Review of 'Gridiron Genius,' the New Book about Belichick, Bill Walsh and Al Davis

Let’s get one thing clear: I’m not Oprah. No matter how much I’d like to be. I’m not here to promote books. Except this one and this one, which in clinical tests have proven to be the most effective Male Enhancement remedies available without a prescription. But when someone writes a book in order to show us how Bill Belichick and some other football legends built their dynasties, their coaching methods and core philosophies, as The Belichick Whisperer, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t review it for you.

Michael Lombardi’s Gridiron Genius: A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL is just such a book. Lombardi not only worked for Belichick in New England, he was on the staff in Cleveland (the one that was profiled in The 1995 Cleveland Browns episode of A Football Life) he was a scouting assistant to Bill Walsh in San Francisco and Al Davis’ Senior Personnel Executive in Oakland. From people I’ve talked to, Lombardi has enough juice with Belichick that when he was on the staff in New England, part of his job was to say “You’re wrong, Bill” and “That’s a stupid idea.” Which is no doubt true because Belichick wrote the forward to the book.  (So much for the Boston media orcs who claim he got fired.)

Which is the strength of Gridiron Genius, as opposed to other profiles of Belichick, Walsh and Davis I’ve read. This isn’t some reporter given a little access and maybe some interviews. Lombardi is his own source, having worked alongside three of the best dynasty builders in NFL history. It’s all first hand account. From a guy who used to drive the car while Bill Walsh rode shotgun, brainstorming out loud while he was taking the 49ers from a failed joke of a franchise to a Super Bowl in less than 1000 days. Of him fielding random and hilarious phone calls at all hours from a latter day Al Davis (during the time Al had put his soul into Horcruxes to stay alive). Sitting in a room with the Patriots staff game planning the Super Bowl against Seattle. I’m never not fascinated by how guys like these operate behind the scenes. But thanks to some court-issued stay away orders I never get to. Simply put, Lombardi’s first-person, all access, total insider account of working with three dynastic legends is as good a behind-the-scenes sports book as I’ve ever read. And the favorite kind of summer reading for this football nerd.

Of course, any book about coaching is going to have some stuff in it about how you can translate their methods into your organization. The kind of thing they pay guys like Rick Pitino $100,000 to inspire hotel ballrooms full of pharmaceutical salesmen with. Fortunately, Lombardi never goes full Tony Robbins. There’s nothing about “Unlocking your full potential using the West Coast offense” or anything. And whenever it gets close, there’s always a quality Davis anecdote with him dropping pearls of wisdom like “Aw fuck, Lombardi, if I wanted someone to look it up I’d have done it myself.” I can’t get enough of aging mavericks saying “fuck” to their employees.

Without giving the book away, there’s great stuff in there about Walsh being so hyper-detail-oriented that he dictated everything from how the Niners’ receptionists should answer the phone to calling Lombardi on the headset in the middle of a preseason game demanding they fire the PA announcer because “he’s horrible.” There’s a common thread between Walsh and Belichick in that, they never sought the best players, but the best fit for their system. So when Walsh demanded a defensive end who was not shorter than 6-4, with long arms and a quick burst, Lombardi presented him with tape of a mid-level prospect out of James Madison. After watching one play, Walsh decided he didn’t need to see any more, and they took him in the fourth round. A fella named Charles Haley.

There are other gems. How Davis hired Lombardi at minimum wage just so Art Modell would, under league rules, have to pick up the rest of his salary, because they hated each other. How Nick Saban didn’t fail in Miami as much as he got porked by everyone in the organization still insisting on doing it Don Shula’s way. And then Saban replacing Mike Shula in Bama ten years later, because revenge is a dish best served cold. But good as they are, it’s the insights into my Spirit Animal Belichick that really set this one apart.

I won’t spoil them. Even though I want to because there’s inside dope here I’ve been wanting to know forever. Stories that go beyond even the Do Your Job special, the Belichick A Football Life and the books by David Halberstam and Michael Holley. Mindblowing stuff like how long before the “Malcolm Go!” play they began to address their defense’s 1st & goal problems. The preparation that went into the trick formations against Ravens in the 2014 Divisional playoff. Christ, how much thought Belichick puts into the decision to defer the opening kickoff, something thousands of coaches never burned a calorie thinking about it. And on and on.

I credit myself with having the largest privately owned collection of Bill Belichick erotica in the world. And this is football porn that’s taking its rightful place in that collection. Gridiron Genius is Certified Fresh by me.