Coaching legend Bill Belichick has a wealth of insight after eight Super Bowl wins, including a “controversial” opinion about two of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes.
In his new book, The Art of Winning, which hit bookshelves on Tuesday, May 6, the former head coach of the New England Patriots reflects on the two competitors.
“I’ve never engaged in this argument with my good friend Andy Reid, the Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach, but I have little doubt he will write his own book one day and claim that he had the greatest QB of all time,” writes Belichick, 73. “You know what? Brady and Patrick Mahomes are both really good. Controversial, I know.”
Belichick explains that both players know the key to handling success: They're humble.:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)/belichick-brady-1-1a6d0ccb4f7e4fa7b9c491984f252141.jpg)
He references a close win for the Chiefs in 2024, as the team continued building its “historic dynasty,” according to The Art of Winning. Instead of listing his accomplishments during a post-game interview, Mahomes talked about how he was “missing opportunities.”
“This kind of comment is music to my ears. Can’t get enough of it,” writes Belichick, who adds he wants to make the sound bite his ringtone. “It is fundamentally an example of elite leadership. Very similar to when we would win a game with Tom 28–10 and afterward he’d say, ‘We should have scored forty-five!’ ”
With Mahomes’ leadership and determination to play at the highest level, Belichick writes that the Chiefs will continue to be a force in the league.
The Art of Winning is filled with Belichick’s perspective on top players, memories from his decades of coaching football at all levels and how he has both failed and succeeded as a leader. Some moments and key people in Belichick’s career are not addressed, such as his now-fraught relationship with Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft. Belichick’s 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, who sparked a now-viral moment when she interrupted his interview with CBS News' Sunday Morning leading up to the book’s publication, is only referenced in the acknowledgements as his “creative muse.” Despite some of the omissions — or perhaps, because of them — Belichick’s lessons in the book echo his tough, no-nonsense demeanor.
“Football is hard. Winning is hard. Life is hard and so is our program,” writes Belichick in the book’s introduction when describing how to create a “winning culture.”
“It’s demanding and it’s not for everyone. Neither am I,” he continues. “But to get to the top, and stay there, is close to impossibly hard. So we do hard things.”
Brady, who retired from the NFL after 23 seasons in 2020, is one player willing to do “hard things,” Belichick writes. The coach isn’t afraid to tease his former quarterback, who helped him craft the Patriots’ legacy by leading the team to six Super Bowl wins. In The Art of Winning, he describes the 47-year-old football star as looking as “athletic as a junior high equipment manager” when Brady first began his professional career. He also writes that Brady was “one of the slowest quarterbacks in the league,” who was difficult to coach. But the teasing comes with a big asterisk.
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“Tom was hard to coach because he was so well prepared. I loved coaching Brady — he brought out the best in me,” writes Belichick, who remembers once not knowing the opposing team’s play as well as Brady before a game in 2005. “He was smart, mentally and physically tough, and the most dependable player I have coached.”
For Belichick, drafting Brady was “the best decision” he ever made. But his love for the quarterback didn't stop Belichick from saying things like, “Nobody, wanted you, Brady…” to motivate him before big games.
The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football is on sale now.
