JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Super Bowl winners giddily hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Yes, even dour, determined Bill Belichick smiled like a kid at recess when he lifted the prize twice in the past three years.
If Belichick leads his New England Patriots to another NFL title next Sunday, his team will be compared to the best in pro football history. And Belichick will be mentioned with the great Lombardi.
After nine straight playoff victories, he just might measure up.
Lombardi reigned in Green Bay for nine seasons, winning five league championships, including three straight (1965, '66 and '67), the final two in what then was called the AFL-NFL Championship. It was Lombardi's first head coaching stint after years as an offensive assistant with the New York Giants.
Belichick is in his fifth season in charge of the Patriots; he also had a mostly failed four-year stint as Cleveland Browns coach. Like Lombardi, Belichick made his reputation as a coordinator with the Giants, specializing in befuddling opponents with his defensive schemes. And like Lombardi, Belichick guided the Patriots to the title game in his second season. The difference: Lombardi's Packers lost to the Eagles in 1960; Belichick's Pats beat St. Louis in the 2002 Super Bowl.
Just like Lombardi, Belichick has taken few steps backward after getting to the top. Green Bay won championships in 1961, '62 and then the three in a row. Except for the loss to Philly, Lombardi was unbeaten in title games.
New England took last year's Super Bowl and heads into next week's game as a seven-point favorite over Philadelphia.
Other coaches have had similar success to what Lombardi experienced and what Belichick is compiling. Chuck Noll won four Super Bowls in six years with Pittsburgh in the 1970s — but he never won nine straight postseason games. Neither did Joe Gibbs, nor Bill Walsh, who each won three Super Bowls.
Dallas took three titles in four years in the 1990s, but with two coaches — Jimmy Johnson in 1992 and '93, Barry Switzer in 1995.
Only Belichick has reached the Lombardiesque winning streak.
"It's very flattering to be mentioned in the same breath with Vince Lombardi," says Belichick. "That's why the trophy has his name on it. I don't think I deserve it."
Ah, but maybe he does.
"I look at Bill and Lombardi and I see major similarities in the guys," says Hall of Fame defensive end Willie Davis, a mainstay for the Lombardi Packers. "You need to come up with whatever is necessary and Bill can come up with it, and Vince did that. He will have his team playing up to the max. So did coach Lombardi."
"I see the Patriots play and I say you don't have to look too far to see why this team is able to sustain. It's not that they have better players, but when they line up, each player through execution of assignments — all 11 players — can contribute.
"That was one of the things we did, one of the things Lombardi insisted on. If you wanted to get him upset, just have a breakdown.
"I measure the similarities in the product they put on the field. That product is a winner."
While Lombardi and Belichick won with stunning regularity, they used divergent approaches to get there.
Lombardi's squads were more star-oriented, although the Patriots certainly have their share of headliners in Tom Brady, Rodney Harrison, Tedy Bruschi and now Corey Dillon. Davis is one of 10 Hall of Famers who played for the brusque, emotional Lombardi, who was inducted in 1971. How many of the Patriots might be headed to Canton is mere conjecture at this point, but it's not likely to approach the number of Packers who got there.
Belichick is one of the more stoic coaches in today's NFL. Lombardi was so excitable he often had a running conversation on the sideline with coaches, players, officials and ball boys.
Lombardi was involved in every facet of the team. So is Belichick. Lombardi understood his deep knowledge of offense translated to helping his defense. Belichick knows that, too, simply in the opposite direction.
Belichick's coaching skills have gotten him labeled a "genius" by many. Lombardi?
"I don't know if anyone ever called him that," says Packers historian Lee Remmel. "I was around him the years he was here, I never heard that word used. I don't think I would take exception to it, and I don't think he would have.
"He had a substantial ego and a right to have it. Vince was a man apart."
Belichick probably has not faced the kind of pressure Lombardi felt before the first AFL-NFL Championship against Kansas City. There might not have been a more significant game to pro football's old guard than that first meeting between the champions of the upstart AFL and the traditional-laden NFL.
Lombardi fielded calls from coaches, general managers and team owners from around the NFL, all with the same message, Remmel says: "Don't you dare let those people beat you."
Lombardi didn't, and after the Packers took down the Raiders in 1968 for the third straight title, Lombardi stepped aside as coach.
Should Belichick, 52, get the ninth consecutive postseason win in Jacksonville, he's not likely to go anywhere. He's at the top of his profession, and his club shows no signs of weakness.
His coaching acumen has confused MVPs — Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner — and lifted unheralded players to unimagined heights. His game plans are masterful. So are his motivational skills.
Still, Belichick won't hear of it.
"The team has done it. I didn't complete one pass out there. I didn't make one tackle. I didn't kick a ball. I didn't do anything. The team did it and that is who should really be recognized. So, I will just get that on the record."
And if he ties Lombardi's record? Will Belichick then use the I word to acknowledge his achievements?
Don't count on it.
"He just has it, whatever it is," veteran linebacker Ted Johnson says. "He just finds a way, the way he motivates us, the way he can get a team ready mentally and physically.
"He's so tuned in to his players. What does a team need, where they're at, whatever. He just says and does the right thing at the right time."
As did Lombardi.