Customer Reviews

Coaching Matters: Leadership and Tactics of the NFL's Ten Greatest Coaches

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I went into this expecting just a long opinion piece, but wow does this book rock! He's got stats, facts, and yes opinions. But it gets all put together into a great, great read on the ten best coaches (says Adler) of the NFL since the 1950s.

He doesn't just pick them out of thin air either; he takes a look at what defines success in football and comes up with a set of parameters that the coaches must all meet. There are a couple additions based on extenuating circumstances, but I think he explains that well.

A great look at football coaches, including two that are still active -- Parcells and Holmgren. Get it!

Had to add this edit -- with Joe Gibbs one of the coaches profiled, this book is GREAT to show you just how awesome a coach he is and look at back his first career as he tries to bring the Redskins back to success.

Brad Adler has done a great service by taking the time to painstakingly research and describe what separates the all-time great NFL coaches of the modern era from their mediocre colleagues. His chapters on each of the 10 selected coaches are detailed with care and each selection is justified well. The best part of the book, in my opinion, is the manner in which Adler explains how certain personality traits seem to make all the difference in the world (e.g. between mediocre team records and winning Super Bowls): he outlines the need for physical and/or psychological "intimidation" to instill a sense of purpose in the players which is supported by appropriate fear of being humiliated or cut from the team if they do not do their jobs. Simply being a successful coordinator or knowing the strategic x's and o's is not nearly enough! I loved the summary chapter in which he pulls his conclusions together and states his case definitively. I am a psychologist and executive coach by training, and I learned quite a bit from this book. I highly recommend it!

I expected more from this book. The author didn't really tell me how these coaches learned to be great coaches and tended to overly rely on the statistics to tell stories and not real stories. I felt like I was reading a Fact Book on great football coaches. The author did not need to go into excruciating detail on Terry Bradshaw's passing statistics for every season he was in the NFL - when the Chapter was on Chuck Noll.