"Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result"
About this Quote
Merit, in Lombardi's world, is a cold-blooded scoreboard. "Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not" reads almost generous at first: an admission of human variance, of effort that may fall short. Then he snaps the leash. None of that nuance will matter. "We will be judged by only one thing-the result" turns the locker room into a tribunal where intentions don't testify and excuses don't get sworn in.
The intent is managerial as much as motivational: Lombardi isn't merely pumping adrenaline, he's setting the terms of belonging. Results are the currency that buys credibility, playing time, and respect. By flattening performance into outcome, he creates a culture where every practice rep is morally charged, because the only acceptable story is the final score. It's harsh, but it's also clarifying; ambiguity is the enemy of coordinated effort.
The subtext is the coach's wager on accountability. He knows you can't directly control "doing your job well" across an entire roster, with egos, injuries, weather, bad calls. You can control standards and attention. So he makes the result a shared fate: individual lapses become collective consequences, and collective success becomes collective discipline.
Context matters: Lombardi coached in an era when football was becoming a televised proxy for American industry - teamwork, hierarchy, execution. His line fits that postwar ethic perfectly: the romance of grit stripped down to a simple, brutal KPI. It also explains why his legacy still provokes: the quote is both a rallying cry and a warning label for outcome-obsessed culture.
The intent is managerial as much as motivational: Lombardi isn't merely pumping adrenaline, he's setting the terms of belonging. Results are the currency that buys credibility, playing time, and respect. By flattening performance into outcome, he creates a culture where every practice rep is morally charged, because the only acceptable story is the final score. It's harsh, but it's also clarifying; ambiguity is the enemy of coordinated effort.
The subtext is the coach's wager on accountability. He knows you can't directly control "doing your job well" across an entire roster, with egos, injuries, weather, bad calls. You can control standards and attention. So he makes the result a shared fate: individual lapses become collective consequences, and collective success becomes collective discipline.
Context matters: Lombardi coached in an era when football was becoming a televised proxy for American industry - teamwork, hierarchy, execution. His line fits that postwar ethic perfectly: the romance of grit stripped down to a simple, brutal KPI. It also explains why his legacy still provokes: the quote is both a rallying cry and a warning label for outcome-obsessed culture.
Quote Details
| Topic | Work Ethic |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
More Quotes by Vince
Add to List






