The Education of a Coach

Now in paperback, Pulitzer Prize-winner David Halberstam’s bestseller takes you inside the football genius of Bill Belichick for an insightful profile in leadership With a new afterword by the author

Bill Belichick’s thirty-one years in the NFL have been marked by amazing success — most recently with the New England Patriots. 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.

"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 [is] as much a product of good fortune as it [is] of talent, willpower and planning.'" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"A wonderful book — it’s not just a coach’s education, but it’s an education for every fan." Mike Barnicle

"A must read for not only Patriots fans, but any reader of biographies. A collaboration of two formidable intellects." Boston Globe

"Belichick to Halberstam may be football’s best combination since Montana to Rice." Bob Costas

"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." Wes Lukowsky, Booklist

Bill Belichick's 31 years in the NFL have been marked by amazing success - first in Cleveland, then with the Giants, and most recently, his two out of the last three Super Bowl wins with the New England Patriots have made him second to only Vince Lombardi in his record for playoff victories.& nbsp; In this groundbreaking new book, David Halberstam explores the nuances of both the game and the man behind it.& nbsp; He uncovers what makes Bill Belichick tick both on and off the field, as a coach, a father, and a son.& nbsp; 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.& nbsp; 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.& nbsp; & nbsp; 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 was an increasingly complicated game.& nbsp; 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.& nbsp; 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.& nbsp; Set apart by his Wesleyan education, Belichick approaches coaching differently than anyone else in the NFL.& nbsp; Here, for the first time, we learn why and how. & nbsp;

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. In this groundbreaking new book, Halberstam explores the nuances of both the game and the man with the highest post-season winning percentage in NFL history.