War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team [Hardcover]

Michael Holley (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 8, 2011

Football games aren’t won on Sundays in the fall. They’re won on draft day in the spring— in the war room.

In this landmark book, New York Times bestselling author Michael Holley takes readers behind the scenes of three contending National Football League teams and into the brilliant minds of Bill Belichick and his two former protégés Thomas Dimitroff and Scott Pioli.

Holley masterfully shows how a single idea conceived by Belichick in 1991—how to build the perfect team—triggered a journey filled with miraculous finishes, heartbreaking losses, broken relationships, and Super Bowl championships. Readers are given unprecedented access—from the draft room to the locker room to the sidelines—and insights into why Belichick is considered to be the NFL’s best coach and premier strategist.

Before he achieved success, though, Belichick was barely surviving as a coach. War Room opens in Cleveland, where Belichick, a young head coach, worked in an office with two employees in their late twenties: Pioli, a low-paid scouting assistant, and Dimitroff, a groundskeeper and part-time scout. After Belichick was fired by the Browns in 1996, the three men were in separate cities and seemingly a lifetime away from being recognized as leaders and champions. But soon they were reunited in New England, where they refined and burnished Belichick’s method for constructing a winning team, overseeing one of the greatest franchises in modern NFL history.

These three master strategists are now competitors. Belichick continues at the helm of the New England Patriots, while Pioli is now in charge of the Kansas City Chiefs and Dimitroff is running the Atlanta Falcons. And even though they no longer work for the same franchise, they do have a common goal: building the perfect team, one draft pick and one trade at a time.

War Room is their unique and often astonishing story. It is packed with never-been-told anecdotes and new observations from team officials, players, coaches, and scouts, all leading to surprising and groundbreaking insights into the art of building a champion. 

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A deeply reported, thoroughly engaging look at what it takes to succeed in the NFL.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) )

Crisply written, the story moves along like a two-minute drill. It also sparkles with interesting anecdotes and tidbits….WAR ROOM is a lively, fast-paced insider’s account that will please ardent and casual fans alike.” (Boston Globe )

“WAR ROOM is going to take you into the inner world of pro football. I recommend it highly.” (Peter King, Sports Illustrated )

“The ultimate book for pro football geeks.” (Publishers Weekly )

“Fans will want to read how Belichick transformed the once-lackluster Patriots into the mostsuccessful franchise of the past decade, which Holley explains in an engaging chronological narrative.” (Booklist )

From the Back Cover

Football games aren’t won on Sundays in the fall. They’re won on draft day in the spring—in the war room.

New York Times bestselling author Michael Holley takes readers behind the scenes of three contending National Football League teams and into the brilliant minds of Bill Belichick and his two former front office protégés, Thomas Dimitroff and Scott Pioli.

Though they once worked together to create one of the greatest franchises in modern NFL history, these three master strategists are now competitors. Belichick continues at the helm of the New England Patriots, while Pioli heads the Kansas City Chiefs and Dimitroff runs the Atlanta Falcons. Yet still they share a common goal: building the perfect team, one draft pick and one trade at a time.

War Room is packed with never-been-told anecdotes as well as new insights from team officials, players, coaches, and scouts, all leading to surprising and groundbreaking insights into the art of building a champion.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: It Books (November 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062082396
• ISBN-13: 978-0062082398
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #107,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Coaching > Football (American)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Why the Infernal Patriots Are So Good November 23, 2011

By Badger75

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you are a fan of an NFL team, not the NE Patriots, this book is a bit of a nightmare. Want to know why they are so good so often? This is Holley's second book on the Patriots (Patriot Reign). That and, The Blueprint by Christopher Price are the best books on the topic.

Holley has updated his first book by focusing on Belichick's growing network of front office assistants. The author manages to get busy sports executives to tell tales out of school. Scott Pioli, now with the Chiefs, and Thomas Dimitroff, now in Atlanta, provide quite a bit of detail on how the Kraft-Belichick system works.

Very readable. What is amazing is that they planned it after the first super bowl and they know how to make it work. The war room of course is the NFL draft each team prepares for. The Patriots use free agents and draft picks to good result. The team is constantly being rebuilt. Planning starts in the front office and moves to the coaches, players and the field.

Unless Kraft, Belichick and Brady all retire to take up falconry, this may go on for awhile.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars More about the people than the process November 20, 2011

By A. Wang

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The war room is the NFL nickname for the draft room: where the decision-makers sit during the NFL draft when they pick the college players that are the lifeblood of the team. This book follows three of those decision-makers: Bill Belichick, coach of the Patriots; Scott Pioli, who was the general manager of the Patriots during their championship run and now GM of the Chiefs; and Tom Dimitroff, the director of college scouting for the Patriots and now GM of the Falcons.

The book is a combination of reporting on the lives and relationships between these men, a summary of the Patriots' long run (which is familiar to anyone who follows the team or read a number of other books, including Holley's), and analysis of the team building process. I bought this hoping for a lot of the latter, and there were some interesting anecdotes, but was slightly disappointed by the lack of depth of analysis.

Holley does describe how Bill Belichick establishes a system where potential draft picks are always viewed in context of who they can replace on the current team, and how he uses his job security to often trade this year's draft picks to desperate teams for significantly higher picks in subsequent years. But he omits any discussion of the salary cap, which is a key constraint in building teams in the modern NFL, and the relative talent to value ratio of high draft picks (high draft picks are often carry such expensive contracts that they cripple their team financially). He doesn't talk much about free agency: how did they decide who to sign, who to extend, who to trade, and who to let go - and for how much money? He also mischaracterizes the Patriots' trade for Wes Welker as the Patriots having "cajoled, sweet-talked, and seduced" the Dolphins to part with him. The correct story was that he was a restricted free agent that the Dolphins had failed to properly value and protect, and the Patriots were going to sign him with a "poison-pill" offer which forced a trade. Maybe a relatively small point but not something a longtime Patriots follower like Holley should miss.

The book gets better near the end, as Holley got more real-time access to Belichick, and Pioli and Dimitroff after they left the Patriots. Probably the best discussion is of Dimitroff's big trade for Julio Jones. He sits in on a good conversation between Pioli and Dimitroff. There is some other new information that I hadn't heard before, like Belichick making the call on Laurence Maroney and Chad Jackson (both busts) over the objections of much of his staff. It was also interesting to get a glimpse of the human side of these men. Overall, there was enough good stuff that I felt the book was worth it, even with some shortcomings.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Inside the NFL Book in Print November 23, 2011

By olingerstories

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Michael Holley's WAR ROOM is an expansion of his 2004 best-seller, PATRIOT REIGN. Focusing upon Bill Belichick, Tom Dimitroff, and Scott Pioli, Holley presents the thinking of the Patriots, Falcolns, and Chiefs front offices leading up to and through the 2011 draft. The access Holley obtains is unbelievable. Belichick, Dimitroff and Pioli tell him everything, and the result is the best book ever written on how NFL front offices work.

Belichick is the master, the man who gave both Dimitroff and Pioli their starts in the early 90s in Cleveland. As closed as he is with the media post-game, Belichick is as open with Holley. Holley concludes that Belichick takes a GODFATHER like approach, its not personal its business, but without the dead heart of Michael Corleone. The secret to Belichick's drafting approach is stolen from Jimmie Johnson. Put on a list the 25 players you want on your team regardless of what their potential draft position might be. Stick to that list, and then be patient.

Pioli is the perpetual PH D type, poor, driven and hungry. He never forgots where he has come from and is always thankful for what he has been given. The book goes in depth into his move from the Patriots to the Chiefs and his transformation of the Chiefs operation. Everyone loves Pioli in the NFL, and Holley's detailed look shows why.

Dimitroff is an intense, counter-cultural health nut who is also as an intense, no nonsense NFL GM. Holley develops the relationship that Dimitroff has with owner Arthur Blank and the successful turn around for the Falcons that has resulted.

Perhaps the most interesting, and undoubtedly hidden gem of the book, is the complete background of the Falcons/Browns trade that sent a boatload of picks to the Browns and Julio Jones to the Falcons. Belichick tells Dimitroff openly he's trading too much, but Dimitroff believes there is a window in the NFL for winning and this is a special player that the Falcons need to get there. Dimitroff rolls the dice and seemingly to many talking heads mortgaged the future of his team by paying a king's ransom to Cleveland. But, Dimitroff believes otherwise, that Jones is the type of special talent that the Falcons will never see at the end of the first round.

An incredible read. Highly recommended.