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What: “Winning Is Living and Losing Is Dying: The George Allen Story”

TV: “NFL Films Presents,” ESPN, today, 4 p.m.

This excellent one-hour special explores the complexities of George Allen, a driven man who served as coach of the Los Angeles Rams (1966-70), Washington Redskins (1971-77) and Long Beach State (1990). Allen died of a heart attack suffered at his home on Dec. 31, 1990. He was 72. He had just finished coaching Long Beach State to an improbable 6-5 record.

“That may have been his greatest coaching accomplishment,” says Long Beach Press-Telegram columnist Doug Krikorian on the show. “That team was not that good.”

Steve Sabol, the president of NFL Films and the host of “NFL Films Presents,” went to Palos Verdes Estates to interview Jennifer Allen, George’s daughter and author of “The Fifth Quarter,” an account of her life growing up as the only daughter of a man consumed by coaching.

The title for this special was one of Allen’s many slogans. “As a little girl, I really took that statement literally,” Jennifer tells Sabol. “I was very concerned about my dad when we lost.”

Roman Gabriel, among many former players interviewed, talks about the first time he met Allen. It was over lunch, and Gabriel had ordered roast beef.

“He looked at my roast beef and said it was a loser,” Gabriel says. “He said the winners are still walking around the pasture eating hay.”

Longtime Los Angeles Herald Examiner columnist Melvin Durslag says one time Allen was eating soup and a chocolate chip cookie. “Crackers came with the soup,” Durslag says, “but George was so focused on football, he took the chocolate chip cookie, rather than the crackers, and crumbled it up in his soup.”

Gabriel says, “He used to tell us if we could win the Super Bowl he’d cut off his son’s right arm. He wouldn’t really do that. At least I think he wouldn’t.”

Allen returned to the Rams in 1978 but was fired after two exhibition games.

“That may have been the most ridiculous firing I’ve ever seen,” Krikorian says. “For reasons that defy all sane calculations, [owner] Carroll Rosenbloom listened to people who were back-stabbing George Allen. It put a black mark on George Allen’s name and scared off all the other owners.”