Education of a Coach, The
by David Halberstam
List Price:
Our Price: $4.05
You Save: $9.95 (71%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David HalberstamEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2006-08-08
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Hyperion
Book Reviews of Education of a Coach, The
Book Review: An In-Depth and Fascinating Analysis of a Winning Football Coach
Summary: 5 Stars
David Halberstam is best known for his award-winning history narratives on the Viet Nam war
(Best and the Brightest) and Korean War (The Coldest Winter). However, Halberstam
has written some eminently readable books on sports. His writing is characterized by in depth
analyses of the key personalities of his topic be it history, politics, or sports.
Education of a Coach is only 270 pages. It is about Bill Belichik and pro football.
And, in the Halberstam style of writing, it starts with an engrossing story about Belichik's
grandfather, an impoverished, illiterate Croatian immigrant who leaves his wife and
family to find work in America. The immigrant becomes a coal miner and his son
becomes a respected college football scout. The grandson, Bill, is a good football player,
high on intelligence and passion for the game, but low on talent and speed. Football
injuries at a small college (Wesleyan) prevent him from going any further as a player.
But he loves football, and persuades Ted Marchibroda to take him on as an unpaid
assistant to review football film for the Baltimore Colts.
.
This book is really about the football coaching fraternity and Bill Belichik's extraordinary
persistence in learning the game. Low pay, humiliation, failures are an essential part of his
education as he slowly ascends each level of the football hierarchy. You see how hard he works
and you are silently rooting for him to succeed. The core of this book is Halberstam's depiction
of Belichik's uncanny ability to analyze the opponent's offensive weakness. His patient
absorption of football knowledge comes from established coaches and teachers. He learns what
set George Allen and Paul Brown apart from their contemporaries - their exceptional attention
to detail. And then he is shaped by his own experiences and failures. These insights would be
overlooked by most sports writers. After all, Belichik is a colorless, low-key and unlikeable
introvert and any book about him alone would be boring. But Halberstam's book is far from boring.
Personal glimpses of his stormy relation with Bill Parcells, Lawrence Taylor's impact on football
strategy, and the rise of an unheralded Tom Brady are well-known to most pro football fans.
Football junkies are attracted by the glitz and glamor of pro football. However, there is little
glitz and no glamor either in this book or in Bill Belichik. Yet it remains an absorbing book for
those who want to understand why some football teams are consistent winners. The average fan is
fascinated by the outrageous personalities of the player celebrities and the intoxicating elixir
of following a winning team. The complex mechanics of the game, the arduous preparation in game
strategy,and the system that is devised that leads to a winning team will be too deep for
impatient fans. The missing ingredient that I wish Halberstam would have discussed in more detail
is the chemistry between Belichik and his players.
When Belichik finally gets his chance as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, he fails, and he fails
badly. He returns to the New York Jets under his last previous head coach, the volatile Bill Parcells.
Parcells became furious when Belichick, his defensive assistant, overrules him andcalls a blitz that
Parcells opposes. When the blitz works, Parcells lets go. He yells at Belichik over an open microphone,
shocking everyone who hears it. "You're a genius -everyone knows it, a goddamned genius. But, that's
why you failed as a head coach - that's why you'll never be a head coach --- some genius."
But, Belichik gets one last chance when the New England Patriots give the head coaching
job to him in 2000.. At age 47, he hand-builds a team with no obvious stars, but whose players
are intelligent, teachable, and can function in the Belichik system in which the individual
is subservient to the team. The under-appreciated part of the book are the young assistants that he
grooms (and who are now emerging into the upper echelon of coaches and general managers
in pro football.) Two years later, to everyone's surprise including Belichik's, the New England Patriots
win the Super Bowl - their first ever - by upsetting the St Louis Rams who were heavily favored by 2
touchdowns. And he knows and his coaches know that his team wasn't that good.
As the game ends, Belichik hugs his longtime friend and assistant coach Ernie Adams and blurts
"Can you believe that we won the Super Bowl with this team?"
Ron Jaworski who analyzed the film after the game, called it the greatest coaching job that he had ever seen.
By 2007, after 3 Super Bowls and one 16-0 season, Belichik's reign in New England has been labeled a Dynasty
You have a front row seat as Halberstam lays out the Education of a Coach.
Summary of Education of a Coach, The
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 authorBill 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.
Authors Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Authors Books
Bloomsbury Recalledby Quentin Bell
Columbia University Press; Published: 1997-01-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.40
Price in other shops:
William Tyndale: A Biographyby David Daniell
Yale University Press; Published: 1994-11-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $62.92
Neither Saints Nor Sinners: Writing the Lives of Women in Spanish Americaby Kathleen Ann Myers
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2003-08-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops:
Storm of Steel (Penguin Classics)by Ernst Jünger
Penguin Classics; Published: 2004-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.50
Price in other shops:
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Lifeby C.S. Lewis
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 1995-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops:
Roughing It (The Penguin American Library)by Mark Twain
Penguin Classics; Published: 1981-12-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.64
Price in other shops:
Life Is So Good: One Man's Extraordinary Journey through the 20th Century and How he Learned to Read at Age 98by George Dawson, Richard Glaubman
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.60
Price in other shops:
Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)by Bill Bryson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
The Professor and the Madman CDby Simon Winchester
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-10-04; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $8.47
Price in other shops:
Alexander Hamilton: A Lifeby Willard Sterne Randall
Harper; Published: 2003-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardiby David Maraniss
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2000-09-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.94
Price in other shops:
The Lombardi Rules: 26 Lessons from Vince Lombardi--the World's Greatest Coach (Mighty Managers Series)by Vince Lombardi
McGraw-Hill; Published: 2004-08-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.79
Price in other shops:
The Breaks of the Gameby David Halberstam
Hyperion; Published: 2009-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.93
Price in other shops:
The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadershipby Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison
Portfolio Trade; Published: 2010-06-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.19
Price in other shops:
Play Like You Mean It: Passion, Laughs, and Leadership in the World's Most Beautiful Gameby Rex Ryan
Doubleday; Published: 2011-05-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.61
Price in other shops:
How Good Do You Want to Be?: A Champion's Tips on How to Lead and Succeed at Work and in Lifeby Nick Saban, Brian Curtis
Ballantine Books; Published: 2007-01-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.11
Price in other shops:
The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadershipby Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, Craig Walsh
Portfolio Hardcover; Published: 2009-08-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.65
Price in other shops:
Football Scouting Methodsby Steve Belichick
Martino Pub; Published: 2008-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.94
Price in other shops:
Patriot Reign: Bill Belichick, the Coaches, and the Players Who Built a Championby Michael Holley
Published: 2005-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.27
Price in other shops:
War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Teamby Michael Holley
It Books; Published: 2011-11-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops: