At Zeale for America 250, Joe Lombardi says faith, family and football remain his guiding priorities

Joe Lombardi, grandson of legendary NFL coach Vince Lombardi and a senior offensive assistant with the Baltimore Ravens, said his grandfather's creed of faith, family, and football remains a guiding framework for his life — and a benchmark he uses to evaluate his own priorities as a coach and as a Catholic.

Lombardi spoke with Joshua Mercer, vice president of advocacy for CatholicVote, at the Zeale for America 250 rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on June 13. 

Lombardi said he has long viewed his grandfather's famous "faith, family and football" motto as a blueprint for life. 

"It's a way that I can evaluate my life as a football coach and my priorities, so I can look back in a day or a week or a year and say, did I keep those priorities in order — my faith, my family, and then my job, which is being a football coach,” he said. 

Vince Lombardi, who died nine months before Joe was born, is the namesake of the Lombardi Trophy, the sterling silver trophy presented annually to the winning team of the Super Bowl, the NFL's championship game.

At the rally, CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt said in her speech that Vince Lombardi drew on Jesuit principles for his coaching philosophy, which continues to influence the game.

>> Kelsey Reinhardt at Zeale for America 250: American Catholics, ‘Do not be afraid to be saints’ <<

Vince Lombardi discerned the priesthood before choosing a coaching career and attended daily Mass, his grandson said.

"He went to a minor seminary, discerning whether to become a priest, and decided against it, but he went to Mass every day," Lombardi said. He recalled that his grandfather's quarterback, Bart Starr, once quipped that if you heard Vince Lombardi's language at practice, "you understood why he had to go to church every day."

Lombardi also recounted a story from his grandfather's final coaching year with the Washington Redskins. 

"He went to the church he was going to attend and asked, 'When's your daily Mass?' They said 7:30. He said, 'It's going to fit my schedule better if we move it to seven.' But I think a higher order prevailed. I don't think they moved Mass for him."

A faith that grew

Joe Lombardi described his own faith as one he did not take seriously until marriage and fatherhood.

"I was born to a Catholic family, cradle Catholic. My parents took the faith seriously. It was never a question whether we were going to go to Sunday Mass. We were going. Twelve years of Catholic school," he said. "But even with all that, when I went off to college, I would say I was not very well formed."

He said he maintained a "cultural loyalty" to Catholicism in college but was not practicing it as he should have been, and that his wife was in a similar place when they married.

The turning point came after the birth of their first child, when a priest gave him a recording on the Church's teaching on contraception — initially sought, Lombardi acknowledged, for health reasons rather than religious ones.

"I was blown away," he said. "I listened to it, and I was so blown away by how obviously true the Church's teaching was. And I think my wife and I looked at each other and said, 'Well, what else are they teaching that's true?' And we found out pretty much everything."

Faith in the locker room

Asked whether his Catholic faith helps him navigate pressure in the NFL, Lombardi said it grounds him but is not a self-improvement tool.

"I don't really look at it as a self-help thing," he said. "It calls on me to live my life a certain way. I have certain duties to God. That's what it's about. Whether it makes life easier or harder, I think in the long run it makes it more fulfilling, but not always easier."

Lombardi said Christianity is broadly present in NFL locker rooms. The Ravens hold both a Catholic Mass and a Protestant chapel service the night before every game. He noted that the chapel typically draws more attendees, then joked that when he once ran into a player he coaches leaving the chapel, he asked him how "the junior varsity meeting" was.

Lombardi cited Matt Burke, a fellow NFL coach, who said the locker room is "a very spiritual place."

"I think people would be surprised at how much faith there is in the locker room," Lombardi said, noting that the team's chaplain sends coaches a daily Scripture text and leads Bible study sessions.

On whether God cares about game outcomes, Lombardi said he does not presume to know — but joked, "I do pray like He does. When you read the Psalms, David is sure praying for victory. Maybe I don't claim to have that kind of status with God, but we try."

A message for the next generation

Lombardi closed his chat with Mercer with a message for future generations, drawing on J.R.R. Tolkien and G.K. Chesterton.

"As a Catholic, I just look at history as a long defeat — things go bad, but there's going to be a final victory," he said, citing Tolkien. 

Quoting Chesterton, he said, "Rome was great because men loved it. Men didn't love it because it was great. So love where your feet are, and act as if everything depends on you.”

Lombardi added, “Make where you are as beautiful as you can."