Over two unbelievable decades, the New England Patriots were not
only the NFL's most dominant team, but also-and by far-the most
secretive. How did they achieve and sustain greatness-and what were
the costs? In It's Better to Be Feared, Seth Wickersham, one of the
nation's finest investigative sportswriters, presents the
definitive account of the New England Patriots dynasty, capturing
the brilliance, ambition, and ruthlessness that powered it. Having
covered the team since Tom Brady took over as starting quarterback
in 2001, Wickersham draws on an immense range of sources, including
previously confidential game plans, scouting reports, and internal
studies as well as hundreds of interviews gathered over two
decades-with Brady, Bill Belichick, and other players, coaches, and
front office personnel-to offer a behind-the-scenes chronicle of
the dynasty's three acts: the initial burst of Super Bowls from
2001 to 2005; the plateau period, 2006 to 2014, stalked by scandal,
injury, and near-misses; and the second three Super Bowl victories
between 2015 and 2019, which allowed the Patriots to make their
claim upon history. At every step, Wickersham demonstrates just how
Belichick and Brady shaped the Patriots and reshaped the entire
NFL. We are taken deep into Belichick's tactical mind, odd work
habits, and strained relationships, including his sincere but
unspoken love for the players and a near fistfight with a former
assistant coach. It is an illuminating depiction of a mastermind,
and an organization, dedicated not only to winning but to breaking
a league designed to prevent the emergence of a single, unbeatable
team. Yet it is in Wickersham's portrait of Brady-from his
childhood in northern California to his challenging years at the
University of Michigan to his astonishing early superstardom in the
NFL-that the source of the Patriots' sheer endurance comes into
focus. Even as he navigated an improbable rise to fame, Brady was
driven by a totalizing ambition to be great, not as an endpoint,
but as an ever-unfolding process. Sustaining greatness, however,
came with a price. Wickersham reveals, to an extent no other
journalist has, the clashes among the coach, the quarterback, and
the owner, Robert Kraft-conflicts that resulted in the team's best
performances but also, eventually, the dissolution of the dynasty
itself. Raucous, unvarnished, and propulsive, It's Better to Be
Feared is an instant classic of American sportswriting, and an
unforgettable study of what it takes to reach, and remain at, the
summit of human achievement.
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