Tim Kawakami

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SPORTS ILLUSTRATED • NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR National Sports Media Association • Book of the Year Kirkus Reviews • Best Nonfiction of the Year “[H]onest, sprawling, meticulously reported, and beautifully written." ―Chad Finn, Boston Globe The explosive, long-awaited account of the making of the greatest dynasty in football history―from the acclaimed ESPN reporter who has been there from the very beginning. 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.

As a longtime reporter on the 49ers beat, Matt Barrows has lived and breathed Niners football through times of greatness, defeat, and reinvention. In If These Walls Could Talk: San Francisco 49ers, Barrows provides insight into the 49ers' inner sanctum as only he can. Featuring players and coaches like Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick, Kyle Shanahan, and Jimmy Garoppolo, this indispensable volume is your behind-the-scenes pass.

“Perfect for football fans of all stripes, this dual-focus portrait celebrates the winning power of strong bonds between coach and player.” —Publishers Weekly A rare, behind the scenes  look at the New Orleans Saints over more than 14 seasons In 2006, Sean Payton arrived in New Orleans as a relatively unknown first time NFL head coach. His task was daunting: resurrect a Saints team that had just finished 3–13 and had won only one playoff game in the previous four decades. Meanwhile, the city was undergoing its own staggering rebuild following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina five months earlier. Payton knew that to turn around the Saints’ fortunes, he needed to turn around their dreadful quarterback legacy. The Saints targeted a San Diego Chargers castoff they hoped would become the new face of their franchise: Drew Brees. Every team in the NFL had passed on Brees at least once because of his surgically repaired right shoulder or his lack of prototypical size. But for the Saints, Brees was worth the risk. Together, these two underdogs rolled up their sleeves and got to work, helping rebuild the city as they transformed the franchise from laughingstock to Super Bowl Champions. What they have done since, including building the most productive offense the NFL has ever seen and setting multiple passing and scoring records, has only deepened their legacy in New Orleans and throughout the league. Based on more than 14 years of firsthand reporting and dozens of interviews with players, coaches, and executives, Payton and Brees is the definitive account of how Sean Payton and Drew Brees transformed a team, a city, and the game of football.

One Coach stands above the rest of his peers in the NBA. This coach has created a culture that has lead to the birth of one of the greatest dynasties in the modern NBA. The team culture of excellence is so strong that the team even experiences success when Kerr can’t be courtside due to major surgery.The key to Steve Kerr’s success hasn’t been any secret knowledge or even the amount of special players that he has on the roster. Instead, what has separated Steve Kerr from the rest of his coaching brethren is his unique ability to get players to buy into the team. In other words, his ability to lead a unique and special group of elite players.In Lead With Love you will learn the how Coach Kerr has developed these traits and used them to create a basketball dynasty that stands to rival some of the elite basketball dynasties in the history of the NBA. Go inside the Golden State Warriors to pull the curtain back on the motivational and leadership strategies that have allowed Steve Kerr to become the greatest coach in the NBA.