It's Better to Be Feared

NOW WITH A NEW EPILOGUE ON THE 2021 SEASON AND TOM BRADYS BRIEF RETIREMENTNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERSPORTS ILLUSTRATED NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEARNational Sports Media Association Book of the YearKirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction of the YearSeth Wickersham has managed to do the impossible: he has pulled off the definitive document of the Belichick/Brady dynasty.Bill Simmons, The RingerThe explosive, long-awaited account of the making of the greatest dynasty in football historyfrom the acclaimed ESPN reporter who has been there from the very beginning.Over two unbelievable decades, the New England Patriots were not only the NFLs most dominant team, but alsoand by farthe most secretive. How did they achieve and sustain greatnessand what were the costs?In It's Better to Be Feared, Seth Wickersham, one of the countrys finest long form and investigative sportswriters, tells the full, behind-the-scenes story of the Patriots, capturing the brilliance, ambition, and vanity that powered and ultimately unraveled them. Based on hundreds of interviews conducted since 2001, Wickershams chronicle is packed with revelations, taking us deep into Bill Belichicks tactical ingenuity and Tom Bradys unique mentality while also reporting on their divergent paths in 2020, including Bradys run to the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Raucous, unvarnished, and definitive, Its Better to Be Feared is an instant classic of American sportswriting in the tradition of Michael Lewis, David Maraniss, and David Halberstam.