Shown above, the following are 17 Books Football Fans Should Read During The New NFL 17-Game Season. Some are older than others but for sure leadership content, these are my personal favorites. With the exception of the first two, all books are listed in alphabetical order by author.
If you do not have these in your library, I cannot recommend them enough. Simply click the hotlinks to order.
- The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership by Bill Walsh – This is one of the Top 5 leadership books I have ever read regardless of the genre. Walsh is a towering figure in the history of the NFL. His advanced leadership transformed the San Francisco 49ers from the worst franchise in sports to a legendary dynasty. In the process, he changed the way football is played. Prior to his death, Walsh granted a series of exclusive interviews to bestselling author Steve Jamison. These became his ultimate lecture on leadership. For a sample from this book click The 17 Principles of Bill Walsh’s Standard of Performance.
- Gridiron Genius: A Master Class in Building Teams and Winning at the Highest Level by Michael Lombardi – If you are looking to build a winning organizational culture, this is one the best books ever written on the subject! Lombardi is the only person who has worked under the legendary leadership of Al Davis, Bill Walsh, and Bill Belichick. In addition, he has worked with Nick Saban. Lombardi provides the blueprint that makes a successful organization click and win–and the mistakes unsuccessful organizations make that keep them on the losing side time and again. In reality, very few coaches understand the philosophies, attention to detail, and massive commitment that defined NFL juggernauts like the 49ers and the Patriots. The best organizations are not just employing players, they are building something bigger. Gridiron Genius will explain how the best leaders evaluate, acquire, and utilize personnel in ways other professional minds, football and otherwise, won’t even contemplate.
- Chasing the Bear: How Bear Bryant and Nick Saban Made Alabama the Greatest College Football Program of All Time by Lars Anderson. Both Bear Bryant and Nick Saban are undeniable kings of college football, two coaches at Alabama who have each won more national championships — six and seven — than anyone else in the history of the game. CHASING THE BEAR examines how they did it, revealing along the way their similarities in style, background, football philosophy, and recruiting methods, while providing readers a rare inside look at two of the greatest leaders in the history of sports.
- The Dynasty by Jeff Benedict – Every leader should read Jeff Benedict’s new book. For example, the first 50 pages on how Robert Kraft was able to purchase the New England Patriots should be taught in every business school. By tracing the team’s epic run through the perspectives of Kraft, Bill Belichick, and Tom Brady—each of whom was interviewed for the book—the author provides a wealth of new insight into the complex human beings most responsible for the Patriots’ success. We watch the NFL’s savviest owner treat Brady like a son, empower Belichick to cut and trade beloved players, and spend sleepless nights figuring out diplomatic ways to keep Brady and Belichick together for two decades. We come to understand how a genius head coach keeps his players at an emotional distance and blocks out anything that gets in the way of winning. And we experience the relentless drive, ferocious competitive nature, and emotional sensitivity that allows Brady to continue playing football into his forties. The result is an intimate portrait that captures the human drama of the dynasty’s three key characters while also revealing the secrets behind their success. This is perhaps the most compelling and illuminating book that will ever be written about the greatest professional sports team of our time.
- The GM: The Inside Story of a Dream Job and the Nightmares that Go with It by Tom Callahan. In the summer of 2006, the NFL’s most senior general manager, Ernie Accorsi, invited Tom Callahan “inside” the Giants organization to experience a season—Accorsi’s last—from the front office, the locker room, the sidelines, and the tunnel. The GM goes far beyond the specifics of a single season, though. In a marriage of two great raconteurs, one lobbing stories and the other neatly catching them, Callahan and Accorsi—writer and subject—show how the pro game (and the league that showcases it) really works, and the peculiar role of today’s general manager, who must be part seer, part accountant, balancing psyches and salary caps. At its essence, The GM is the story of the job—of what it means to be the guy who makes the decisions . . . who’s second-guessed by fans and the media . . . who must deal with endless—and sometimes impossible—expectations.
- Win Forever: Live, Work, and Play Like a Champion by Pete Carroll. Pete Carroll is one of the most successful coaches in football today. As the head coach at USC, he brought the Trojans back to national prominence, amassing a 97-19 record over nine seasons. Now he shares the championship-winning philosophy that led USC to seven straight Pac-10 titles. This same mind-set and culture will shape his program as he returns to the NFL to coach the Seattle Seahawks. Carroll developed his unique coaching style by trial and error over his career. He learned that you get better results by teaching instead of screaming, and by helping players grow as people, not just on the field. He learned that an upbeat, energetic atmosphere in the locker room can coexist with an unstoppable competitive drive. He learned why you should stop worrying about your opponents, why you should always act as if the whole world is watching, and many other contrarian insights. Carroll shows us how the Win Forever philosophy really works, both in NCAA Division I competition and in the NFL. He reveals how his recruiting strategies, training routines, and game-day rituals preserve a team’s culture year after year, during championship seasons and disappointing seasons alike.
- Payton and Brees: The Men Who Built the Greatest Offense in NFL History by Jeff Duncan – Coming out on October 13th, I’m reading this book to learn about innovation and collaboration. Together, Sean Payton and Drew Brees joined forces and transformed the Saints from laughingstock to juggernaut. Payton’s bold play-calling proved the perfect match for Brees, who threw a league-leading and franchise record 4,418 passing yards as the Saints advanced to the NFC championship game. Three seasons later, the Saints were Super Bowl champions. Payton and Brees is the definitive account of how this dynamic duo transformed a team, a city, and the game of football.
- The Genius of Desperation: The Schematic Innovations that Made the Modern NFL by Doug Farrar and Louis Riddick. If necessity has been the mother of invention throughout the history of professional football, it could also be said that desperation is the father. Rare are the football innovations that have occurred without an owner, general manager, coach, or player up against the wall and reaching for a way to succeed anyway. In this meticulously researched, lively book, Bleacher Report lead NFL scout Doug Farrar traces the schematic history of the pro game through these “if this/then that” moments—paradigm shifts in the game from 1920 through the present. More than just a book about schemes and strategies, The Genius of Desperation: The Schematic Innovations that Made the Modern NFL also tells the stories of the game’s most prominent innovators, the adversities they endured, and the ways in which they learned to exceed their own expectations on the path to true greatness. Everyone from George Halas to Greasy Neale, Paul Brown to Sid Gillman, Bill Walsh to Chip Kelly is featured, as well as many more.
- The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks by Bruce Feldman. To tell the story of all that goes on to create the perfect quarterback, bestselling author Bruce Feldman gained unique access to “Johnny Football” (that’s Johnny Manziel), George Whitfield and many other players in what has become a specialized and high-stakes business. In the past decade the boom of the private quarterback-coach business, with its pageant-world-for-boys vibe, has changed the position and the game. The QB tells the story of the interlocking paths of the most fascinating characters involved in this secretive world, examining how advanced analysis has taken root in football. Manziel’s portrait is the most intimate look at him yet, detailing all his talents and antics. His guru is a man who has come to be known for making QBs–George Whitfield, unparalleled in the business. And then there is Trent Dilfer, the quarterback who never could get to the superstar level, despite winning the Super Bowl. He is the Salieri to Manziel’s Mozart. There is the computer/brain analysis company trying to quantify how playmakers think, the biomechanics expert who saved Drew Brees’s career, and many more fascinating behind-the-scenes looks into this world. Never before has the game so relied on the development of the quarterback. In The QB, the stories of these men illustrate how high the stakes of the quarterback’s game really are, taking readers on a compelling journey into the heart of America’s beloved game.
- Guts and Genius: The Story of Three Unlikely Coaches Who Came to Dominate the NFL in the ’80s by Bob Glauber. Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcells dominated what may go down as the greatest decade in pro football history, leading their teams to a combined eight championships and developing some of the most gifted players of all time in the process. Walsh, Gibbs and Parcells developed such NFL stars as Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor, Jerry Rice, Art Monk and Darrell Green. They resurrected the careers of players like John Riggins, Joe Theismann, Doug Williams, Everson Walls and Hacksaw Reynolds. They did so with a combination of guts and genius, built championship teams in their own likeness, and revolutionized pro football like few others. Their influence is still evident in today’s game, with coaches who either worked directly for them or are part of their coaching trees now winning Super Bowls and using strategy the three men devised and perfected. In interviews with more than 150 players, coaches, family members and friends, GUTS AND GENIUS digs into the careers of three men who overcame their own insecurities and doubts to build Hall of Fame legacies that transformed their generation and continue to impact today’s NFL.
- You Win in the Locker Room First: The 7 C’s to Build a Winning Team in Business, Sports, and Life by Jon Gordon – Jon is known for a number of other books but I think this is his best work. The Atlanta Falcons were one play away from going to Super Bowl XVLII and the next year head coach Mike Smith was fired. What happened? Step by step, the authors outline a strategy for building a thriving organization and provide a practical framework that give leaders the tools they need to create a great culture, lead with the right mindset, create strong relationships, improve teamwork, execute at a higher level, and avoid the pitfalls that sabotage far too many leaders and organizations. In addition to sharing what went right with the Falcons, Smith also transparently shares what went wrong his last two seasons and provides invaluable lessons leaders can take away from his victories, success, failures and mistakes. For more on this book, read 91 Lessons On Developing A Winning Culture At Your Church or Business from an event they spoke at.
- War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team by Michael Holley. Bill Belichick is one of the titans of today’s game of football. Now, sports commentator and bestselling author Michael Holley follows three NFL teams—the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, and Atlanta Falcons—from training camp 2010 through the Super Bowl and into the April draft, opening a new window into Belichick’s influence on the game. This one-of-a-kind exploration takes football fans behind the scenes of the most popular sport in America, with unprecedented insider access to the head coaches, scouts, trainers, and players who make the game what it is—including new insights from Bill Parcells, Todd and Dick Haley, and Belichick himself. For true fans of the game, and for readers of Badasses, Patriot Reign, and Boys Will Be Boys, Holley’s War Room is not to be missed.
- The Games That Changed the Game: The Evolution of the NFL in Seven Sundays by Ron Jaworski and Greg Cosell. Professional football in the last half century has been a sport marked by relentless innovation. For fans determined to keep up with the changes that have transformed the game, close examination of the coaching footage is a must. In The Games That Changed the Game, Ron Jaworski—pro football’s #1 game-tape guru—breaks down the film from seven of the most momentous contests of the last fifty years, giving readers a drive-by-drive, play-by-play guide to the evolutionary leaps that define the modern NFL. From Sid Gillman’s development of the Vertical Stretch, which launched the era of wide-open passing offenses, to Bill Belichick’s daring defensive game plan in Super Bowl XXXVI, which enabled his outgunned squad to upset the heavily favored St. Louis Rams and usher in the New England Patriots dynasty, the most cutting-edge concepts come alive again through the recollections of nearly seventy coaches and players.
- What It Takes To Be Number #1: Vince Lombardi on Leadership by Vince Lombardi, Jr. In What It Takes to Be #1, Vince Lombardi, Jr. explores his father’s leadership philosophy, and extracts powerful lessons about what it takes to be an effective leader. Taking as his jumping-off point his father’s legendary 1970 speech on the supreme importance of self-knowledge, character, and integrity, Lombardi, Jr. examines each of those qualities and offers guidelines on cultivating and applying them at work and in your personal life. Throughout, What It Takes to Be #1is enlivened by personal anecdotes and quotes about and by his father, as well as quotes from other great leaders providing further wisdom and inspiration.
- Coaching Confidential: Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches by Gary Myers. Coaching Confidential chronicles a year in the life of an NFL head coach. But not just one head coach. A composite portrait is drawn through interviews with at least 20 current and former head coaches (including Super Bowl winners such as Bill Parcells, Tom Coughlin, Jimmy Johnson, Tony Dungy, Sean Payton, Mike Shanahan, Dick Vermeil, Mike Holmgren, Brian Billick, and Joe Gibbs), taking us through the professional and personal challenges of the job. This book covers the draft, free agency, big trades, training camp, family crisis, player troubles, coaching relationships with members of the staff, coach-owner dynamics, rivalries, Xs and Os, the playoffs–all the way to the Super Bowl.
- The Game Plan: The Art of Building a Winning Football Team by Bill Polian. As one of the most successful general managers and team presidents in NFL history, few people understand how to create the blueprint for a winning football team like Bill Polian. After building the Buffalo Bills team that went to four consecutive Super Bowls and taking the expansion Carolina Panthers to the NFC Championship just two years after the team’s creation, he was responsible for the Indianapolis Colts drafting Peyton Manning with the first overall pick in 1998 and oversaw the team’s victory in Super Bowl XLI. Now, Polian shares his blueprint for building a successful football team in The Game Plan. He details the decisions both a team needs to make in the regular season and the offseason to bring teams to the postseason and the NFL’s ultimate test of a well-built team: the Super Bowl. Also, I can’t wait to read his upcoming book now available for pre-order Super Bowl Blueprints: Hall of Famers Reveal the Keys to Football’s Greatest Dynasties.
- 4th and Goal Every Day by Phil Savage – This is the best book I have read for unpacking the elements of Alabama Crimson Tide’s head coach Nick Saban’s legendary “The Process”. Savage details Coach Saban’s year-round preparation, his willingness to adjust and his belief in “complimentary football.” The book offers a close look at their player development and practice habits and gives a glimpse of the Crimson Tide’s approach of playing every single down like it’s 4th and goal.
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The Top 60 Leadership Quotes From 2021 Part 1 is my latest ebook. For many entering a post-pandemic environment, leadership looks completely different than the pre-pandemic world. People are more broken now. They are more uncertain. Fear and anxiousness are unwelcome constant companions. Cultures are more unhealthy. Relationships are more dysfunctional. Hope seems to be in short supply. Every day seems to bring a new hacking, natural disaster, or unexpected calamity.
Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership. If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource. The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.