Former Patriots coach Bill Belichick has his first book coming out on May 6, “The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football.” It is important to keep in mind what the book is, and what it isn’t.
What it is is exactly what the title says — a vehicle for Belichick to share his thoughts on leadership and team-building, similar to Bill Walsh’s posthumous memoir, “The Score Takes Care of Itself.” Belichick’s book is split into 15 chapters, on motivation, firing and hiring, preparation, dealing with star players, communication, adversity, and more.
What it isn’t is a tell-all book.
Belichick doesn’t use “Art of Winning” to pull the curtain too far back or settle any scores. It’s not nearly as detailed as David Halberstam’s “The Education of a Coach,” or Ian O’Connor’s “Belichick.”
Advertisement
You won’t read a single word about Malcolm Butler’s benching in Super Bowl 52. There is no mention of either “Gate.” He does not wade into the Brady vs. Belichick debate. The names “Kraft” and “Aaron Hernandez” do not make it into the 289 pages. In that sense, the book is greatly unfulfilling.
But once you accept that Belichick isn’t going to disclose his deepest, darkest secrets, “Art of Winning” becomes an enjoyable, breezy read, with fascinating insight and a few unique stories that will satiate not just Patriots fans, but anyone who follows the NFL or appreciates the inner workings of leadership at the highest levels.
Belichick reveals the principles he developed over 49 years of coaching in the NFL, though some are a little clichéd or well-worn. Look for excellence in the margins. Practice execution becomes game reality. Team, teammate, self — that one’s adapted from the Naval Academy.
Advertisement
Others are genuinely intriguing. Failures aren’t successes. Getting fired isn’t a gift. How important it is to say, ‘I [effed] that up.’ The Patriot Way does not exist.
Belichick discloses the six criteria the Patriots used to evaluate free agents, and the eight main rules he had for players. He repeatedly mentions lessons learned from hedge fund manager Ray Dalio. He writes reverentially of the 1963 Navy team that went 9-2 and served, he said, as the inspiration for the 2001 Patriots.
And he does spin a few interesting tales.
The story about Antonio Brown’s 13 days with the Patriots in 2019, and the expensive bison meat and “magic milk” he gifted Tom Brady, is laugh-out-loud funny. Belichick reveals the five most instinctive players he ever coached, and details the painstaking process of scouting teams with index cards and hole punchers in the 1970s. He provides terrific insight into Dont’a Hightower’s strip-sack in Super Bowl 51, Terrell Owens’s heroic performance in Super Bowl 39 on a broken leg, and how the Patriots’ defensive game plan in Super Bowl 36 came to be.
He tells a great story about the smell of Adam Vinatieri’s hotel room before the Super Bowl in New Orleans. He provides another entry into the legend of Brady the beer-chugger. He writes about how angry his players were when they didn’t get a swag bag at one of their Super Bowls; why he has no sympathy for blowing out Joe Gibbs in 2007; and a fascinating history of the “taxi squad,” one of Paul Brown’s many innovations.
Advertisement
Most notably, Belichick displays a surprising amount of humanity. The book is largely a paean to his favorite players, coaches, and mentors.
He dedicates page 56 to Lawrence Taylor and 199 to Brady. His first acknowledgement out of hundreds goes to “my long-standing teammate and friend Berj Najarian.” Belichick writes of what made Bill Parcells, Dante Scarnecchia, and his father, Steve Belichick, effective coaches.
Belichick notes how difficult it was to keep up with Brady’s maniacal levels of preparation, and the one time he stumbled. How Julian Edelman caught tennis balls at 6 a.m. in the alley outside the team hotel in Houston every day of Super Bowl week. How Rob Gronkowski was the ultimate example of putting the team first. How Rodney Harrison demanded to play on the scout kickoff team in practice. How Tedy Bruschi earned a record 46 game balls. How James White was a coach’s dream. How Mike Vrabel used to run the training camp conditioning test with the defensive backs. How much he loved coaching Darrelle Revis for one season.
Where the book falls short is chapter 10, “Mistakes.” Belichick does admit to a few — not drafting Lamar Jackson in 2018; leaving defensive tackle Dan Klecko off the gameday roster in Super Bowl 38 vs. the Panthers; cutting a player who was swimming with his family in the pool at a team party on Cape Cod; and all of the players he wanted to keep but couldn’t for financial reasons, Brady chief among them.
Advertisement
However, there is nothing on Butler’s infamous benching, or how Belichick’s defense got shredded in that crushing defeat to the Eagles. Butler’s name appears just once, listed among 147 former players in the acknowledgements (which also includes Jerod Mayo).
There is nothing about how badly the Patriots struggled over his last four seasons post-Brady, and why his program came crashing down.
Belichick writes that one of his key principles is, “we don’t want players who have an issue with authority,” and then doesn’t mention Hernandez, a superstar player whose career ended when he was charged and convicted of murder. He doesn’t explain why he had to let all those players go due to financial reasons. He writes nothing of Spygate or Deflategate.
But in a way, it’s admirable. Belichick can often be petty, but in this project, he travels mostly the high road.
Does his book leave the reader wanting more? No question.
Does the title, “The Art of Winning,” shamelessly attempt to play word association with his favorite preparation book, Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War,” or the notorious book “The Art of the Deal” by his friend, President Donald Trump? Yes and yes.
But once you get past what the book isn’t, Belichick’s first foray into the literary world is still a fun, quick, instructive read. And there is plenty of material left for a follow-up.
Ben Volin can be reached at ben.volin@globe.com.