The Education of a Coach » (Bargain)

One of the most popular and imitated nonfiction writers around, David Halberstam wrote books that fused narrative storytelling with investigative reporting. The result: stories that hummed with energy and authority and reads as well as -- if not better than -- some novels.

Bill Belichick s 31 years in the NFL have been marked by amazing success -- first with the Giants, then with Cleveland, and most recently, his three out of the last four Super Bowl wins with the New England Patriots have made him surpass Vince Lombardi in his record for playoff victories and achieve the highest postseason winning percentage in NFL history. In this groundbreaking new book, David Halberstam explores the nuances of both the game and the man behind it. He uncovers what makes Bill Belichick tick both on and off the field, as a coach and a son. "I ve been fascinated by Bill Belichick for more than 20 years, going back to the time when he was a young coach in his early 30s working with the linebackers on the Giants. "Halberstam writes. "There was, I thought, a certain signature to a Belichick game -- whatever it was the other team s offense was doing in the first half, the team coached by Belichick tended to take it away in the second half. I was fascinated by that, and by the fact that he seemed so un-coachlike, or perhaps the prototype for a very different kind of modern coach in what is an increasingly complicated game. He wasn t in any way charismatic, and he made no attempt to be charismatic -- if anything, quite the reverse, but he always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else. If anything, that made him even more interesting to me -- a man who had no interest in the celebrity culture, but had been projected into the epicenter of it because of the nature of his job and his success with it." Set apart by his Wesleyan education, Belichick approaches coaching differently than anyone else in the NFL. Here, for the first time, we learn why and how.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A fast-paced read . . . Buy it to learn about the coach. Read it to learn from the writer."