FOOTBALL LEGEND: Vince Lombardi traded a player five minutes after learning the player had hired an agent to represent him in contract negotiations with the Packers.
STATUS: False.
The last two weeks, I featured one legend each week involving one of the two teams who played in this year's Super Bowl. And I said that this week I would feature a legend about whichever team won. Well, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25, so this week I'm featuring a Packers-related legend!
From the new book by former New York Giants kicker (and longtime NFL announcer) Pat Summerall (just released a few months ago, co-written by Michael Levin) about what he learned from his time spent with Lombardi and Tom Landry when both coaches were assistants on the Giants,Giants: What I Learned About Life from Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, Summerall discusses how different it was for players when they tried to negotiate their contracts during the 1950s and 1960s:
Negotiating didn't always work out, though. As I'm sure you've heard, one year, Jim Ringo, the all-pro center for the Packers, went into negotiations with Lombardi when he was the Packers' head coach. He brought his agent to the meeting. Lombardi said,"I don't negotiate with agents. Hold on, let me make a phone call." He turned away, picked up the phone, and the moment he hung up he said,"I told you I don't negotiate with agents. You've just been traded to Philadelphia." Ringo was one of his best players and all-pro for several years, but Lombardi chose to trade him rather than deal with his agent. I think it was sort of an unwritten rule at that time not to bring others into negotiations because nobody had agents or other people speaking for them.
Summerall is correct in noting that thisisa very popular story, but it also happens to not be true.
Read on to learn what actually happened!
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