Football is a game driven by its past. Each generation of players is compared to the previous.

In the minds of many fans of pro football, the genesis of the NFL began with a man named Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers. One of the main cogs in the great machine that Lombardi built was an offensive guard from the University of Idaho by the name of Gerald Louis “Jerry” Kramer.

The man without whom the fabled Packer Sweep might not have worked tallied up an amazing slew of honors and awards over the course of his 11 seasons in the NFL.

He was named to three Pro Bowls and was a five-time All-Pro first team member, an NFL 50th Anniversary Team selection and a 1960s All-Decade Team pick. He was also a starter on five NFL championship teams, and, of course the first two Super Bowls.

Kramer is consistently regarded as one of the most deserving players not currently enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His decades in and around football, including the days of the dawn of the modern era, have given him a wealth of stories and memories.

I was fortunate enough to catch up with him recently by phone from his home at his ranch in Idaho. In our conversation, Kramer discussed at length his beginnings in the game, how fun it was in Green Bay before Lombardi arrived, and just what the man who would become synonymous with winning meant to him.

EM: First things first, when did you first start playing football? What made you want to play back then?

JK: I started in the fourth grade. I was the new kid in town, we’d moved from Salt Lake City up to Sandpoint [in Idaho]. A group of kids invited me out to play football with them and I had never played before. I thought that sounded like fun. They gave me the ball and told me to carry it and then they jumped all over me. They bloodied my nose and just wailed on me. A teacher came by and took me inside to clean me up. She told me maybe I shouldn’t play that game anymore and I told her no. I want to play football.

I think I wanted to play, because football, there was just something about it that I responded to at that young age. I knew I wanted to be a part of something. I wanted to be a little different than the average kid and that really propelled me the rest of my life.

EM: What was it about being an offensive lineman that particularly suited you? I think it takes a special temperament or mentality to play on the o-line. You clearly had it. So what about it appealed to you?

JK: Well, honestly, I think it was that I got pretty good at it. I played first string as a sophomore in high school. I was able to do the things they wanted me to do. It was at that time that my coach had put me on the offensive line. I went to have a talk to him because I didn’t want to play there [on the offensive line], I wanted to play fullback.

The coach informed me that if I wanted to be a back, I would probably have to sit on the bench, but if I wanted to play tackle, I could start right away. Well, I didn’t want to sit, so it made sense to me. At that point, becoming a starter and a real part of the team was what I wanted to do.

EM: What was it like playing at the University of Idaho back then? What are some of your favorite memories from playing in college?

JK: It was fun. We didn’t do a lot of winning back then, but we had some really talented guys on the team. Wayne Walker [future All-Pro linebacker for the Detroit Lions] was a classmate of mine. We had a couple of other guys who played pro football. We had like six or seven guys who played at the next level. My college career was fun.

We almost beat Oregon State the one year they played in the Rose Bowl. I kicked a field goal that put us up late in the game before they went on to beat us. I also got to play in the East-West Shrine Game down in Mobile, Ala., and in the College All-Star Game. We just had a bunch of great guys. Most of our highlights were near misses. Our great moments were “almosts.” We were .500 one year because we had a tie and that was the best record they had in 28 years. It was still fun.

EM: So, you got drafted by the Packers in 1958, the year before Lombardi got there. What was the team like then before he was the head coach?

JK: It was nice, really. There wasn’t much emphasis on conditioning. We had no tradition of winning so there wasn’t much of an emphasis on that. But, we were professional football and were getting paid money to play football. It was pretty [dang] nice. I got to play poker with the boys. There was no pressure on us. It was pretty soft. There was no belief that there was any philosophy to winning. It was always that the other team got a lucky fumble or a lucky pass. There wasn’t a formula you could use to excel. It was all just how the ball bounced.

EM: I would imagine that it was a complete 180-degree turn when Coach Lombardi got there, right? How did you all take to him at first?

JK: It was a 100-percent different. The first meeting on the first night, our first awareness of him of any kind, he says to us, “I’ve never been a loser and I’m not about to start now. I’m willing to make the sacrifice, to pay the price to put the team first. There are three things that are important to your life: Your God, your family, and the Green Bay Packers.” He said if we weren’t ready to do the same, then we could get the Hell out right then and there. We looked at one another and we didn’t think he was serious. He told us we were going to work harder than we ever had in our lives. We didn’t believe that either. Our first scrimmage, we had guys passing out on the sidelines, sometimes during calisthenics. We resented him, but he was the fire that was burning us together as a team. We were in this together, against him.

EM: What was your relationship ultimately like with him? Did you consider him a friend or a mentor?

JK: Well, let me explain it this way. We had an incident one day during a scrimmage. I missed a block. So I came in to get some “attention.” About four plays later, I jump offsides. He runs across the field at me, gets in my face and says “Mister, the concentration of a college student is five minutes, a high school student is three minutes and a kindergartner is 30 seconds. And you don’t have that? So where does that put you? “

Well, it put me with my head down. I went to the locker room, shucked off my equipment and started staring at the floor. I was there about 45 minutes and he came in. I was wondering if I should just get out of football since I couldn’t play how he wanted. Maybe I should do something else. Well, he comes up and messes up my hair and slaps me on the back of my neck and said “Son, one of these days you’re going to be the best guard in football.” That meant a lot to me, because it gave me permission to think about greatness and not be arrogant. He’s the one who mentioned it, not me. He lit my fire. That changed my life and it changed our relationship. He became more of a “co-conspirator” than a coach. We had things just between us. I developed ultimately a love for him.

EM: That’s amazing. You never really think of Coach Lombardi in those terms. Last thing for you, what would be the one thing from football that it gave you or taught you that you still use now even at 80 years old?

JK: I’d quote you a little something from Lombardi. “All the rings, all the color, all the trophies, all the money, all the display [they] linger only in the memory for a short time and then they’re gone. But, the will to win, the will to excel, these are the things that endure and these are the things that are far more important than any of the events or occasions. So, develop in you the will to win and the will to excel.”

SEE ALSO: Bruce Arians: A coaching career definded by chances

Eric Moreno is a freelance writer based in San Antonio, Texas. He is a graduate of the University of Texas-San Antonio and a lifetime season ticket holder for UTSA Roadrunner football. In his free time, when not attending games, is an avid reader and traveler. Follow him on Twitter at@EricMoreno6477.