From Wikipedia
Vince Lombardi Trophy
Awarded for the winner of the Super Bowl
Presented by National Football League
Country United States
Location Super Bowl (rotates cities)
First awarded 1967
Currently held by Pittsburgh Steelers
Official Website SuperBowl.com
The Vince Lombardi Trophy is the trophy awarded each year to the winning team of the National Football League's championship game, the Super Bowl. The trophy has been awarded since 1967, when the Super Bowl was originally named the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The trophy was renamed in 1970 in memory of legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi after his sudden death from cancer to commemorate his victories in the first two Super Bowls.
The trophy, created by Tiffany & Co. is valued at $25,000,[1] and depicts a regulation-size football in kicking position that is made entirely of sterling silver, standing 22 inches (56 cm) tall, weighing 7 pounds (3.2 kg), it takes approximately four months and 72 man-hours to create. The words "Vince Lombardi Trophy" are engraved and the NFL shield is affixed in a separate item onto the base. After the trophy is awarded, it is sent back to Tiffany's to be engraved with the winning team's name, the date and final score of the Super Bowl, and then is sent back to the winning team for them to keep. For the first four games, both the NFL and the AFL logos were in the center of the trophy. Starting from Super Bowl V through XLII, the NFL shield with more than 20 stars has been on the forefront. As of Super Bowl XLIII a newer, modernized NFL shield (with eight stars and a rotated football designed akin to that atop the trophy) replaced the older logo. Otherwise, the trophy has had no significant changes made since the first Super Bowl.
Since Super Bowl XXX, it is presented to the winning team's owner on the field following the game. Previously, it was presented inside the winning team's locker room. The team is allowed to keep the trophy at their own facility, with one notable exception being the trophy that the then-Baltimore Colts won in Super Bowl V. The city of Baltimore, Maryland retained the trophy the team had from that Super Bowl as part of the legal settlement between the team and the city after the Colts' infamous "Midnight Mayflower" move to Indianapolis, Indiana on March 29, 1984. Since then, both the Colts and the Baltimore Ravens have won the Super Bowl and earned trophies in their own right.
The Pittsburgh Steelers hold the most Vince Lombardi Trophies, with six. The San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys are tied with five Vince Lombardi Trophies apiece. The New York Giants, New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers, Oakland Raiders, and Washington Redskins are all tied for fourth with three apiece.
Lombardi trophy curse
From Wikipedia
Limitation on the Lombardi Trophy
"No team nor individual head coach shall ever hold high the Vince Lombardi Trophy as NFL world champions more than 2 consecutive seasons, corresponding to the longest streak achieved by Coach Lombardi himself."
This 'good' curse, originally theorized by noted NFL luminary Mr. Aslam Rawoof, is currently 37 years in effect, is unbroken, and applies only to consecutive NFL championship streaks, NOT a sum total of championships.
Among his many accomplishments, Vince Lombardi guided the Packers to three straight NFL championships (1965-67) to finish out his superlative career as head coach in Green Bay. However, due to the preliminary AFL-NFL merger occurring long after the conclusion of the 1965 season, only the last two of those three campaigns actually resulted in a World Championship. Because the AFL was a competing professional football league at the time, it was only by way of this merger agreement that Lombardi & his NFL-champ Packers were permitted to face the AFL's champs in '66 and '67, and legitimately lay claim to world championships after beating them. This annual tradition to crown the world champions of football has come to be known famously as the Super Bowl.
So while the Packers of 1966 and 1967 soundly defeated the AFL's Chiefs and Raiders to become World Champions, the 1965 NFL champion Packers were unfortunately deprived of the chance to face their AFL counterpart that year, the Buffalo Bills, to also have their shot at a world title. What is particularly irksome to both Packers' fans and Lombardi's admirers is the nearly unanimous opinion among experts of 1960's-era pro football that the 1965 Packers would have easily conquered the 1965 Bills, had the game taken place. After the 1967 season, Coach Lombardi stepped down as head coach of the 'Pack'; the following year the Packers failed to make the playoffs under their new head coach.
Because the powers-that-be in the NFL and AFL couldn't get their act together just one year earlier, Coach Lombardi was shortchanged of a chance to lead his squad to the first of likely 3 straight world championships. Through no fault of his own, circumstances dictated that Lombardi settle for two world titles in his career, along with annoying conjecture from the football community about whether or not he and his team would have captured a third back in 1965. This best explains why Every Effort Towards Uninterrupted NFL Success Thereafter May Equal But May Not Surpass Lombardi's Standard Of 2 Consecutive World Titles.
The limitation curse became real when the NFL in 1970 officially renamed after Lombardi the trophy that is awarded yearly to the world champion Super Bowl winners, immediately following his death. Many, though, believe that the curse was unofficially in effect after Lombardi retired as coach from the Packers, so as to add two more years to its total duration. It should be mentioned that Coach Lombardi has never publicly made any remarks to indicate resentment over the merger and accompanying Super Bowl arriving one year late.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombardi_trophy_curse"
