Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi is two wins away from hoisting the Lombardi trophy for the second time in his coaching career. This trophy is named after former NFL head coach Vince Lombardi, who was a five-time NFL champion during his legendary career (including winning the first two Super Bowls).
Are Joe and Vince related? Yes, Joe is Vince’s grandson, but he never met his grandfather. However, he’s spent his entire coaching career walking in Vince’s shadow. As the Broncos offensive coordinator prepares for the AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots, he carries the most famous surname in professional football history while deliberately forging an identity of his own.
Breaking Down Joe Lombardi and Vince Lombardi’s Family Ties
While Joe is Vince’s grandson, he was born on June 6, 1971, nine months after Vince died of cancer at age 57. The Super Bowl trophy was renamed in Vince’s honor just months before Joe entered the world.
Joe’s father is Vince Lombardi Jr., who wanted to follow his father into coaching. That path was blocked by the legend himself. When Vince Jr. told his father he planned to major in physical education and become a coach, the elder Lombardi refused to pay for his education if he pursued that career. Coaching in that era lacked the financial security it has now, and Vince had other ambitions for his son.
Vince Jr. never coached. He became a lawyer, later worked as an assistant to the general manager of the expansion Seattle Seahawks in 1975, and spent time doing labor relations work for the NFL Management Council. Joe grew up in Seattle with a replica Lombardi Trophy in the family room and NFL Films documentaries as a window into his grandfather’s world.
The youngest of four siblings, Joe attended Seattle Prep before heading to the Air Force Academy, where he played tight end under coach Fisher DeBerry. He lettered three seasons and started as a senior. After graduating in 1994, he served four years on active duty as a program manager on the F-22 program at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. During those final two years in uniform, he volunteered as a coach at the University of Dayton, and his professional path became clear.
When Joe told his father he wanted to coach, Vince Jr. offered measured advice rather than outright opposition.
“If you absolutely can’t live without coaching, do it,” Vince Jr. told him. “But if you can live without it, pick something else because there are easier ways to make it in this world than coaching.”
Joe couldn’t live without it.
Joe Lombardi Isn’t Trying to Be Vince Lombardi
Joe’s coaching career began in the shadows, but he eventually realized trying to inhabit his grandfather’s persona was a dead end.
“I thought that, as a coach and as a Lombardi, I had to have the force of his personality,” Joe said during Super Bowl XLIV week in 2010. “But I eventually realized that wasn’t me.”
That revelation shaped everything that followed. Drew Brees, who worked with Joe during his years as the New Orleans Saints’ quarterbacks coach, described him as “very thorough, very intense, and very detail-oriented.”
Those qualities echo his grandfather’s obsession with fundamentals, but the delivery differs entirely. Where Vince was legendary for his volcanic temper, Joe operates with a cooler disposition.
“He almost feels more like a legend to me than a relative,” Joe told the Dayton Daily News about his grandfather.
Joe has now been a coach for 30 years, including 20 years in the NFL, and his coaching career reflects someone comfortable in his own skin. He spent 12 seasons in New Orleans across two stints under Sean Payton, where he won a Super Bowl. He served as offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions from 2014-2015 and the Los Angeles Chargers from 2021-2022 before reuniting with Payton in Denver. The Broncos hired him as offensive coordinator on Feb. 25, 2023.
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He lives by his grandfather’s credo of “faith, family, and football,” though Joe emphasizes the order matters: faith first, then family, then the game.
“I never had a chance to really meet my grandfather, but the things he has passed on about our Catholic faith lives on with me today,” Joe has said.
Joe and his wife Molly have seven children. When reporters asked about his grandfather during Broncos-Packers week, Joe offered perspective rather than reverence.
“I don’t think I’ve ever tried to live up to him,’’ Joe told 9News. “It would be tough to win five NFL championships, so it’s never something that I’ve really concerned myself with. I think a lot of time has passed, so I mean, people are obviously aware of it, but it’s not as big a deal as if he was coaching 10 years ago. So look, it’s a nice legacy, but not something I think about a whole lot.”
The Broncos enter the AFC Championship Game with a 14-3 record, having beaten the Buffalo Bills 33-30 in overtime in the Divisional Round. Quarterback Bo Nix suffered a season-ending ankle injury in that game, meaning Jarrett Stidham will start against the Patriots.
If Denver wins and advances to Super Bowl LX, Joe would be one game away from hoisting the trophy that bears his family name for a second time. He first touched it after the Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.
Joe has spent his life building something separate from that legacy while honoring its core principles. He may never match five championships, but the Lombardi name remains on an NFL sideline, carried by someone who stopped trying to be a legend and decided to be himself.
