Customer Reviews

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)

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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.

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.

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.

The book does provide a glimpse into the chaos that is Patriots history. For folks who do not know much of the pre-Brady team, you get a hint of what went on before his arrival. However, there are many overlooked episodes from Patriots history which deserved more coverage or at least a mention. For example in the incident and game department there was:

1. The playoff game when the Foxboro Stadium lights went out
2. The 1985 game against the Bengals when the fans tore down the goal posts. A few of which were electrocuted when the posts hit a high-tension wire on route 1.
3. The blizzard game against Buffalo in the 60's
4. Drew Bledsoe's amazing comeback game against the Vikings
5. The Monday Night Game against the Jets, which ended in several fans being arrested. This put a ban on Patriots hosting Monday night football for many years.
6. When the NFL strike hit in the 80's, it was Doug Flutie who crossed the picket line and consequently the Patriots had the highest attendance during the strike season
7. A detailed account of the AFL championship game between the Chargers and the Patriots
8. They were one of the few, if only, team to disband a cheerleading squad

As for the players: How can any Patriots history book not mention:

John Smith the iron man soccer style kicker?
Stanley Morgan, who for years held many of the team receiving records?
Dr. Bill Lenkitis who worked as a dentist in the off-season?

As for the writing style, the book tends to jump around a lot and in many instances repeats itself. The writer also shares his opinion constantly through the book. A good example is there is call-out on Upton Bell who was the GM for a season. The author states how bad he was, but offered no details. The call-out was in the middle of a spygate chapter, which had nothing to do with Upton. He also states that whenever the Sullivan family did a negotiation, they were cheap. when the Kraft's do it, it's called business.

Also, the author has you believe the Patriots had no fan-base prior to the Bledsoe era. For example, he mentions most folks who saw Jack Tatum's hit on Daryl Stingley, saw it in the evening news. or the folks who Steve Grogan celebrated Grogan day at Gillette, never saw him take a snap. The Patriots have always had a loyal fanbase and many chose to stay away from the stadium. A quick check of the Sunday Nielsen ratings during the lean years would reveal the Patriots not only won their time-slot, the crushed all the other sports shows on any given Sunday.

The book offers a nice introduction to the Pats unique history. However, if you remember the events of the last decade, you'll recall almost everything in this book.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting read about the three time Super Bowl champs. Though very little of the book is concerned with the team's beginnings and first four decades of play, it can be considered a valuable primer for younger fans more concerned with Tom Brady than Babe Parelli and Jim Plunkett.

I would recommend this one to all New England Patriots fans, though not wholeheartedly due to the sometimes stiff and awkward prose. A good read, though.

Tales from the Patriots Sideline by Michael Felger Published in 2004. Obviously i havent read this book yet as its yet to be released so disregard my stars, you have to rate it. I will read this book, then edit my review then I'm mostly just curious what new information can be in this bookif someone already wrote a "New England patriots history book" 4 years ago. I guess we will find out. If you buy this book, you shoudl also read the above (also the book by Pepper johnson won for all and of course Mike holly's book patriot reign.