JACK
LAMBERT
THE LAMBERT ALMOST NOBODY KNOWS
Everybody knows Jack Lambert the football player. The missing teeth. The stare. The intensity. But Lambert spent most of the last 40 years quietly living a very different life... husband, father, grandfather, outdoorsman, wildlife officer, youth coach and hockey fan.
Jack Lambert's Wife, Lisa
Lambert intentionally spent his entire NFL career as a bachelor. He said he always wanted a wife and family, but believed football demanded too much of him to do both well.
Then he met Lisa Harbison, a Pittsburgh-area native and accomplished Clemson volleyball player who earned first-team All-ACC honors in 1980 and 1981. Lambert first noticed Lisa at an Oakmont nightspot while she was sitting with an older man. He bought them both a drink... then learned the man was her father. Lambert later recalled quietly pumping his fist and saying, “Yesssss!”
Jack Lambert's Children and Grandchildren
Jack and Lisa raised four children: Lauren, Elizabeth, John and Ty. All four were involved in sports, but their parents emphasized academics and tried to keep athletics in perspective.
By 2023, Lambert said the family had grown to six grandchildren, with another expected the following January. The same country property where he raised his children had become a place for the grandchildren to fish and explore.
Lambert as a Father
Lambert made a point of being present for his children's lives. He coached his sons and often watched his daughters' basketball games through a window in the gym door so his presence wouldn't become the attraction.
Five-year-old Ty wasn't especially impressed that Dad had won four Super Bowls. He was impressed that Dad could drive a tractor. Ty would dress like his father in the morning and ask if they could go drive it together.
Lambert said he wanted to be there for every minute of his children's games and every minute of their lives. He summed it up by saying he could get more enjoyment from watching them for 11 seconds than he got from 11 years of pro football.
His Life in Worthington, Pennsylvania
Even before football ended, Lambert was preparing for a quieter life. During his playing days he bought 85 acres near Worthington, about 40 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, and began building what he called a hunting camp.
Lambert and friends did much of the work themselves, splitting old barnstones found on the property and building the home piece by piece. “I love to labor,” he said. The property eventually grew to 125 acres and became the place where Jack and Lisa raised their family.
Nearly four decades later, Lambert was still describing it as the place he wanted to be... woods around him, room to work, and places for his children and grandchildren to fish.
His Work as a Wildlife Officer
Lambert spent roughly 10 years as a deputy wildlife conservation officer in Pennsylvania. It was a natural fit for an avid hunter, fisherman and outdoorsman who had deliberately chosen rural life after football.
A 1996 profile found him quietly living near Worthington, driving a pickup and helping enforce wildlife laws, including pursuing poachers. Lambert later said he spent about 10 years doing the work before shifting more of his time toward his family and youth sports.
Coaching Youth Sports
Lambert's work with young athletes began during his playing career, when he operated football camps and spoke openly about the responsibility athletes have to kids who look up to them.
Later he coached his sons' Little League teams, helped with basketball and became a familiar volunteer around the Worthington ball fields. At one point he simply asked the league president, “You mind if I mow someday?”
Lambert's approach was described as stern but thorough. He also helped maintain the fields themselves, and the children he coached often had no idea why adults were so interested in their coach. To them, he was simply another dad helping out.
His Love of Hockey
Lambert's love of hockey goes back to childhood, when he attended Cleveland Barons games. The interest never left him. In retirement he said that if an NFL game and a hockey game were on television at the same time, he'd watch hockey.
His son John took up the sport, and Lambert also played on a traveling Pittsburgh celebrity hockey team after his NFL career. The team used its games to raise money for charitable causes, giving Lambert another connection to the sport beyond simply being a fan.
Hunting, Fishing and the Outdoors
The outdoors wasn't something Lambert discovered after football. He grew up working summers on his grandfather's farm, driving tractors and baling hay.
As an adult he became an avid hunter and fisherman. A 1984 profile also described one of football's most intimidating players as an enthusiastic bird watcher. The country wasn't simply where Lambert went after football. It was the kind of life he had always wanted.
His Life After the Steelers
Lambert didn't spend retirement trying to remain Jack Lambert, Pittsburgh Steeler. By 1999, the trophies, awards and reminders of his career were packed away in bundles and boxes.
In 1999 he said he had attended only one Steelers game since retiring, when he received his Hall of Fame ring. He later returned for the final game at Three Rivers Stadium, but even by 2023 those remained rare exceptions. He maintained affection for the Rooney family and his teammates while showing little interest in living publicly through his football past.
Lambert's own explanation was simple: football had been a great time in his life, but it was over with.
Growing Up in Mantua, Ohio
Long before the Steel Curtain, Lambert was a farm kid from northeast Ohio. He worked summers on his grandfather's dairy farm and became a three-sport standout at Crestwood High School, earning nine varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball.
He was a four-year letterman as a catcher and a strong basketball player. In 1980, Crestwood renamed its football stadium for him, an honor Lambert regarded as one of the greatest of his life.
Lambert the Browns Fan
Before becoming a hated Steeler in Cleveland, Lambert spent 21 years as a Browns fan. Jim Brown was his favorite player.
As a boy he once chased Brown's green Cadillac trying to get an autograph. He eventually got it and remembered the experience decades later, saying he would never refuse a child who asked him for an autograph... provided the kid said “please.”
Things You Probably Didn't Know About Jack Lambert
In a 1999 interview Lambert joked that if he had his guitar with him, he'd sing a Kris Kristofferson song for the reporter.
His mother's family operated a flower shop. One Easter, young Jack got recruited for costume duty. His verdict afterward: “Never again.”
Before Browns games in Cleveland he ate dinner with his father at the Iron Gate Restaurant. Lambert eventually convinced the chefs to give him the recipe he prized.
Asked about football after retirement, Lambert said that if hockey was on opposite an NFL game, hockey won.
“I Could Not Have Written a Better Script.”
Lambert looked back on the farm in Mantua, football, financial security, his wife and four healthy children and wondered aloud why life had given him so much. “I look at my life and I realize I could not have written a better script,” he said.
The man so often portrayed as perpetually angry was, in fact, profoundly grateful for the life he'd been given.
Sources & Further Reading
Want to dig deeper? These are some of the profiles and interviews that helped tell the stories above.
- A Rose By Any Other NamePaul Zimmerman • Sports Illustrated, July 30, 1984. Full transcript on this site
- Jack Lambert, Defender of What Is RightSports Illustrated's republication of Zimmerman's classic 1984 profile
- Curtain Calls?T.J. Simers, Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1996. Lambert's quiet Worthington life
- Former Steelers Linebacker Jack Lambert Loving LifeTom Melody. Akron Beacon Journal. July 1999. Family, retirement, & the life Lambert chose
- Jack Lambert's Children Live the Sporting Life in WorthingtonJoe Starkey, Tribune-Review, April 3, 2005. A rare look at the Lambert family
- A Flash in Time: Jack Lambert2023 • A rare later interview touching on his land, family and life after football