Guts and Genius: The Story of Three Unlikely Coaches Who Came to Dominate the NFL in the '80s Kindle Edition

Any fan of the NFL will love this book, especially fans of these three coaching legends.As a Washington fan with the utmost respect for Gibbs, I found the stories and background on Walsh and Parcels equally as enthralling.The Gibbs stuff, well much of it I knew, but there were details that I didnt. Great reading, well done.

Pretty good read and sad that so much heartache goes with coaching at highest level.....missing time with family, constantly angry and stressed, heart problems, sleeping in the office, high insecurity. All to entertain the public and win games.Found the book hard to follow at times because it jumped from seasons to seasons and I kept looking up games to follow along. I would have done all three in a linear, consecutive presentation with pictures inside the chapters, not at the end.

Guts and Genius tells the saga of the three heads coaches that truly did dominate the NFL in the 1980’s. The author walks through the football lives of Bill Parcels (New York Giants), Bill Walsh (San Francisco 49’ers), and Joe Gibbs (Washington Redskins). Between these coaches, through the 1980’s into the early 90’s, they won 8 Super Bowls and left an indelible print on the NFL.There are a few key common themes that tie these coaches together besides their winning ways.First, they were football savants. While each had their philosophies and systems, especially Walsh with the West Coast Offense, they were also flexible enough to adjust their approach to meet the strengths and weaknesses of their own teams and that of their opponents. Of the three Walsh probably has the most long-term impact on the game with this short passing game designed to stretch the field horizontally and allow playmakers to get the ball in space and move the ball the down the field. He also left a much more extensive and successful coaching three than Gibbs or Parcells.The second theme is leadership. While each coach had extremely different personalities, they each found ways to connect with and motivate their players to play as a team and achieve more as a unit than they could as a collection of individuals. They each formed lifelong connections with many of the key players and coaches during their eras.A third theme is that each started off slow trying to rebuild moribund franchises and had many insecurities and self-doubt. Even when they were successful, the stress and insecurities almost doubled because the standard was always winning the Super Bowl. Anything else was almost considered a failure.Finally, and most disturbing, is the extreme stress and unfathomable hard work it took to accomplish the perfection each chased. Reading about the extreme stress each felt to win it all, with Gibbs basically living at the football facility to such an extent he missed his sons growing up, and the health, mental, and physical toll football took on these men is profound.While there is probably nothing profoundly new in this book, it was extremely well written, told in a concise, efficient, and lively prose, and frankly it is hard to put down. For some reason, at least for this reader, it even provoked emotion and remembrances of the great teams these men led. And while it goes from one coach to the next from chapter to chapter, that approach worked very well here, and facilitated understanding how these coaches interacted with each other, their teams, and how their journey’s unfolded.I found this to be a very interesting and worthwhile read.

Wow, excellent book! Fun to read, I could not put it down. I read several football books this fall and this was clearly the best one. As a New York Giants fan, I was reminiscing with a friend earlier this year about the three dominant coaches of the 1980's: Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, and Bill Parcells. Then, I found this book - so cool. They were the three best coaches not only of the decade, but in the history of the NFL. The 1980's were my middle/high school years (1989 high school graduate) and remember all the games mentioned in this book as if they occurred yesterday. It was such an exciting and competitive era in professional football. To this day, the 1986 Giants are my favorite team and that will never change. If the Giants could not make the Superbowl, I always pulled for the 49er's and Redskins because I was an NFC guy, still am today. I thank Bob Glauber for writing this book. It was a fascinating and interesting read and there are not a lot of books written about the 1980's NFL, which is a shame because this was a great decade of football. Highly recommend this book, guaranteed to not disappoint. 😀

I enjoyed this book. It is very well researched but it also has a nice flow to it and doesn’t get bogged down in too many details. All three coaches, Parcells, Gibbs and Walsh were brilliant and hugely successful and you understand how they did it in their own ways. But as successful as they were, it was interesting to find out about their insecurities, particularly Walsh, which I think came from his awful relationship with his father, who was an extremely insensitive man. So in addition to learning about how these coaches became so successful, you learn about them as human beings too.

If you like football, you can't help but be fond of this book. You get to see inside the minds of truly three great gridiron experts. Lots of great stories. You'll love it football fans.

Great read! Love how Bob Glauber weaved 3 stories back and forth. Like every successful person, these 3 great coaches had to overcome some many challenges. Cool hearing about Parcell nickname Tuna came about. Walsh insecurities he over came and his mastery manipulation ( in a good way). Gibbs treating all players differently to maximize each players takent. Each 3 coaches successful coaching tree is absolutely unprecedented!

For someone who grew up watching football in the 1980's this book brings back wonderful memories. Such great battles between 3 teams and coaches who dominated the decade.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book, the detail and the content. Recommend for any NFL fan

It had an extended shipping date, so I wasn’t expecting it when it showed up. Having said that, I was immersed in the book very quickly. If anyone has been a NFL nut for any period of time you should enjoy the book. Walsh occupies a significant amount of the book, and had moved around more than I remembered. Names pop up across the three coaches sessions that I found interesting. Air Coryell popped Up continually because he basically made passing the ball the major element of any offence. All there borrowed from him. Again, if you enjoy the drama of the NFL you should enjoy this book.

Engaging account of what, to me, is the greatest era in NFL history. Only one little gripe is some inaccuracies which are not really expected such as insisting Superbowl 17 was 27-16 for Washington It was 27-17. Only one point but a basic error.Still worth the read.

Good insight into 3 of the modern greats of the nfl and the effect of high quality coaching. The 80s had a lot of great teams.