Dave Robinson is a former Green Bay Packer who won three NFL titles including the first two Super Bowls. He was drafted three times out of Penn State in 1963 — the Packers (NFL) spent a first-round pick on him; the Chargers (AFL) took him in the third round; and the Montreal Alouettes (CFL) also tried to get him to play north of the border. Robinson was named to three Pro Bowls: 1966, 1967, and 1969. He was also selected for one of the linebacker spots on the NFL’s all-decade team for the 1960s. He finished his career with 27 interceptions for return yardage totaling 449, one touchdown and 12 fumble recoveries. Robinson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013. He is one of the last two living players from the Vincent Lombardi Era in Green Bay. 

What would you say is your proudest achievement?

Getting into the Hall of Fame in 2013, that was probably the biggest thing in my life. The only drawback though, was the fact that I didn’t get to see it through with my wife. I just think she was more of a Hall of Fame wife than I was a Hall of Fame player. I would have liked to have her there. She was the first African American wife to come to Green Bay. Nobody else bought their wives. She was determined to come. She came to Green Bay and helped make changes. 

My play in the ‘66 championship game, which led to us to going to Super Bowl I and winning it, establishing the fact that the NFL was dominant league and showcasing Vince Lombardi, which we knew all along, as one of the greatest football coaches ever, placing his name on the trophy. That was a big one for me. Big plays, big years. 

(In) ‘65 I had an inception; we had to beat the Baltimore Colts to win our division. There were only two divisions, Eastern and Western Division. There are all these divisions now. We were in the same division with Baltimore, the Western Division. We had to win the game and wrap up the Western Division, and all the things that go along with it. I had an 87-yard interception that kind of wrote the game as over. Two minutes to go in the first half, we had a score of 14-13. Baltimore was driving. They were down on our three-yard line. I took the football and ran it all the way to the back all the way to the 10. Then the next play, Bart Starr threw a pass for the touchdown. We went into halftime up 21-13. The game was really over; we just won.

Every year you have big plays, that’s the thing. It’s hard to say my proudest accomplishment on the field. That’s thing about playing for so long. So many big plays in 12 years. Anything that has to do with winning a championship, always has big plays. 

One of the most memorable things in my life, my rookie year, once of the first games I played live, we were playing the Cleveland Browns. I was set against Jim Brown. The play begins and I tackle Jim Brown. That was quite a lot as a rookie. I was worried if I was going to make the team or not. I told my wife after the game. She didn’t know much about football and didn’t understand the importance of tackling Jim Brown. I said, ‘Listen, there are some people in the league who can tackle Jim Brown and some who can’t. I just tackled Jim Brown. I can take that film clip and send it to every team in the league if the Packers cut me. Somebody will pick me up.’ That was a really big thing in my career as a rookie. 

Anything in football can be a big play. It is a super fantastic game. The whole world is watching and you want to be on your best. In the ‘66 championship game, I force Don Meredith to throw a weak pass, sealing our victory. I improvised that play. It was the exact wrong thing to do on paper. Vince came up to me after the game and said, ‘That was a great play Robbie, but you played it the wrong way. Minus two points.’ In our grading system, you could get anywhere between a plus two or minus two for play. It was the last game of the season so I have no idea what he gave me for real, but he was happy and I was happy. We went to the Super Bowl and won, everything worked out.”

At the Monroe Theatre Guild’s Tailgate, both you and your co-author mentioned Vince Lombardi made everyone strive for their best and make little to mistakes. This was especially true for you both on and off the field. How was carrying the pressure of that notion of needing perfection?

Vince used to say, ‘You’re a football player from one o’clock Sunday but your football face and a Green Bay Packer 24/7’. Anything you do off the field, you don’t do it by yourself. You are a Green Bay Packer. If you do some bizarre thing, people don’t say ‘Dave Robinson robbed a bank’. They say, ‘A Green Bay Packer, Dave Robinson robbed a bank’. You carry a medal with you and you should carry it proudly. Do you best to up hold the rules and represent the Green Bay Packers every day.

As an NFL player, there’s a lot of analyzing of what you do and interpreting of why you did it in real time as well as later by a multitude of people in in news casts or books. In a theatrical play, you watch someone else pretend to be you. What was it like to have a play based on you?

“Everything in the play was true. It was all rolled into one year, but that’s not it did not happen that way. 

[Editor’s clarification: The play takes four years of Robinson and Lombardi’s time together in Green Bay and condensed it into one season]

The played defined me, and I just I just thought that was phenomenal just to have it. It’s a funny feeling certainly to look at somebody playing you, remembering how it was versus how someone else imagines it. I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, I left my meds home and had to go before seeing the Monroe Theatre Guild’s play. If it comes back again to Monroe, I would love to see it. I really enjoyed the town and the people.”

The game has changed in a lot of different ways between new rules and new technology. How do you feel about the current state of the game?

I’m old school I like the way it was like that. I like it down the ground. We had to play six preseason games, and a preseason game was a game not just an exhibition. We would start the game and play it through just like a regular season game. In fact, Vince always used to say, ‘Losing just like winning becomes a habit’. So during the preseason, you’ve had to win everything and get into that winning habit going into the game. Especially the last game or the preseason, that was the game Vince really expected us to play a lot and play well. This is what you don’t see today. Guys don’t play this time. I think it’s impertinent when it comes time to start the season. 

When you start rating quarterback, you need to understand that Bart Starr, when he lined up, he had to remember every play, look down the scrimmage, realize the players in the game on both sides, analyze the situation and then call the play. Vince started Bart’s rookie year. At the end of his nine years, Vince said he doubted if Bart Starr ever had as many as five plays sent in from the bench. He called every other play. That’s how he was. Now today a quarterback, he doesn’t have to worry about the down and the situation. All he has to do is wait for someone to call the play. Players can look at their wristbands so they know what play to do. So, it’s really hard to compare. Bart Starr was almost unbelievable. In seven years, he won five world championships. He’s calling all of his own plays. The first championship he won was against the Giants, the dreaded Giants. He beat them 37-0, a decisive victory. He only completed nine passes, which people think is very unusual. But you have to realized, he only threw twelve passes, completing 75% of all the passes. When great quarterbacks like Montana, Aaron Rodgers, or Brett Favre talk, the first thing they bring up is how many passes they threw or how many yards per game. Bart Starr didn’t do that; he didn’t have to. That’s just the way it was. 

I kind of think that the game lost something when they started changing rules. Some rules should have been changed, like the injury rule. When we got hurt, we had to get off the field the best we could. Otherwise, it was a timeout charged for our offense. For obvious reasons, they change that rule now. They have an injury timeout and that’s what it should be. A lot of the rules though I’d like to throw back out.

A lot of your identity is tied to football. What do you like to do outside of football, now that you’re retired?

After football, I was a beer distributor wholesaler, and I was working hard and a lot of work. Now that I’m retired, I don’t have a lot of free time. I don’t know how I found time to work during the day; I keep very busy. I can’t put my finger on it and say ‘Here’s what I do’. I do so many things. I thought I was gonna do a lot of travel, but then in 2007 my wife died. She was the one who liked to travel. She’d love to travel and go to different places. Without her, it’s no fun. I went on a cruise two or three years ago, by myself. I’m 80 years old. I didn’t go cruising for women. It was boring. Without my wife, it was boring. 

Anyway, I get along. I have fun and enjoy life. I’m 80 years old with no major injuries. Somebody once said, ‘It must be tough getting old’. You know it was easy for me. It is trying to get older, that’s the stuff. I really just enjoy every day.

What would you say to upcoming boys who would like to follow in your footsteps and join the NFL?

I would say to a young boy, to like a 12 and 13 years old: Number one, study, study, study. Get good grades in school, because what makes you successful football, even at high school and college, and improve your ball. How well you stick and stay to the playbook and interpret the plays. Teams will analyze plays together, but I knew before what those X’s and O’s meant on the board and how to be ready for a new one. Other teams know your plays so you have to be able to analyze it in the moment and make quick adjustments. It comes down to the fact that you study the plays, study what’s going on. Study, study, study. Start studying your grades, your things in school, getting ready for your math and everything else. You get study habits and in a habit of studying. Therefore, it’s much easier when you have to study football plays. 

My rookie year, after every practice, we read. The rookie stayed on the second floor of the Sensenbrenner Hall, and the veterans on the first floor. Every day after curfew, I would sneak downstairs with Bill Foster and he would tell me how the plays worked. Anybody can look at the X’s and O’s and tell who goes where. But why do you go there? That’s what he taught me. The theory and philosophy of the defense was invaluable to me. 

Then I go back to our room. Before I’d go to sleep, I was studying to make sure I understood that day. Studying, the ability to study, is something you just have to have. This is a game where you have to study everything.

I would also say you need to listen to the coaches, listen to what they say and then do what they say. Work hard, keep yourself in shape, and always be prepared. When I came into League, I felt that I was capable being able to play three positions. All because I studied and kept myself in good shape. I felt I had a chance to make team. If I didn’t make it one position, I’d make it in one of the other two. It’s a lot of work. The big thing is, if you ever find yourself to the point where you don’t enjoy it, quit and do something else. You got to enjoy it. I enjoyed it. Even when somebody hit me in the mouth and it was bleeding. I’d spit the blood. Hey, I still enjoyed it. I never got mad at the game. I love it. 

If you want to be a good football player, you’ve got to get used to the taste of blood. Half the time is your blood.