Patriot Reign

Infobox Book
name = Patriot Reign
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =Hardcover, 1st edition cover
(wire services photo by Jim Rogash of AP)
author = Michael Holley
illustrator =
cover_artist = AP Photo by Jim Rogash
country = USA
language = English
series =
subject = Tom Brady, Bill Belichick,
Robert Kraft, Jonathan Kraft,
Scott Pioli, Bill Parcells,
New England Patriots,
National Football League,
and so forth.
genre = Sports coverage, analysis and history
publisher = HarperCollins
pub_date = 2004
english_pub_date =
media_type = hardcover, Trade Paperback
pages = 240 / ???
isbn = 0060757949
oclc =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

Patriot Reign is a best-selling book by Boston Globe/New York Times sports writer Michael Holley resulting from two years he was given unprecedented access (as if he were a fly on the wall) to the inner sanctums of the world champion New England Patriots football operations as they worked to turn a good luck year into a legitimate contender of a team. Holley spent his days tracking the behind the scenes operations in the New England Patriots organization between their first and second Super Bowl (Super Bowl XXXVI and Super Bowl XXXVIII) wins, sitting in on meetings of all kinds, and never being asked to exclude anything. Prohibited from nothing, Holley roamed the managerial meetings and team areas normally closed to the press and conducted in depth interviews with scouts, coaches, and other Patriots insiders up to and including owner Robert Kraft and his son and President of the Patriots, Jonathan Kraft. Published in 2004 by the William Marrow subsidiary of Harper-Collins books, Holley followed the team from within the organization day to day, hour to hour for nearly two full seasons as coach and de facto general manager Bill Belichick resumed the building of a model NFL franchise interrupted surprisingly to all, by the Patriots unexpected appearance and victory in Super Bowl XXXVI against the St Louis Rams, the self-styled "Greatest Show on Turf". Shortly afterwards, Holley pitched his book concept to Belichick, it was rubber stamped by the Krafts, and Holley took a leave of absence from his newspaper work to immerse himself in the NFL football society known as the New England Patriots.

Deep background

The first few chapters of the work set the stage and introduce the main Patriots 'characters' and their resumes, similar to most any book. It does not get bogged down in small biographical data, but focuses in on matters which would be most of interest to fans of American Professional Football. Unsurprisingly, the book begins by covering the early experiences of Belichick as a young coach including his tutoring under his late father, Steven Belichick, a lifelong scout and coach for the United States Naval Academy football program whom he began to help "breaking down film" and recording (analyzing upcoming opponent) plays as early as age eleven. Belichick was so skilled at this, that when he took a position as a graduate intern where this was his job with the Baltimore franchise, his salary was doubled after only a few weeks.

Subsequently Holley shifts to focus in to the early coaching career of Belichick (from age 23) as he went from Graduate intern to jobs as various positions coach under four different coaches in three different football organizations including Ted Marchibroda in Baltimore and Rick Forzano of the Detroit Lions.

Holley all but ignores Belichicks ten years or so with the New York Giants as defensive co-ordinator and (eventually) as assistant coach —where he established himself as a defensive genius— touching on those years only in passing as if assuming the reader is familiar with that record. One is instead given tidbit mentions of certain key achievements of Belichicks defenses and the dominating Giants' teams he helped construct sprinkled throughout the book.

Eschewing such a linear history, the narrative touches on the near hiring of Belichick as head coach by the Arizona Cardinals in 1987 when that team moved from St Louis and immediately shifts to the era four years later to focus in closely on Belichicks' four years (1991-1995) with the (Old) Cleveland Browns where Belchick was the youngest NFL head coach theretofore, but one which the media deemed for a time to be just an average head coach, and one they disliked for his policies keeping them away from the team after they'd had years of free access at will. Holley relates the behind the scenes viewpoint of the press about Belichick based on the Cleveland days, where he had taken a 2-14 team to the 11-5 and the AFC playoffs in just three years, so he "may be worthy of respect". By the time of his surprising resignation as "HC of the NYJ", the press jury was definitely hung on his skills as a head coach. Holley necessarily covers the Browns flight from Cleveland to Baltimore, that left owner Art Modell as the most hated man in Cleveland, so much so Modell wouldn't attend the funeral of a long time friend and associate for fear of his life only a few years ago.

In an introspective section contrasting then-to-now Holley covers mistakes (according to) Belichick that he made with the press, general management and the eccentric owner Art Modell in his first position as head coach from the secure seat of his second wearing the ring from Super Bowl XXXVI, and the reader is first presented with some insight-gems as to why Belichick does what he does with the press and players and the glimpses of his thought processes, policies and attitudes that have turned him into one of the most successful head coaches in all of sports. This treatment also serves to let Belichicks personality come through and humanizes the icon and the reader is given the first inkling that Belichick really resents the press perception that he'd been trained by and was some kind of Parcells disciple—which Belichick communicates is very disrespectful of the great coaches he worked under in his twenties and thirties.

Quotes and anecdotes are sprinkled within the narrative flow and well chosen to illustrate the theme of the narrative about the time period being exposed. The technique is quite effective in showing Belichick the complex man behind the dour face, and part of what we learn is the cerebral "defensive genius" is one hell of a teacher, parent, and thinker that possesses a great penchant for joking around and telling stories while being profane as needed in his direct communications at need. If a point can be improved by resorting to the punctuational emphasis of a colorful swear word, Belichick the chess playing intellectual will happily use the tool to accomplish the mission: The job is always to win the next game, to be better going forward, to be more flexible, to have backup options, to be ready for anything, and yesterday as well as what you accomplished back then is irrelevant—always. This part of his history concludes with how Belichick parted ways with owner Art Modell and did not follow the team in the 1996-97 off season to Baltimore where it was reincarnated as today's Baltimore Ravens and enters near-contemporary history and certainly that most of interest to Patriots fans when Belichick first joined the New England Patriots.

Tailspin relations of 1996

The narrative continues next by focusing on his history when he was hired immediately post-Browns by his old boss Bill Parcells who'd employed him in his decade with the New York Giants, to one exposing the complex relationships and interpersonal dynamics governing the management interactions of the 1996 Patriots, the relationships between the Krafts and Parcells, and exposes key points in their characters, philosophies, and history.

As the new assistant head coach for the New England Patriots Belichick soon found he'd become the ombudsman to the novice owners Robert Kraft and his son Jonathan who were in a shaky relationship with veteran coach and football icon Parcells, and that there was "A history" between the owners and Parcells that was leading to a deteriorating situation. Using that situation to segue, the book then pauses to give a football background history of Robert Kraft and then moving lightly into the business realm, touches on his financial analysis (business evaluation) that the Patriots could not be successful economically as a franchise without also owning the stadium and its revenues. Kraft couldn't afford to buy the Patriots in 1988, but his move to save Billy Sullivan and Foxboro stadium in Foxborough, MA from bankruptcy by purchasing it himself when Sullivan sold the Patriots to Victor Kiam made him their landlord, and positioned him to own the team later in pursuit of a years long dream.

The 2000 Season controversy

Despite the marketing successes , the relationship between Kraft and Parcells was strained and rocky and got worse with time as new owners with their net worth on the line were unwilling to give a carte blanch to Parcells spending on the Football Operations spending side of the business. The Krafts believed in giving management plenty of space, but not carte blanch without occasional questions and answers. Parcells felt the owner was interfering with his prerogatives and what was needed to run a successful winning football franchise, especially in light of the new NFL salary cap which took effect in 1994. The result was a stalemate that led to Bill Belichick, as newly hired Assistant Head Coach mediating between the two in the 1996 season, and to the distracting and disruptive rumors that Parcells was leaving the franchise that dominated the news prior to the teams participation in Super Bowl XXXI (as double-digit under dogs) despite the fact Parcells was under contract through the 1997 season.

President of the Patriots, Jonathan Kraft is quoted by writer Michael Holley in Patriots Reign as saying "It was a very, very strange time, and when you are not an expert at this business—you know we were still very new to the business—it can be educational. Big Bill had kept us in the dark on a lot of things. He probably misled us on some things. And we didn't know how to go about questioning it." [citebook|title=Patriots Reign|ISBN=006757949|author=Michael Holley|copyright=2004|publisher=HarperCollins|edition=1st ed. HC|page=30]

The reader learns how unable to move the team as he could not break the long term lease with Foxboro Stadium, former owner James Orthwein put the team up for sale in 1994 and this time Kraft was ready, willing, and able to outbid all others for the team an achieve his lifelong dream, even though he had to pay (for the times) an unprecedented large price for the team, $200,000,000 and inheriting a strong minded football icon for a head coach with whom he had no relationship. Holley next sketches in how the Krafts' business acumen then immediately kicked in to improve the teams revenues and establish an ever increasing fan base (in no small part by ending the dubious practice of blocking out local television coverage when there were seats available) which has resulted in consecutively increasing sales every years since, and a sold out stadium since the 1996 season with a waiting list for season tickets that goes for years.

References