Book Review: When The Game Was Ours

For my birthday, I was given When The Game Was Ours, authored by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, with Jackie MacMullan. It is a fun and entertaining read. About 330 pages long, I had it finished within a week.

It details the careers of the two title athletes, beginning with their high school careers, their meeting in the NCAA Championship game, and their intertwined professional careers.

I learned a few key points from the book. The first is that they were both obsessed with winning, and that obsession drove their success, individually and on their respective team.

Also, Magic and Larry were both aware of a certain team mentality that either encouraged or hindered success. During their title winning years, the team was more focused, more engaged, practicing harder, and winning more games.

During their non winning years, they noticed that support players weren't giving their all, and injuries were also a factor. Motivation and effort were noticeable factors. And that hints that some teams are trying to win a championship and some aren't. Even some good teams are simply going through the motions and not actively trying to improve.

A sharp observer could find these details.

All in all, a good read. Thanks Dad!

The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty. Chapters 1-10.

I'm 142 pages into The Genius, a book about Bill Walsh and his coaching legacy.  As a quick recap of his time with the 49ers, he coached from 1979-1988, winning the Super Bowl in 1981, 1984, and his final season 1988.  

A very impressive record.  Thats as many as Bill Belichick, the most successful coach of the current era.  Its a very fun read and exciting for me because I don't know very much about the Forty Niners history.  I remember watching games but very little about what was actually happening.  

The owner of the 49ers at the time was Eddie DeBartolo, who gave Bill Walsh free rein to both coach and be the GM.  This was unprecedented at the time.  The 49ers were performing horribly and had little to no success in any aspect of the game.  Bill Walsh won the Super Bowl in three years after taking over a team that was 2-14.  

The big question is how.  How did he do this?  What did he do differently?  The first trend I've picked up on is his willingness to trust his own judgement.  The corrolary is that his judgement is correct; it does you no good to trust your judgement if you are wrong.  But he also picked up on several inefficencies in the NFL at that time.  He anticipated the success of the "West-Coast Offense" whereby the offense throws lots of short, quick passes underneath the defense and generates significant yards after the catch.  

He was also an excellent judge of talent and was willing to continually cycle through talent to find good players.  

I was not surprised when I found this quote:  "We created an atmosphere in meetings in which a scout or coach was able to express himself completely.  If he overstated or understated in any category, he could change his opinion without being criticized.  We were interested only in results.  They could change their mind without being ridiculed.  Everyone was expected to participate."  This is a common trend among winners.  The simple fact is that one person simply can't be right all the time or know all the important information.  The problem occurs when people don't resolve conflicting views or share information.  Communication is key.

They also stressed positive reinforcement and communication from coaches to players about proper technique.  Bill Walsh stressed technique and would get upset at the assistants during practice if the players weren't displaying proper technique.  That creates a dynamic where the players want to do well because they don't want their assistant coach to be berated by the head coach.

This covers the first ten chapters of the book.  I will cover more later.  Enjoy!

Book review: Moving the Chains

I recently read "Moving the chains: Tom Brady and the pursuit of everything" by Charles P. Pierce.  

It focuses primarily on Tom Brady and his personality, values, and demeanor.  It gives extensive detail about his Catholic upbringing, his relationship with his father, mother, and sisters, and the role football and baseball played in his youth.  

It is low on details of football; the author apparently decided to write the book based on the 2005 season, which was when they were coming off of two straight super bowl wins and struggled throughout the season before losing to Denver in the playoffs.  

It doesn't discuss much except focus on his relationships with different mentors and personalities. 

Don't read it unless you and deeply interested in his personality and relationships.

Book Review: Urban's Way Part 1

Urban's Way is a very interesting book about Urban Meyer, the coach of the Florida Gator's football team.  He has been there four seasons and already won a national championship and will soon be competing for another one.  

Not suprisingly for someone as educated and successful as him, he is disciplined and has a very well considered approach to the game.  It includes breaking up the season into portions with individual goals, bowl preparation into segments, and counting down the number of days in the season.  A hundred and seven days is the offical count.  

Here is a summary of part one of the book:  Urban Meyer considers himself "one part football coach and one part Father Flanagan, the priest of Boys Town" (p 22.)

The four staples of Urbans program are:

1) Play great defense

2) Turnovers (all coaches are requried to teach ball security the same way)

3) Score in the red zone

4) Win the kicking game

They constantly preach the phrase "four to six seconds of relentless effort"

The core values of the Gator team are:

1) Honesty

2) Respect of Women

3) No stealing

4) No drugs

5) No weapons

"Four and five-star recruits are the lifeblood for the 'culture of winning' " (p 46). 

"he followed [John Wooden's] advice that players shouldn't be treated equally, but rather rewarded for how they contributed to the team" (p 94).  They have the Champions Club to reinforce that those who contribute and invest in the team are rewarded with privileges.  

He also uses "battlefield promotions" by awarding scholarships to people who excel in practice on the spot.  Essentially, a really bad ass play can earn you a scholarship.  

Book review: Patriot Reign

Patriot Reign by Michael Holey.  I read this book in about a day and a half.  It essentially details their first Superbowl campaign and a surface look at Belichick's management philosophy.  I can't say I was impressed with the depth of it but I think I was hoping for more X's and O's, more terminology.  Half the book is spent just detailing what happened, which I already knew all about.  

Nevertheless it had a lot of good points and illustrated his methods.  After being in the Navy I am surprised that Belichicks method is considered unique in the NFL because it seems very straigtforward and logical.  But then again, it is an illogical world we live in.

Bill Belichick is all buisness.  He felt Parcells was unfocused and disrespectful to the team by searching for a new job the night before the Super Bowl in 1996.

They felt Pete Carroll was a good teacher but not a good manager of people.  That has translated well for him to USC, where he has had a lot of succcess.  But as I've said before, not as much as be could have.  

The old Patriots system had a culture of entitlement and preferential treatment.  The new Patriots are much more of a meritocracy.  Constantly searching for who can play the best now, not who played the best a year ago, and factoring in the price of the player.  

Belichick on the Bledsoe-Brady controversy "You don't take a player who hasn't played in two months and then just stick him back in there like nothing had happened".

Great quote "Now there's not one person in this room- not one- who can't improve.  And it starts wit me.  I'll sit down with any of you and show you where you can improve.  Any of you.  Okay?  So all of us can be better and need to be better.  There's not oging to be any toleration for 'I'm doing my job, someone else can do their's better' " (p. 99).

Some things can't be corrected until the off season.  Attitude and communication can be fixed at any time.

Lastly, Bill Belichick wanted to work for an owner with whom he could communicate, and not someone who was easily swayed by the outside opinin of the day. (p 191)