Coaching Confidential: Inside the Fraternity of NFL Coaches

By Gary Myers

A behind-the-scenes look at the high-pressure lives of NFL head coaches

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.
     Just getting to Sunday is almost a relief for NFL head coaches. It's during that three-hour window 16 days a year when they can simply concentrate on what they do best, which is trying to win football games. But the job is, of course, much more than that.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9780307719683

Reviews for Coaching Confidential

[skinglist · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amazing and fabulous look into the other side of coaching in the NFL. According to my Kindle, I had 31 bookmarks. It felt like so many more since it seemed every page was something new, exciting, or awe-inspiring in some cases. As a Giants fan, I loved that it opened with SB46. But I also loved the look backs into NFL history.-Tom Coughlin and Belichick. Even though they've been on opposing sides of two recent Super Bowls, the two are so closely linked via Parcells that their looking for one another and "long embrace" shouldn't be surprising - but somehow it always is. They - and from the younger generation, Sean Payton keep Parcells' legacy alive in the NFL. Just as it's a different NFL without Brett Favre, it will be a different one without these two men.and while they're serious, there's also a celebratory side to them - Coughlin hugging Flava Flav after the Win. Eli seeking out his head coach after the celebrations. Manning and Coughlin have a bond. The fraternity of coaches helping one another - Dungy, Reid... "When I called Pete Rozelle at home the night (Tom) Landry was fired, he said, 'This is like Lombardi's death' It was a shocking reminder to every man who has ever stood on the sidelines: if it can happen to Landry, it can happen to me,While the hostile takeover in Dallas was a little before I began watching football, it's a football milestone everyone knows. Yet I didn't know it in such detail.What was also interesting in hindsight was the duel between the Pats and Jets and how much Parcells loves the drama. Speaks volumes to his value as a head coach that he still was able to work in the NFL after the nuttiness he pulled... twice. But then, this explains it: "The Parcells coaching tree has produced eight Super Bowl appearances and six Super Bowl championships, and the two losses came when one of the branches defeated the other. Combine that with Parcells's three appearances and two championships, and that's a total of 11 Super Bowls and eight championships in the first 46 Super Bowls. That means there's been a Parcells connection to nearly 25 percent of all the Super Bowls." Favre trick or treating at Holmgren's. Shanahan coming back to Elway, and then beating Reeves. Shanahan wondering if a prank was going to kill Al Davis - so much behind the scenes, So many memories. Some sad moments too - reading the section on Joe (God) Gibbs' return and the handling of the team following Sean Taylor's death was especially poignant - reading it shortly after the 5th anniversary of Taylor's passing. Loved that the lens of Peyton Manning leaving Indy was framed through Elway & Fox's redemption in Denver - and less about the drama that ensued when he left Indy. I have read some of Myers' articles, but even being in NY I don't read him all that often so I don't know how much of this info is recycled. Some of the history is though - you can't mention Accorsi without hearing all about how Elway was ripped from under him. Overall, a wonderful read.