be in their league.”

And on the issue of Washington joining their exclusive club:

Buoniconti: “I think the Redskins can repeat, because I think Joe Gibbs is such a fundamentalist, such a hard-working guy, such a regular guy. But that’s from an attitude point of view. There’s a lot that has to happen on the field. . . . And you know Wilber Marshall is going to have a great year, unless he gets hurt. He has too much ability. And if Manley comes back. . . . And that Charles Mann is awesome. Why won’t they repeat? It’s the way they came on last year. They beat great teams, Chicago and Minnesota, and they pounded Denver. That’s what we did in our day, dominate the playoffs.”

Stallworth: “It takes a coach with a head on straight, and I do believe Gibbs qualifies. And it’ll take the players with their heads on straight, and I don’t know how this Dexter Manley thing will turn out. Players have a tendency to say, ‘OK, let’s take him back,’ but way down in their subconscious, they’re saying, ‘I don’t know.’ It’s bad enough when everyone’s shooting for you, but when these other little distractions start, these petty jealousies, well, they can grind you down.”

Hornung: “I saw Joe Jacoby working out this off-season, and he’d be motivation enough if I were a running back trying to repeat. Hell, if I didn’t gain 1,000 yards behind him, it’d be a miracle. He’s a house.”

Bleier: “I don’t think they’ll repeat. I’m not counting on it. Why? For obvious reasons. I don’t want ‘em to repeat. No one will be calling me anymore, asking why teams don’t repeat. I need the publicity.”