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In War Room, New York Times bestselling author Michael Holley gives readers an unprecedented look behind the scenes at three contending National Football League teams—from the draft room to the locker room to the sidelines—and grants access to the brilliant minds of Bill Belichick and his former protégés, Thomas Dimitroff and Scott Pioli.
In 1991, while he was with the Cleveland Browns football organization, Belichick was struck by the Big Idea: how to build the perfect team, one draft pick and one trade at a time. This strategy obsessed him, leading him on a remarkable personal and professional journey filled with miraculous finishes, heartbreaking losses, shattered relationships . . . and ultimately three Super Bowl championships. In Massachusetts, Belichick reunited with two former office employees from the Ohio days—Pioli, a low-paid scouting assistant, and Dimitroff, a groundskeeper and part-time scout—and together they refined and burnished Belichick's method for constructing a winning team. The end result was one of the greatest franchises in modern NFL history: the New England Patriots. Packed with never-before-told anecdotes and insights from team officials, players, coaches, and scouts, War Room is a fascinating, often astonishing story of grit and genius, and the art of building a championship team.
When Bill Belichick became head coach of the New England Patriots in 2000, the team was coming off a last-place finish and had never won a championship. Expectations were low, so the canvas was his for the painting. In War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team, former Boston Globe sportswriter Michael Holley studiously charts the rise of Belichick and his two closest lieutenants — Scott Pioli, then New England's vice president of player personnel, and Thomas Dimitroff, the head of college scouting. This trio, which came together when Belichick was coaching the Cleveland Browns, became the brain trust behind three Patriots Super Bowl victories and the architects of a 2007 team that's the most famous runner-up in Super Bowl history.
Football games are won and lost on the field, but those sixty- minute outings are the results of months of preparation, even before training camp begins. Holley's book follows the behind-the- scenes work of team building and tells how Belichick, Pioli, and Dimitroff aimed at victory by transforming the Patriots' scouting. What Belichick sought was a means of seeing not only a player's talent but where he might fit into the larger picture,
a grading scale that was easy to understand yet complex enough to reflect, for example, the value of an average offensive lineman who could play two positions vs. an above- average lineman who could play just one?. He wanted to assign letters, numbers, and words that would accurately describe every player in pro and college football.The ultimate goal was a system that would let them work "scientifically" to build a team with an edge in size, toughness, and drive.
In a season of unintentional poetry, it was fitting that the next play would practically be a catch by all who had been with the Patriots since their local TV blackouts, one- and two-win seasons, and franchise coffers that had more singles than hundred- dollar bills. Jermaine Wiggins, a tight end from East Boston, was the only Patriots player who had been born and raised in the area.If the writing occasionally suffers from such disorienting circumlocutions, Holley's access to Belichick, Pioli, and Dimitroff unearths some intriguing revelations, as when Pioli admits that he was too focused on winning to properly enjoy the successes in New England and that Belichick advised Dimitroff "as your friend" not to trade up and select wide receiver Julio Jones of Alabama in the most recent draft.
Reviewer: Cameron Martin
1 The Incubator 1
2 The Patriot Way 38
3 The Culture of Winners 78
4 Losing the Core 131
5 The Desert 149
6 The New Falcon Vernacular 220
7 New England Departure, Kansas City Arrival 260
8 A Tale of Three Cities 308
9 Let's Make a Deal 343
10 Shelf Life 380
11 Three and Out 400
12 The Mobile Dinner 429
13 Chief Assembly 454
14 Picking and Dealing 473
15 War Room 491
Epilogue 523
Acknowledgments 531
Anonymous
Posted February 19, 2012
Unfortunately, the level of excellence achieved by the New England Patriots does not translate to this book.
I was hoping for specific outlines and philosophies of their winning formula, but found a poorly written accounting of relationships.
Don't bother, not even a good read about inside a football team.
Must have been written in two days.
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 9, 2013
Its a book pertraying the inside to coach bill belicheck's coaching ups and downs
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Overview
In War Room, New York Times bestselling author Michael Holley gives readers an unprecedented look behind the scenes at three contending National Football League teams—from the draft room to the locker room to the sidelines—and grants access to the brilliant minds of Bill Belichick and his former protégés, Thomas Dimitroff and Scott Pioli.
In 1991, while he was with the Cleveland Browns football organization, Belichick was struck by the Big Idea: how to build the perfect team, ...