Boston Globe - Chad Finn
"[A]n honest, sprawling, meticulously reported, and beautifully written portrayal of perhaps the greatest and probably the most unlikely dynasty in modern professional sports . . . [Wickersham] draws richly detailed portraits of Brady, Belichick, the dynasty’s third constant in owner Robert Kraft, and how their personalities and relationships changed through the years . . . It’s Better to Be Feared is the accounting the Patriots dynasty deserves."
Wall Street Journal - Edward Kosner
"[A] superlative sports book full of intimate, fly-on-the-wall reporting, savvy insights and deft, page-turning writing. . . . Chapter after chapter, the author takes the reader inside the Patriots’ locker and trainers’ rooms, into coaches’ meetings, into the huddle and onto the line of scrimmage. There’s plenty of eavesdropping on the NFL owners’ contentious meetings with Commissioner Roger Goodell, too. The result is the best picture I’ve ever encountered of what the cutthroat, multibillion-dollar world of NFL football is actually like."
Oskar Garcia
"Wickersham, with thorough reporting and the experience of covering New England’s twists and turns, manages a noteworthy feat in It’s Better to be Feared—he humanizes Brady, Belichick and the Patriots owner Robert Kraft for outsiders in a way that can be exceedingly difficult . . . Their history is told in parallel with the growth of the N.F.L. itself."
Fansided - Micah Wimmer
"While there is no shortage of books available on the New England Patriots dynasty, Seth Wickersham’s new work may be the best yet... So good that even casual NFL fans will want to check [it] out.... Of the many books written on [Brady and Belichick], it seems that Wickersham delivers the deepest and most insightful portrait of either of them within these pages... Engaging and artfully written, drawing the reader into the events [Wickersham] describes, making them feel as if they are witnessing these meetings and games themselves.... One of the best books on the NFL to appear in recent years."
WEEI - Alex Reimer
"[C]ontains an array of juicy details about Brady’s turbulent final years in New England . . . While those details — Belichick’s clandestine friendship with Roger Goodell, Brady approaching the 49ers at the start of his free agency — are scintillating, they are the garnish on top of a well-constructed narrative that spans the arc of 20 years . . . Wickersham's storytelling is gripping."
Booklist - Robert St. John
"This enthralling behind-the-scenes tale of the New England Patriots is a piece of journalistic excellence . . . Patriots fans will revel in all the little-known backstories, while all football fans and readers seeking astonishing success stories will relish this, too."
Mark Selig
"The book consistently delivers that type of fly-on-the-wall access, taking the reader to seemingly impenetrable places . . . Reporters have breathlessly covered the Patriots over the years, leaving little room for new reveals, but Wickersham advances the ball with anecdotes that unpeel the personalities of the franchise’s significant figures."
2021 Gift Guide Boston.com
"[T]he best book written about the Patriots to date. It encompasses the entirety of the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady dynasty: nine AFC championships and six Super Bowl championships. It delves deeply into the histories of Belichick, Brady, Robert Kraft, and several important figures of the dynasty: Julian Edelman, Josh McDaniels, Malcolm Butler, Peyton Manning, Roger Goodell, Eric Mangini, and many more. The good, great, bad, and worse are covered here, but not in a scandalous way, and not in a way that wastes extra time on extraneous stories. The focus of the book, and the fact that Wickersham has been covering the team and league since the dynasty’s advent, make it special."
Boston Globe
Honest, sprawling, meticulously reported, and beautifully written."
Washington Post
"The book consistently delivers that type of fly-on-the-wall access, taking the reader to seemingly impenetrable places…with anecdotes that unpeel the personalities of the franchise’s significant figures."
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-10-12
A deep dive into the modern New England Patriots, the most successful NFL franchise of the past 20 years.
As a quarterback, Tom Brady has always been known for his public face, one of confidence, optimism, and overall good cheer. There are darker moments, writes ESPN correspondent Wickersham, and numerous episodes where team player Brady showed an overinflated ego. “Fans knew little about his demons and insecurities,” he writes, “and the fact that low-rung staffers—invisible servants—seemed to hold a level of contempt for Brady not only revealed him as a perfectionist who couldn’t handle mistakes, but also as a man keenly aware of the discrepancy in stature.” That discrepancy owed to a long, tortuous relationship with head coach Bill Belichick, emotionally aloof even as Brady was emotionally needy, and of a mindset that held that football players, no matter how brilliant, were mere employees. For all the head-butting, Brady and Belichick crafted a team that, though not without problems, developed an enviable record. Wickersham’s fly-on-the-wall accounts are fascinating, but he’s at his best when he explains, carefully and evenhandedly, how the business of football works. He also serves up the best account of “Deflategate,” the scandal whereby it was revealed that Brady, or at least his handlers, played with a game ball that was outside league specifications. Brady paid for the transgression with public humiliation, and so did Belichick, who traversed two narratives: “One said he was football’s smartest and most prepared coach; the other held that he would cross any line to win.” Brady’s anger that Patriots management didn’t shield him was one of many reasons that he left the team in 2020. As Wickersham suggests, now the narrative will turn to which of the two was most responsible for the Pats’ phenomenal run.
Exemplary sports journalism that examines the front office and dueling egos as much as the gridiron.
