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

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.

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.

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.