A Review of “War Room” by Michael Holley

Every Patriots fan wants to get an inside look at the Patriots and how they operate on a day-to-day basis. There are the occasional features on the NFL Network with NFL Films, like “A Football Life: Bill Belichick” a few months ago, but no access to the everyday football operations. Michael Holley, co-host of WEEI’s Big Show came out with his newest book “War Room”, giving fans an inside look at Bill Belichick and the Patriots as well as former members of the Patriots organization Scott Pioli and Thomas Dimitroff and where they are now

Holley followed Pioli to the Chiefs and Dimitroff to the Falcons in the second half of  the book. This half of the book focuses more on how Belichick, Pioli and Dimitroff put their teams together especially through the draft. It goes through the 2010 and 2011 drafts for all three of the teams. The draft day thought process as well as trades are all featured.

The first half of the book focuses more on Pioli and Dimitroff’s relationship with Belichick and how they all got to be working with the Patriots. It goes all the way back to when Pioli was a student at Central Conn. State and Belichick was with the Giants. It really was fascinating to see how the three of them became so close.

From a Patriots standpoint the book was very similar to Holley’s first book “Patriot Reign.” If you enjoyed that book you are sure to enjoy this one as well. The book went into the draft day decisions of the past two seasons, as well as some insight into prior drafts. Tedy Bruschi, Vince Wilfork, Rodney Harrison and Rosevelt Colvin were all interviewed in the book.

Here are a few notable highlights:

•  When Josh McDaniels picked Randy Moss up at the airport after the 2007 draft day trade, Moss originally thought McDaniels was an intern.
•  The Patriots scouts were not very high on both Chad Jackson and Laurence Maroney. It was Urban Meyer (Florida) and the Minnesota coaching staff that convinced Belichick to draft him.
•  Many players including Wilfork were and still are upset about the trade that sent Mike Vrabel to the Chiefs.

That is really all I can say without giving everything away. For a fan of the Patriots, Chiefs, Falcons, or any team in the NFL for that matter this is a must read.