The Education of a Coach

October 10, 2005
Pulitzer-winning journalist and author Halberstam focuses on Bill Belichick, one of the NFL's most successful coaches, and the game of football as a team sport with rich detail, exacting research and colorful anecdotes. He reveals what fans of the head coach of the New England Patriots have always known: the roots of Belichick's coaching lie in the essential mentoring by his father, an excellent teacher and college coach who taught his son how to scout players and teams, instructing the author on how to study films of players when he was just nine years old. As an assistant coach working with Bill Parcells's New York Giants in the 1980s, Belichick's "football first" credo was born of precision and discipline. He went on to guide the Patriots to win three Super Bowls in four years (2002, 2004 and 2005). Halberstam brings to his seventh sports book an encyclopedic knowledge of football, a firm grasp on the inner workings of effective coaching, an understanding of the systematic roles of the players and a shrewd psychological analysis of Belichick himself as a man and team leader. His book reminds readers that "residence at the top as much a product of good fortune as it of talent, willpower and planning."

October 15, 2005
Here, estimable journalist Halberstam ("The Teammates") examines the life, views, trials, and successes of a very private man. Bill Belichick is the low-key thinking man's football coach whose New England Patriots have won three of the last four Super Bowls. In number of playoff victories, Belichick has surpassed Vince Lombardi. He has the highest percentage of postseason wins in the history of the NFL. Halberstam had access not only to Belichick but also to many of his closest friends and colleagues. The one conspicuous absence among his sources was Bill Parcells, the difficult and talented coach from whose shadow Belichick slowly emerged. This thoughtful book is quite engaging, especially when it delves into the close relationship between Belichick and his father, Steve, a perceptive and honorable assistant coach and scout at the U.S. Naval Academy for over 30 years. Halberstam's long fascination with Belichick is vividly shown in this intriguing book. Highly recommended for all libraries." -John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, NJ"

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2005
Bill Belichick is the head coach of the New England Patriots and a second-generation descendant of a determined Croatian immigrant family. The Pats have won three of the last four Super Bowls, an extraordinary accomplishment in an NFL that is structured to prevent extended dominance by one team. Celebrated investigative journalist Halberstam, who likes to do a sports book now and then, was first drawn to Belichick when he was a young linebacker coach with the New York Giants in the mid-eighties. He tells Belichick's story as part of the larger context of his family's acclimation to America during the Depression, and he spends as much time on Belichick's high-school and college years as he does on his career as a professional coach. Belichick learned his trade early on (his father was a football coach, too) and began breaking down opponents' film when he was nine years old. The natural affinity for x's and o's meshed with a passion for the game and, as Halbertsam tells it, produced a brilliant tactician and an effective leader who draws from the styles of other coaches he has encountered in his career, from a my-way-or-the-highway high-school coach to Andover Academy's Steve Sorota, the quintessential player-empowering coach-as-teacher. As he's done in the past, Halberstam takes the classic sports-bio formula--one stellar performer's rise to the pinnacle of American sport--and transforms it into a nuance-rich story of individual triumph and social history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)