War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team

ISBN: 006208240X

Author: Michael Holley

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.