Or his analogue Tom Williams, who was canned by Eli today for padding his résumé, just like Lombardi had. Lombardi didn't correct claims that he had gone to law school. Williams had said he was a Rhodes scholar finalist—he was not—and he had said he played on the 49ers practice squad—he had not.

Yale had a good reason to fire Williams. He was 16-14 in three years, and 0-3 against Harvard. When you're competing against the likes of Dartmouth and Princeton and Columbia (with a couple of Patriot League cupcakes to begin the season), barely above .500 stinks.

But to teach moderately intelligent brutes how to block, playing a game that considers hardscrabble backwoods types and pragmatic liars some of its heroes? Eh, one doesn't need a Rhodes scholarship for that.