Won for All: The Inside Story of the New England Patriots' Improbable Run to the Super Bowl - Hardcover

In a year when patriotic fervor swept across this country, another group of Patriots also 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 will give the reader an intimate and unmatched perspective on the Patriots' amazing season. Observant and perceptive, he's willing not only to talk about what occurred on the field as the season progressed and began to crescendo toward its unlikely finale, but also address a number of other topics, many of which contibuted to their success, and some that will give fans an glimpse into everyday life in the NFL. Divided into 12 chapters, the narrative will reconstruct 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 a chance to find a lasting place among football books.

Thomas Pepper Johnson originally joined Bill Belichick's coaching staff with the New England Patriots as part of the NFL's minority coaching fellowship in the summer of 2000. On Feb. 1, 2001, he joined the staff as the inside linebackers coach, a position he excelled at for 13 seasons in the NFL. During his career, he was twice named to the Pro Bowl, and earmed two Super Bowl titles as a member of the New York Giants in 1986 and again in 1990, where his presence helped form 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 for three decades. The majority of his books have been about sports, with an emphasis on biography and sports history. His most recent adult bio, Parcells, A Biography, was published by Carrol and Graf in 2000. Hometown: Providence, RI (Johnson); Dover Plains, NY (Gutman)