The Good, the Bad & the Ugly New England Patriots: Heart-pounding, Jaw-dropping, and Gut-wrenching Moments from New England Patriots History (Good, the Bad, & the Ugly) [Hardcover]

Sean Glennon (Author), John Hannah (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly | Publication Date: September 1, 2008

This is it: the unbelievable true story of how a team that barely qualified to be part of the original AFL became the first NFL dynasty of the 21st century. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: New England Patriots presents a fast-paced, entertaining look at 48 years of Patriots history. There are heroes and villains, the expert and the inept, moments of glory and moments of agony, triumphs, tragedies, and terrible trip-ups. The details you always wanted to know, the moments you hope you'll remember forever, the players, coaches, and owners you know you'll never forget (for better or for worse). This is the New England Patriots at their best, their worst, and their weirdest.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"The Patriots? We were sort of the red-headed stepchild. We had some great fans...but a lot of people didn't know about the Patriots, and a lot more didn't care about the Patriots." --John Hannah, from the foreword "Hannah would run into somebody--and a big somebody--and his feet wouldn't stop; they'd just keep going. It doesn't sound like such a big deal to someone who hasn't done it, but just being able to do that is truly special."

--Randy Cross, CBS TV analyst/former San Francisco 49ers lineman "It is what it is."

--Bill Belichick, always

From the Inside Flap

There has never been a better time to be a Boston sports fan. The Red Sox are two-time World Series champions. The Celtics are again one of the NBA's elite teams. And most impressive of all, the Patriots, once little more than a bad joke in the NFL and an afterthought for sports fans in the region, have become professional football's most dominant and most feared team. With four Super Bowl appearances and three championships to their credit since the turn of the century, the former sad-sack franchise has become one of the great dynasties of American professional sports.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: New England Patriots takes readers on a fast-paced, fun, and entertaining trip through the team's 48-year history. In compact, stand-alone sections, this book covers the highs and lows of the Patriots' evolution from the AFL team considered least likely to succeed to the perennial favorite to bring home the Lombardi Trophy. This is the story of horrible mistakes, heartbreaking near-misses, and miserable luck. It's also the story of exhilarating successes, inspiring personal and collective triumphs, and some of the greatest finishes in all of sports history.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: New England Patriots offers it all, from Clive Rush to Bill Belichick, from the Snowplow Game to the Snow Bowl. The humiliation of Super Bowl XX. The jubilation of Super Bowl XXXVI. Babe Parilli, Steve Grogan, Drew Bledsoe, and Tom Brady. The heartbreaking tragedy of Darryl Stingley. The inspiring comeback of Tedy Bruschi. The self-destruction of Irving Fryar. The dedication, perseverance, and breakout success of Troy Brown.

For die-hard, veteran Pats fans, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: New England Patriots provides a chance to wince and curse and smile along, recalling the best and worst moments, coaches, players, and owners. For those who climbed aboard the bandwagon after 2002, it's an opportunity to catch up with a wild backstory and to revisit the great moments of the Belichick era.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1600781187
• ISBN-13: 978-1600781186
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,301,151 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing New Here about the New England Patriots, December 31, 2009

By 

C. Baker "cbaker" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly New England Patriots: Heart-pounding, Jaw-dropping, and Gut-wrenching Moments from New England Patriots History (Good, the Bad, & the Ugly) (Hardcover)

There are many books now available detailing the history of the New England Patriots. Having read many of them I find that nobody has really come up with anything new to say. The typical "stories of" books essentially tell the same tales and I am not sure why the recent ones are even published because they have nothing new to say. And that is certainly the case here. There really isn't anything new that hasn't already been published elsewhere.

That said, this book, for the most part is fairly good. Most of it focuses on the team of the 2000's, walking through the dynasty years and some of the pivotal moments of this decade. Not that it completely ignores the past, there are chapters talking about that as well, but it is more upbeat and positive than similar books that dwell on all the bad things that have gone on with the Patriots in its history.

The book briefly talks about all the bad things too, of course, like Darryl Stingley getting paralyzed in 1976, the Lisa Olson incident, Super Bowl XX, the horrible ownership of the 1990's, and Spygate. I have to say, even though I'm sick of hearing about it personally, the author gives pretty short shrift to Spygate.

The author does a good job of talking about the resurgence of the Patriots under Bill Parcells, his most critical decision being the choice of Drew Bledsoe as the number one draft pick, who lead the franchise to winning records and a Super Bowl, over Rick Mirer, who was bust for the Seattle Seahawks. And it goes on to rightly praise the virtues of coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft.

There are also vignettes about some of the greatest Patriots players like Adam Vinatieri, Troy Brown, Drew Bledsoe, Tom Brady, Steve Grogan, Tedy Bruschi, and John Hannah, to name a few.

The one area I disagree with the author is when he discusses the pivotal moments of the 2003 season which lead to the Patriots second Super Bowl win in three years. He identifies a tough, gutty win over the Tennessee Titans in week five as being the turning point in the season because the team showed a toughness and ability to win that it failed to show the previous season when it missed the playoffs (in that season Tennessee clobbered the Patriots physically in a dismal Monday Night Game).

To me one play defines the 2003 season. In week 13 after taking a commanding lead against the Indianapolis Colts at halftime, the Colts came back in the second half and had the ball first and goal from the one yard line with little time left on the clock. After three stops, on fourth and goal from the one, Willie McGinnest stones Edgerrin James on a run attempt to seal the win. Had McGinest not made that play at the end of the game, the Colts, not the Patriots, would have had home field advantage in the playoffs. And that, to me, was not only the most critical game of the season, but one of the most critical plays in Patriots' history.

I can't imagine a non-Patriots fan wanting to read this book, especially if you've read similar accounts or histories of the teams. For Patriots fans I would say, reading anything about the Patriots is enjoyable, but this book did not provide any new insights that haven't been discussed elsewhere and I would not recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent but not exceptional history of the Patriots, January 8, 2009

By 

R. C Sheehy "deadsox" (Foxboro,MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly New England Patriots: Heart-pounding, Jaw-dropping, and Gut-wrenching Moments from New England Patriots History (Good, the Bad, & the Ugly) (Hardcover)

Well the title kind of sums up my feelings towards this book. In one respect it is a cheerleading tome for Bill Bellichick and all that he has accomplished. Not to diminish Bill's exceptional work but the Patriots are one of the most colorful franchises in sports history and deserve more than just a superficial treatment.

I agree with one of the other reviewers who mentioned all that was missing in this book including great players like John Smith and Stanley Morgan as well as a history of the really terrible drafts the Pats made before drafting Drew Bledsoe. Actually there are a few after Bledsoe. I would have also like to see more than a passing mention of Pete Carroll and his failure to win with the Pats while winning national titles at USC. It wasn't because Carroll was soft that we know now.

Still, despite being superficial, the book is enjoyable enough for Patriot fans to read and get some sense that life did exist and there was an NFL franchise in Boston before Tom Brady and company. I would recommend it as a good read.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great little book for pats fans., December 3, 2008

By 

J. Powell "Jimbo" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly New England Patriots: Heart-pounding, Jaw-dropping, and Gut-wrenching Moments from New England Patriots History (Good, the Bad, & the Ugly) (Hardcover)

I agree with the other reviewer here. this book isn't really saying much that tales from the patriots sidelines or Stadium Stories:The New England Patriots, doesn't already say. It's a brief history of the New England Franchise. However, the difference comes because Sean Glennon writes it. I bought his other book, This Pats Year, which was an excellent and highly entertaining read. I recommend this book to anyone who doesn't own the other two books i mentioned. This book is a brisk, funny and light read, that hits the spot. Like Wes Welker, it's just a bit short, but an able performer for the red white and blue. A great intro especially for new patriots fans (of which there are many over the last few years).

If Mr Glennon is reading this somehow, I'd like to say this. I am pretty shocked and dismayed by the general lack of thorough and in-depth reporting on the patriots 2007 season in the media. I am thinking of writing a book on this subject myself one day. I think the undefeated regular season was an incredible year and deserves a full book written on the subject. I enjoyed reading the sections of this book relating to the patriots in 2007, but wished somebody out there would go further with the subject. To me, the loss in the super bowl was almost too incredible to be true, and forever will be. I sometimes wonder what, if anything the spygate/walsh tapes had to do with it. It may sound outlandish and ridiculous, but did the pats cheat their way through 07? were they told to throw the game in Arizona after being found out by the league and Arlen Specter etc? I have watched that game over and over and still can't believe how the giants won that game. It was an unprecedented aberration. Whether this was accident or design, i feel that a landmark year such as this deserves some in-depth reportage worthy of such a standout year in the annals of pro-football history. I'm not asking anyone to discover a conspiracy, that's not what i mean. But i feel this year was so incredible and unprecedented a book should be written revealing the mechanics of the season in fuller detail. Was there more to the "perfect" patriots than we know? It's shrouded in mystery as far as i'm concerned. Just how did the patriots blow it so spectacularly at the final hurdle? Folks saying simply "well, they didn't bring their A game into the playoffs, they were nervous, David Tyree made a circus catch" etc just doesn't cut it for me.

Anyway, The good the bad and the ugly is a great book, light, fun and entertaining. a great present for pats fans coming up to Christmas.