That’s the key to explaining whether the book is worth reading.
Whether it’s non-fiction or fiction, self-help, romance, travel, cooking, history, biography.
What passion drove them to the point they had no choice but put it down on paper for posterity.
Joining the ranks of other noted authors such as Dickens, Melville, Steinbeck, Hemingway andThornton.
Belichick wroteThe Art of Winningfor one reason and one reason only: To benefit all mankind.
This is not an autobiography.
It’s not merely some self-aggrandizing list of his accomplishments like so many others have penned before him.
It’s a philosophy book.
In the tradition of Marcus Aurelius’sMeditations.
Immanuel Kant’sCritique of Pure Reason.
Friedrich Nietzsche’sThus Spoke Zarathustra.
This is about a great thinker imparting his wisdom to help an unwise world.
It’s a gift to us all.
Or, unlikely but plausible, a splashy tell-all, settling old scores.
Or, perhaps, a business book for the Wharton crowd.
Instead, it’s about something more interesting and revealing.
It’s largely a book about emotion.
About how a leader should treat people.
…
Bill feels in debt to the sport.
He doesn’t dive deep into his theories about, say, long-snappers or nickel cornerbacks.
in Super Bowl XLIX.
A preseason game from 2004 receives a longer look than most of his championships.
…
That’s not to say, however, that there’s not football.
It just lives beyond the chessboard.
“I’m like that.
I don’t need coffee; I need more hours in the day.”
There are chapters on how to motivate people.
How to prepare, improve, how to move on, and how to handle success.
How to balance long-term strategy against short-term necessities.
But classic Belichick, he spends more time on his mistakes than his historic successes.
…
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Robert Kraft receives nary a mention.
The Malcolm Butler thing has been done to death.
Everything between Belichick and Mr. Kraft was said at his mutually agreed upon, parting-of-the-ways, farewell press conference.
No need to rehash all of that metaphorical water beneath all those abstract bridges.
To really help humanity, it’s best to talk about the stuff no one remembers.
Or ever wondered about.
That 2004 preseason game that was somehow the key to everything.
A deep dive into that momentous Dan Klecko decision from that Super Bowl we won.
This is how we learn.
Some real Socratic method teaching from the wisest philosopher of our time.
And I for one cannot wait for class to begin.
Until then, I’m going to suggest to my fellow literati that they all take the year off.
As men of letters, we owe it to each other.
