Curly Lambeau's final years as a HC, 1945-thru-'53

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Curly Lambeau's final years as a HC, 1945-thru-'53

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1944, the peak of the War's depleting effect on the NFL, would be Curly Lambeau's sixth, and final, World Championship as the Packers' HC. From there, it would be mediocre-or-worse finishes. The next three seasons he'd finish in 3rd at just-above-500. And then the bottom fell out at 3-9 and 2-10 to end the decade. It'd be the franchise's second and third losing seasons...EVER (never a 500 finish yet).

Amidst much turbulence between he and the organization the past few years, Lambeau would resign and start the new decade as HC and VP for the Chicago Cardinals. They finished 5-7 in 1950, respectable in splitting with their division and cross-town rivals, Giants & Bears respectively, but considering this was just two years removed from Conzelman - and Cards still posting a winning season the previous year - it had to still be viewed as a disappointment. And then came '51 with Curly resigning after a dismal 2-8 start.

Off to Washington the following year, as would be the case later on with another Packer Legend making his final stop there. A fifth-straight losing season overall for him in his first year there, but then in '53 led his team to a winning record at 6-5-1. It, of course, would be his final season due to a big fight between he and Marshall.

Could that final season be seen in the same light as Vince's final season in which he himself brought Washington to a winning record? Had he stayed on, does be produce a "last hurrah" of sorts? Thinking of that 8-4 finish in '55 under Kuharich (beating Cleveland in the opener), would Curly at helm have done even better? Or did the game long pass him by already, he simply mustering that winning campaign but that'd be as good as it'd get?

As a opined before, I think the Brady-vs-Peyton debate started to begin to end with that win over Seattle along with the other championships that'd follow. Well, the same with the Halas-vs-Lambeau debate which started to end more and more after the War with Halas's 1946 title (and consistently contending from there thru '63) further accelerating distance.

Thoughts?
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