Having read this book as part of a Goodreads challenge, I found this to be okay. There was a lot of name dropping by the author as well as some great stories, and some may really enjoy them. Here is my review of "The Players' Coach."
Title/Author:
“The Players’ Coach: Fifty Years Making NFL’s Best Better – From Bradshaw, Manning, Brady and Beyond” by Tom Moore with Rick Stroud
Rating:
3 ½ of 5 stars (okay)
Review:
Tom Moore is a person who would be considered a football “lifer.” He proclaims himself to be one in this memoir co-written with Rick Stroud. Even though he never was named as a head coach of any team, college or NFL, one cannot say that he has not had a successful and interesting career.
Moore shares many stories about himself as well as some of the great players that he has coached. After getting his first college coaching job at Iowa after graduation, he went on to be an assistant at several colleges, including a rival of Iowa, the University of Minnesota (a place where he considered becoming a head coach before they hired Lou Holtz in 1984). From there, he transitioned to the NFL in 1977, becoming an assistant to Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Chuck Noll. After a successful stint in Pittsburgh that included two Super Bowl victories and a promotion to offensive coordinator, he held similar roles for several other NFL teams, including the Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, New Orleans Saints (he talks very little about his time there in this book), Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He won two more Super Bowls – one with the Colts, one with the Buccaneers, and coached in another with the Cardinals.
With a resume like this, it naturally follows that Moore has coached some of the greatest players in this era of football and three of them are in the subtitle. He has good stories about each one of them, and even better stories about some who were very good but not at the legendary level of these three. There is a great story on Vikings wide receiver Jake Reed on the assistance Moore gave him when it was discovered a vision problem was hindering his ability to catch passes. Moore also has kind things to say about his quarterback in Detroit, Scott Mitchell. When Moore talks about some of these players, those are the best sections to read.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn’t
hold my interest as much as these stories as the talk about his moves, the X’s
and O’s and other parts of his career just didn’t seem to have the same level
of enthusiasm and intangibles. I use that word for this description – just like
when an athlete has something extra that can’t be described so it is said that
person has “intangibles”. In this case,
those chapters and sections LACK those “intangibles” to make them must-read
areas.
That aside, any reader with an interest in a football coach with a lengthy and
successful career despite never holding a head coaching position will want to
read this book. If nothing else, read it
for some good stories on some of the legendary players in recent NFL history.
I wish to thank Diversion Books for providing a copy of the book. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.
