Bills owner seeks compromise on protests

Through sacrifice, leadership and a desire to win, Lombardi guided the Green Bay Packers through brutal training sessions that ultimately shaped a losing team into professional footballs most powerful team of the 1960s. Lombardi led the Packers to seven National Football League titles and victories in the first two Super Bowls.

Lombardi was elected to the Football Hall of Fame shortly after his death from cancer in 1970.

Now, Cheap Jerseys at 14, Lombardis 155 pound grandson stands out among his peers at 5 feet 8 and strives to be a professional football player. Those who know him well say Paul carries the drive and determination that will help him achieve that goal.

I like to compete and I hate to lose, Paul said. But its OK if you dont win if you go out and give it everything youve got.

Although Paul never knew his grandfather who died a month after Paul and his twin sister, Marie, were born he admits the burning desire to play football stems from curiosity about Lombardis devotion to the game.

During his own college days, Lombardi was part of the Seven Blocks of Granite football wholesale jerseys team at Fordham University. He tried his hand at law school, taught high school and coached high school football before putting all energy toward professional football.

Paul cheap jerseys has thumbed through many of the books nfl store written about Lombardi.

Ive always wanted to play football. Thats all I want to do, he said. I feel I should carry on the tradition.

And his mother, Susan Bickham, has handed down Lombardi tales over the years, intensifying her sons passion for the game.

My father believed in discipline to the height. We had 10 rules to follow, she said, adding she doesnt remember the specific rules. We followed Lombardi time.

Everyone thinks of him as a tough, go getter, rugged type of guy, but he was gentle a real family man, she said. He just had a goal he went for and nothing stopped him.

She recalls countless weekends of out of town games and a very intense childhood. He insisted that I go to the (Packer) games. It was our time together, she said.

The Bickham household is not so intense. Still, Lombardis daughter always wears a 1966 Green Bay Packers medallion around her neck, a constant reminder of her father. She believes in discipline and demands respect from her children.

She also enjoys a quiet lifestyle.

Not many people know were here, she said. I like to keep it very low key.

Paul wonders what it would have been like to play football for Lombardi.

I wish he was here; I know he could help (to improve his football abilities).

After all, Paul first tried the game because his grandfather was a famous coach.

I expected myself to play, Paul said. He was a coach and I could at least try.

But I dont want to go out there because Im wholesale nba jerseys Vince Lombardis grandson, Paul said. I just want to be the best at whatever I do.

Paul lives in Plantation with his mother and two sisters, Marie and Margaret Ann, in a house dominated by mementos of Lombardi. There, newspaper clippings and other Lombardi paraphernalia are tucked away in boxes in a locked room, built especially for the priceless items. Portraits of Lombardi and his championship football teams fill an entire wall in the family television room.

My children look at him as a legend, Pauls mother said.

From a distance, the blond and blue eyed Paul does not resemble Lombardi, who had dark hair, dark skin and deep brown eyes.

But of her three children, his mother said Paul is most like Lombardi. Aside from his drive, his short temper and tendency to scream resemble his grandfather, she said.

Vince Lombardi was a great motivator and Paul Bickham is very motivated, said St. Gregorys Athletic Director and St. Thomas Aquinas junior varsity assistant football coach Mike Higgins. When Paul sets his mind to do something, he usually gets the job done.