Kickin' books on Starr, Lombardi, Landry

Considering how many books on pro football are released every year, it's eye-opening that there has never been a definitive biography of the best man ever to take a snap from center. That man, of course, is Bart Starr, and he finally gets his due in Keith Dunnavant's "America's Quarterback: Bart Starr and the Rise of the National Football League" (Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin's Press, $25.99), the most important book on pro football this season.

If you thought the No. 1 quarterback was Johnny Unitas, Joe Montana, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, then you are overlooking the only passer of the modern era to win five championships. Starr was, in the words of NFL Films' Steve Sabol, "the greatest big game quarterback in NFL history." He was also, in Dunnavant's words, "one man who long ago learned to accept being overlooked and underrated."

Born in 1934 to a military family in Montgomery, Ala., Bryan Bartlett Starr, a standout high school athlete, had the misfortune of playing at the University of Alabama in the years before "Bear" Bryant returned to coach football at his alma mater. J.B. "Ears" Whitworth was so clueless, he let Starr ride the bench in his senior year as the Crimson Tide finished 0-10. Nonetheless, Starr was drafted into the NFL -- just barely, in the 17th round -- by the Green Bay Packers. His first pro coach, Ray "Scooter" McLean, in the words of teammate Paul Hornung, "had no business being a head coach in the NFL" and proved it by posting a 1-10-1 record Starr's first season.

The following year, things changed dramatically when Vince Lombardi, previously the offensive coordinator of the New York Giants, was named head coach of the Packers. Lombardi and Starr began a professional relationship that started in 1960 and would see Green Bay play in six championship games in eight years, winning five of them. The forceful and charismatic Lombardi overshadowed his quarterback -- as, indeed, did the Packers All-Pro running backs, Hornung and Jim Taylor. "Bart Starr needed Vince Lombardi," Dunnavant observes, "but Vince Lombardi also needed Bart Starr."

"The dirty little secret of those days," said one of Starr's teammates, "was that during the week it was Lombardi's team, but on Sunday, it was really Starr's team."

Starr was never a prolific passer, the type who led the league in yards gained or touchdown passes, but in the big game, he always made the right call. With 13 seconds on the clock against the Dallas Cowboys in the 1967 NFL championship game -- better known as the Ice Bowl, perhaps the most famous pro football game ever played (temperature at game time was 15 degrees below Fahrenheit with a wind chill of 48 below) -- Starr came to the sidelines to tell his coach why he believed they could score if he carried the ball himself. "Then run it!" replied the most autocratic coach in the game, "and let's get the hell out of here." Dunnavant's account of the final drive to Green Bay's 21-17 victory is almost more exciting than watching the vintage clips on YouTube.

Lombardi, Bart Starr and the Packers dominated the 1960s, but only because they were able to beat Tom Landry and the Dallas Cowboys in two thrilling championship games to cap the 1966 and 1967 NFL seasons. In "Lombardi and Landry: How Two of Pro Football's Greatest Coaches Launched Their Legends and Changed the Game Forever" (Skyhorse Publishing, $24.95), veteran football writer Ernie Palladino explores a subject that has, for some odd reason, escaped the close scrutiny of pro football historians -- namely that Lombardi and Landry, two of the greatest coaches of all time, both learned the ropes under the Giants' Jim Lee Howell in the late 1950s (Landry was the defensive coach).

Though never quite friends, they respected each other's intelligence and understanding of the game. Palladino skillfully points out the contrast between the fiery Lombardi, a meat-and-potatoes coach who stressed fundamentals like blocking and tackling and whose offense played ball control, and the razzle-dazzle Landry, whose offense was built around long passes and trick plays like double reverses.

"Lombardi and Landry," Palladino writes, "both became winners . . . Lombardi learned about defense from Landry. Landry learned about the winning attitude from Lombardi. They were a head coach's dream." And "Lombardi and Landry" is essential for fans of both coaches and teams.