Jack Lambert, Drinking and Reading Alone, Still Captained One of Greatest Teams Ever

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When I think about Jack Lambert, I picture a crazy looking guy with no front teeth, stringy unkempt hair flying out of his Pittsburgh Steelers helmet, and him throttling ball carriers and quarterbacks with malice.

What I didn’t know until I read a well-researched sports leadership book,The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World’s Greatest Teams by Sam Walker, was that Jack would drink by himself on team road trips and go back to his hotel room and read novels. Wouldn’t hang up much with his teammates.

Why does any of this matter now considering he played for the Steelers in the 1970s and no one thinks about Lambert much these days? Because he was the captain of that Steelers team that won four Super Bowls, a dynasty that qualified as one of the 16 “Tier Ones” in the book – the most outstanding teams in the history of sports.

The author went to great lengths to figure out what is the key ingredient that made these teams spectacular. Lambert’s aloofness and anti-social behavior and reticence to give his teammates “rah rah” speeches were among his traits and several of these captains, the author concluded. His conclusion is that more than any other factor, these captains were the key reason for the success of these teams regardless of how tempestuous or mild-mannered or ordinary they were.

He wrote that “Lambert was openly contemptuous of reporters and didn’t like being the center of attention. Lambert could be hard on his teammates, barking at them if they lined up wrong or showed a lazy attitude. He drank alone at the hotel bar on road trips, reading novels in his room, or sitting by himself at the end of the bench.”

Not the most amiable guy on the team nor on the field. Not really all that nice. A scary Halloween character. A loner of sorts. Yet the captain of the Steelers.

Then there was the mysterious personality of Bill Russell, the captain of the Boston Celtics when that team won a gaggle of NBA titles. In an era when most teams passed the ball often to their centers, which was Russell’s position, didn’t score a lot and didn’t need the ball. He focused on blocking shots and playing defense. Off the court he was chilly and abrasive.

“None of this suggested that Russell was a great leader at all, much less the winningest captain in the history of professional basketball,” the author writes

These captains, the author points out, had all sorts of quirky personalities and yet were the driving forces on these teams.

“Conventional wisdom tells us that the right words, delivered in the perfect moment, are the key to motivation. The captains in Tier One didn’t simply fail to prove this idea – they suggested that it’s patently false. They did not give speeches. They were often lousy interviews, too, or were considered to be quiet or inarticulate. They led without fanfare…The secret to effective team communication isn’t grandiosity. It’s a stream of chatter that is practical, physical, and consistent.”

The big and most controversial surprises in the book are a few of the teams who didn’t make the final list of 16 Tier Ones: the Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan and Joe Montana’s San Francisco 49ers among others. The author explains in detail why these big winners didn’t quite make the final Tier Ones that are tedious to read about, somewhat arbitrary, and not worth quibbling about here.

What is striking, however, is the author’s assessment of Michael Jordan who early in his career became the captain of the Bulls but was never able to win the NBA Title until the year coach Phil Jackson named his teammate Bill Cartwright a co-captain. Jordan was caught up in his fame and superstardom, the author points out, which was unlike the other captains on the Tier One championship squads.

“The first thing that made Jordan stand out from the captains in Tier One was his enthusiasm for celebrity…the second difference was the way he played basketball. Jordan rarely labored in the service of his team. The notion that he was an elite leader is not only wrong, it does a disservice to the institution of captaincy..the best leaders in sports history were not mesmerizing characters. They didn’t always make for great television.”

Yet the Bulls couldn’t win the title until Cartwright became co-captain. “He carried the water, put in the work and provided the practical communication.”

This type of non-obvious insight is what much of this book is about: the idea that captains of great teams are rarely into being the center of attention and often aren’t the most talented players. It’s almost as if they fell into their captain roles without campaigning for them and went about their special jobs in their idiosyncratic ways that somehow worked extremely well and yet it’s hard to get a handle on why this happened.

“The captains in Tier One, as a whole, did not convey the idea that they were born to lead. They didn’t have extreme talents that were readily apparent to everyone. Beyond the way they led, they had little in common.”

The way they led, in most cases, was by example, staying in the background, speaking up once in a while, and just being a solid teammate. “I never played for the fans,” the author quotes Russell saying. “I played for myself and my team.”

The author elaborates on the curious characteristics of these captains and many others on the Tier One teams.

“Great leaders do not need to be glamorous. They only need a knowledge of what a successful effort looks like and a plan to get there. They do not need to remind people how great they are. If anything, they should give the impression that they don’t believe they’re worthy of leading at all.”

This takeaway reminds me of a business book I read called Good to Great that explored the traits and habits of the most successful businesses in America. The leaders of those companies tended to be low-key, disciplined individuals who held a few core and unbendable beliefs and values. They didn’t seek the spotlight or credit and spent lots of time in their offices rather than out and about. They just worked and led by what they did and felt convictions about and weren’t much concerned with what they said.

The lesson here seems to be that seeking attention and power in an organization doesn’t lead to splendid success. Charismatic people aren’t the ones who usually get the best results. It’s the people who blend in and don’t think of themselves as any better than the others that are most respected and effective at inspiring teammates and coworkers. We tend to think the person out there giving speeches and press interviews is effective. Both of these books conclude otherwise.

When I started reading this sports book I figured the author would conclude the common threads of the Tier Ones were outstanding coaches. But that’s not what he concluded. Yet it wasn’t a surprise the author quoted one of the greatest coaches ever, Vince Lombardi, who led the Green Bay Packers to several NFL titles (yet his teams also didn’t make the list of 16).

“It is essential to understand that battles are primarily won in the hearts of men. Men respond to leadership most remarkably and once you have won his heart, he will follow you anywhere. Leadership is based on a spiritual quality – the power to inspire the power to inspire others to follow. Coaches who can outline plays on a blackboard are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their players and motivate.”

Captains of these greatest teams, in most cases, were depicted as motivators of their teammates in often subtle and yet more impactful ways than the captains of many other less successful teams. In whatever way they behaved, as differently as they approached their roles, they did something important for their teams in most cases. More so than the coaches or owners. World-class leadership, it turns out, is an elusive thing. You can’t describe it in any kind of hard and fast formula. It depends on many variables. It’s like trying to describe why you like a piece of art. You just do. It’s how you feel. And it’s difficult to put into words. And it’s the most unfulfilling part of the book. You want the formula to be a great captain, and yet there are too many variables. These 16 captains were different and yet led effectively, and it’s hard to really understand why.

But it’s there. Even when Jack Lambert was reading novels by himself and drinking alone. His teammates followed him for reasons we will never really know for sure.

“The first thing the sixteen teams in Tier One teach us is that leadership matters. It’s not that having a captain of a certain kind was a bonus – it was the only common denominator, and getting people to follow them.”

For deeper understanding and edification, I’ll share below the author’s list of the seven traits of elite captains and then the names of the 16 Tier One teams. It struck me that the New Zealand rugby team made this esteemed list for two spectacular runs of dominance. Those guys must be fantastic at rugby.

Seven Traits Of Elite Captains

One: Extreme doggedness and focus in competition

Two: Aggressive play that tests the limits of the rules

Three: A willingness to do thankless jobs in the shadows

Four: A low-key, practical, and democratic communications style

Four: Motivates others with passionate non-verbal displays

Five: Strong convictions

Six: Courage to stand apart

Seven: Ironclad emotional control

The 16 Tier Ones – World’s Greatest Teams Ever

The Collingwood Magpies, Australian Rules Football (1927-30

New York Yankees, Baseball (1949-53)