Michael Lombardi (born June 19, 1959) is an American football executive and media analyst. Until 2016, he was an assistant to the coaching staff of the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

and is a former analyst for the

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NFL ...

and sportswriter at NFL.com. Lombardi also previously served as an NFL executive with the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

, and

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

. He hosts his own podcast "The GM Shuffle" formerly with

Adnan Virk Adnan Virk ( ur, ) (born July 29, 1978) is a Canadian sportscaster for MLB Network and DAZN who previously worked for ESPN, TSN, and WWE. He also produces and hosts the weekly podcast ''Cinephile with Adnan Virk'' show covering cinema news and in ...

now with Femi Abebefe, and co-hosts a Saturday morning sports betting program on

Sirius XM Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. It was formed by the 2008 merger of Sirius Sat ...

for

Vegas Stats & Information Network Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN) is an American sports betting radio network and streaming television channel. Founded in 2017 by the family of sportscaster Brent Musburger, VSIN broadcasts from their studios at the South Point Casino ...

along with a daily show on

called "The Lombardi Line".

Life and career

Early life

Lombardi grew up in

Ocean City, New Jersey Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the principal city of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Cape May County and is part of the Philadelphia- Wilmington- Camden, P ...

and played both baseball and football at

Valley Forge Military Academy Valley Forge Military Academy and College (VFMAC) is a private boarding school (grades 7–12) and military junior college in Wayne, Pennsylvania. It follows in the traditional military school format with army traditions. Though military in t ...

."Lombardi named VP of Player Personnel"
,

, January 18, 2013. Accessed May 18, 2013. "A native of Ocean City, New Jersey, Lombardi lettered in both football and baseball at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania." He attended Hofstra University from 1977–1981, where he played

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

and

long snapper In American football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a center on special teams whose duty is to snap the football over a longer distance, typically around 15 yards during punts, and 7–8 yards during field goals and extra point attempt ...

for the football team.

Early career

In 1981, Lombardi was hired as a recruiting coordinator at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas by Rebels' head coach

Harvey Hyde Harvey Leslie Hyde (born July 13, 1939) is an American sports journalist and former football coach. He served as the head football coach at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) from 1982 to 1985. Early career Hyde was born in Pasadena, Cal ...

National Football League

Lombardi began his NFL career in 1984 as an area scout under Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers, where he stayed until 1987. He is credited for the initial discovery and scouting of Hall of Famer

Charles Haley Charles Lewis Haley (born January 6, 1964) is a former American football outside linebacker and defensive end who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers (1986–1991, 1999) and the Dallas Cowboys (1992–1996). ...

, who was drafted by San Francisco 49ers in

1986 NFL Draft The 1986 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 29–30, 1986, at the Marriott Marq ...

. Lombardi joined the Cleveland Browns organization as Pro Personnel Director in 1987. Later, he became the Browns' Director of Player Personnel and worked under head coach

Bill Belichick William Stephen Belichick (; born April 16, 1952) is an American professional football coach who is the head coach of the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). Additionally, he exercises extensive authority over the Patri ...

managing drafts, negotiating contracts and acquiring free agents. In 1997,

President

Joe Banner Joe Banner (born February 13, 1953) is an American football executive who was the former president of the Philadelphia Eagles (2001–2012), former chief executive officer of the Cleveland Browns (2012–2013), and former front office consultant f ...

hired Lombardi as a consultant to assist with the

1997 NFL Draft The 1997 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 19–20, 1997, at the Paramount T ...

. Banner then named Lombardi Director of Pro Personnel of the Eagles in 1998. Later that same year,

Al Davis Allen Davis (July 4, 1929 – October 8, 2011) was an American football coach and executive. He was the principal owner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) for 39 years, from 1972 until his death in ...

hired Lombardi to serve as Senior Personnel Executive of the

, a position which he held until 2007. During his tenure with the Raiders, Oakland won three consecutive

AFC West The American Football Conference – Western Division or AFC West is one of the four divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The division comprises the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Las ...

titles and advanced to

Super Bowl XXXVII Super Bowl XXXVII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to decide the National Football League (NFL) cham ...

. In October 2012, sportswriter

Jason La Canfora Jason La Canfora (born April 14, 1974) is an American sportswriter, radio host, and television sports analyst. Career Television La Canfora joined NFL Network and NFL.com before the 2009 season and served as an NFL insider and reporter unti ...

reported that the Cleveland Browns were considering Lombardi for their vacancy at General Manager. He was hired for that position five months later. On February 11, 2014, the Browns replaced Lombardi with

Ray Farmer Harvey Ray Farmer (born July 1, 1974) is an American football executive and former linebacker who is a scouting consultant for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He is the former general manager of the Cleveland Brown ...

. In 2014 and 2015, Lombardi worked under

of the

as an assistant to the coaching staff. Speaking about Lombardi's time in New England, Belichick said, "Mike's...one of the smartest people I've worked with. He was huge asset to me for the two years he was here...he studies football and he knows it very well." Lombardi has worked as an administrator in the NFL for over 30 years and has worked for Bill Walsh,

and

. Sports and pop culture essayist

Chuck Klosterman Charles John Klosterman (; born 1972) is an American author and essayist whose work focuses on American popular culture. He has been a columnist for '' Esquire'' and ESPN.com and wrote "The Ethicist" column for ''The New York Times Magazine''. K ...

described Lombardi as, "a detail freak and a polymath, or at least a person successfully attempting to impersonate one" after spending time with him at the Cleveland Browns facility in the hours leading up to the

2013 NFL Draft The 2013 NFL Draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall in ...

. Lombardi has also been described as, "one of the most quiet but influential executives in the NFL." He has been credited as one of the first NFL executives to study the science of scouting players for

moral character Moral character or character (derived from charaktêr) is an analysis of an individual's steady moral qualities. The concept of ''character'' can express a variety of attributes, including the presence or lack of virtues such as empathy, coura ...

Broadcasting

As a broadcaster, Lombardi has worked for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

, the

and

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

. He began his career as a member of the media in 1996 when he spent part of that year as an NFL draft analyst for ESPN. He also spent portions of 1998 and 1999 as an editorial consultant and studio analyst for CBS Sports as on-air talent for the ''NFL Today'' pre-game show. In 2008, Lombardi joined

NFL Films NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentaries for and about the NFL, as well as ot ...

' ''

Inside the NFL ''Inside the NFL'' is an American weekly television sports show that focuses on the National Football League (NFL). It originally aired on HBO from 1977 through 2008. Following Super Bowl XLII, HBO announced that it would be dropping the program ...

'', a weekly

series where he provided analysis alongside host

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

and former NFL players

Cris Collinsworth Anthony Cris Collinsworth (born January 27, 1959) is an American sports broadcaster and former professional American football player. Collinsworth was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons (1981-1988), all with ...

Phil Simms Phillip Martin Simms (born November 3, 1955) is an American former football quarterback who spent his entire 15-year professional career playing for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He is currently a television sport ...

and

Warren Sapp Warren Carlos Sapp (born December 19, 1972) is an American former football defensive tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, primarily with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Sapp played college football at Miami, where h ...

. That same year, Lombardi began contributing to several

shows, including as an in-studio analyst and reporting live from individual games. Lombardi was hired by Fox Sports in September 2016. When he joined Fox, national networks president Jamie Horowitz said in a statement, "Michael is a thought-provoking and insightful football analyst with an impressive résumé. We feel like his blunt approach and original perspective makes the FS1 shows more interesting, and the fans of those shows more informed."

Digital media

In 2010, after working as on-air talent at the NFL Network for two years, Lombardi began writing columns for NFL.com, duties he performed until 2012. Lombardi has also contributed writing to ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' and the ''National Football Post'', the latter of which he founded and served as editor-in-chief for three years. In January 2017, Lombardi took a position with The Ringer where he hosted the "GM Street" podcast with Tate Frazier and also wrote articles on occasion for the website. He announced via Twitter in March 2019 that he had left The Ringer to work on his own podcast. He currently hosts The GM Shuffle podcast with Femi Abebefe and co-hosts a program for

. In September 2017, Mike Lombardi made headlines by criticizing Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson: "He might be less qualified to coach a team than anyone I’ve ever seen in my 30-plus years in the NFL." Pederson would lead the Eagles to their first Super Bowl championship later that season. In 2020, Lombardi became a co-host on ''Hammer Dahn'', a gambling podcast from Pat McAfee Inc.

Writing

Lombardi has written one book, ''Gridiron Genius: A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL'', published in September 2018.

Personal life

Lombardi is not related to

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

coaching legend

Vince Lombardi Vincent Thomas Lombardi (June 11, 1913 – September 3, 1970) was an American football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL). Lombardi is considered by many to be the greatest coach in football history, and he is recognized a ...

. He is an avid reader with an interest in

Robert Caro Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson. After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote ''The Power Br ...

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

. He and his wife, Millie, have two sons: Matt, who is the Assistant quarterbacks coach for the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

; and

Mick Mick is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Michael. Because of its popularity in Ireland, it is often used in England as a derogatory term for an Irish person or a person of Irish descent. In Australia the meaning broade ...

, who has been the offensive coordinator for the

Las Vegas Raiders The Las Vegas Raiders are a professional American football team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Raiders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West divis ...

since the

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

season.Ben Volin, Boston Globe Reporter
05-10-2019, accessed 05-10-2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lombardi, Michael 1959 births Living people People from Ocean City, New Jersey Sportspeople from Cape May County, New Jersey Players of American football from New Jersey Hofstra Pride football players Coaches of American football from New Jersey UNLV Rebels football coaches San Francisco 49ers scouts Cleveland Browns scouts Cleveland Browns executives Philadelphia Eagles executives Oakland Raiders executives National Football League general managers New England Patriots coaches American sportswriters National Football League announcers Arena football announcers