Won for All - Softcover

Johnson, Pepper; Gutman, Bill

3.64

36 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071425292 ISBN 13: 9780071425292

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education, 2003

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In the year 2001, the New England Patriots staked a claim to a part of football history that will not soon be forgotten. A last place team in 2000, they won their division in 2001, then finished with three upset playoff victories, including the stirring last-second victory over the high-octane and heavily favored St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl. From training camp to Adam Vinatieri's dramatic game-winning field goal and its aftermath, Won for All is the inside story of how the team, maligned at the start of the season, overcame injuries and distractions to win it all - and the inside story from Pepper Johnson, the Patriots inside linebackers coach and a 13-year NFL veteran. Told in first-person narrative, Pepper gives the reader an intimate and unmatched perspective on the Patriots' amazing season. Observant and perceptive, Pepper highlights the season on and off the field as the season progressed and began to crescendo toward its unlikely finale. He also gives fans a glimpse into everyday life in the NFL. Divided into 12 chapters, the narrative reconstructs the season with intervening material on the inner workings of a team that remained largely invisible to Patriot followers. By showing what the team was like in all its dimensions and replaying all the defining moments of their magical season, Won for All has become a football classic.

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From the Back Cover:

"Johnson provides a look inside the locker room for the entire season. . . . [He] doesn't pull any punches."
Will McDonough, Boston Globe

"Paxton's snap was perfect. Walter set it down, spun the laces, and Adam stepped up and swung his leg through the ball. As soon as it left his foot, he began jumping up and down. He knew. We all watched, and in a few seconds, we all knew. . . . We had done it. We had beaten the Rams and, as Lawyer Milloy would say, we shocked the world. The New England Patriots had won the Super Bowl."
Pepper Johnson

When the New England Patriots started out the 2001-2002 season at 1-3 and lost their starting quarterback to a devastating injury, the outlook for the team was decidedly bleak. To win a championship would take a miracle, but nobody expected one not the fans, not the press, and perhaps not even the Patriots themselves and certainly no one could have predicted the incredible saga that was about to unfold.

In this in-depth chronicle of the Patriots' mind-boggling Super Bowl season, inside linebackers coach Pepper Johnson takes you from the meeting rooms to the locker room and out onto the field as he brings you the inside story: the disheartening early defeats, the gradual coming together of an entire team, and the final heart-stopping victories that led an often-maligned franchise to overcome adversity and eventually win it all.

About the Author:

Thomas "Pepper" Johnson joined the New England Patriots coaching staff in 2000, becoming inside linebackers coach a year later. During his career as a player, he was twice named to the Pro Bowl and earned two Super Bowl titles as a member of the New York Giants. His presence helped from one of the most dominant defensive units in the game's history. He retired as a player in 1999. Bill Gutman has been a freelance writer of sports biography and history for three decades. He is also the author of Parcells:, A Biography.

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