How I Went From Fleet Breakaway Threat To Hard-running Blond To Solid-socking Blond To Loose And Fun-loving Off The Field

"Offensive-guard plays?" I said.

"You're supposed to take down every play for every position."

"Why?" I asked.

"We have so few players," Brown replied, "that you don't know what position you're liable to have to play."

"Well," I said, "if I got to play offensive guard, we might as well forfeit."

Brown studied me solemnly and then softly said, "Hawkins, you're a dog." He was the first to suspect that I couldn't possibly last in professional football.

Still, he played me in the Senior Bowl, and of course we beat Joe Kuharich and the North, inasmuch as Brown had willed it to be so. He is, as I came to realize, a positively brilliant coach, the greatest of all, a man I would have loved to play pro ball under, but of course, after our beginning at the Senior Bowl, there was never any danger of that. Besides, destiny was sweeping me into the teeth of Vince Lombardi, who had just become head coach of the Packers and as yet remained an unknown quantity.

The first day of training camp Lombardi cut two players before they reached the practice field. Walking alongside them toward the field, he observed that they were overweight. "Where are you two going?" he asked.

"We're going to practice," one of the players answered.

"No, you're not," said Lombardi. "You can't make our team."