War Room

November 21, 2011
Holley (Red Sox Rule: Terry Francona and Boston's Rise to Dominance) has written the ultimate book for pro football geeks. From the front office to the draft room, the author provides an intimate look at three NFL teamsâthe New England Patriots, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Atlanta Falconsâand the men who built them. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, with protégés Thomas Dimitroff and Scott Pioli, created a dynasty in New England that won three Super Bowls in four years. With fly-on-the-wall immediacy, Holley chronicles their unorthodox approach, even as Pioli and Dimitroff became general managers of, respectively, the Chiefs and the Falcons. War Room begins in 1991 with Belichick head coach of the Cleveland Browns (at 39, the league's youngest) and concludes following the 2011 NFL draft and player lockout. Holley objectively captures on- and off-field episodes, including 2007's infamous "Spygate" videotape scandal, and humanizes his subjects with reports of job interviews, dinner conversations, private meetings, and personal traumas.

November 15, 2011
Holley, former sportswriter for the Boston Globe, author of two books on the New England Patriots, and now a cohost on Boston sports radio, is probably not the go-to guy for an unvarnished profile of longtime Pats head coach Bill Belichick. Indeed, Holley glosses over the notorious 2007 Spygate incident, for which Belichick and the team were fined by the leagueand excoriated by many in the football communityfor illegally taping the defensive signals of their bitter rival the New York Jets during an early-season game. And Holley doesn't address the enmity that Belichick evokes throughout the sports world. Still, fans will want to read how Belichick transformed the once-lackluster Patriots into the most successful franchise of the past decade, which Holley explains in an engaging chronological narrative. Readers might not come away with a positive, or even negative, take on Belichick the person, but they'll respect the effort, painstaking attention to detail, and even courage that he has brought to his job.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 15, 2011
A longtime Patriots chronicler goes inside the brain trust of the NFL's most successful team. In the NFL, team building--drafting, trading and signing fee agents--is a multimillion-dollar business with many livelihoods and professional reputations at stake. The widely acknowledged virtuoso of this peculiar blend of art and science is Bill Belichick, GM and head coach of the New England Patriots. Holley (Red Sox Rule: Terry Francona and Boston's Rise to Dominance, 2008, etc.) traces the genesis of Belichick's "Big Idea" back 20 years when, as the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns, he began piecing together notions--particularly, the idea of a uniform player-evaluation system--about how best to construct a consistent winner. Working for him then were scouting assistant Scott Pioli and young groundskeeper Thomas Dimitroff, both of whom, after extended apprenticeships under Belichick in New England, would go on to helm NFL franchises elsewhere, spreading the gospel of The Patriot Way. With Belichick as the principal and Pioli and Dimitroff in supporting roles, Holley dives deep into the complexities of the draft and the subtleties of an appraisal system sufficiently exact to rely upon, flexible enough to allow for exceptions. There's plenty of inside-football, but the narrative soars when the author's in storytelling mode, drawing sharp portraits of the three very different franchise architects and other prominent NFL figures, supplying behind-the-scenes anecdotes about the Patriots' glorious run (three Super Bowl championships, one perfect regular season), the team's infrequent failures (e.g., the notorious Spygate episode), the contributions and departures of key assistants and pivotal players, the abiding brilliance of quarterback Tom Brady and the emerging efforts by Pioli in Kansas City and Dimitroff in Atlanta to reshape the football culture--to replicate, albeit with their personal stamps, Belichick's master plan. A deeply reported, thoroughly engaging look at what it takes to succeed in the NFL--and a perfect complement to the NFL Network's compelling miniseries Bill Belichick: A Football Life.

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