From Publishers Weekly
After losing three of the first four games in the 2001-2002 season, the New England Patriots roared back to finish the year with an 11-5 record and completed the surprising turnaround by beating the St. Louis Rams in one of the most exciting Super Bowls in NFL history. Johnson, who played linebacker for 13 years, joined New England as an unpaid liaison in 2000 and was the inside linebackers' coach during the championship season. Although Johnson does reminisce about his playing days (particularly his years with the New York Giants), he gives a first-rate account of the Patriots' transformation from a 5-11 team in 2000 to Super Bowl champs the following season. Johnson, writing with Gutman (Parcells: A Biography), picks up the story at the end the 2001-2002 season, then backtracks readers from training camp through the Super Bowl. Along the way, he describes how head coach Bill Belichick created a winning team by weeding out players who did not fit his playing style. Johnson does a terrific job of bringing readers into the Patriots' locker room as he discusses strategy about each game while also providing an insider's perspective on various members of the team; an especially compelling chapter deals with a week in the life of an NFL coach, illustrating the pressures coaches face each week in the season. Patriot fans will no doubt enjoy this recap of the Super Bowl run, as will fans who want a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes in professional football. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
An insider look at the New England Patriots' amazing championship season From an inauspicious beginning and against all expectations, the 2001 Patriots fought their way from last place to an upset Super Bowl XXXVI victory over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams, completing a remarkable season that will not soon be forgotten. Now Won for All gives fans the inside story behind this amazing run to victory. Pepper Johnson, the Patriots' inside linebackers coach and a 13-year NFL veteran, follows the Pats from training camp to Adam Vinatieri's game-winning field goal and its aftermath, revealing the behind-the-scenes story of how a great football team, maligned for decades, overcame injuries and distractions to win it all. Alongside his retelling of the Patriots season, Johnson also gives the reader an authentic, behind-the-scenes glimpse of pro football as it is played today.


From the Back Cover
An inside look at the New England Patriots' amazing championship season When Adam Vinatieri booted the ball through the uprights from forty-eight yards out in the final, stirring seconds of Super Bowl XXXVI, he had done much more than give the New England Patriots a heart-stopping 20-17 victory over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams. Vinatieri's last-second, clutch field goal not only enabled the Patriots to win their first-ever Super Bowl but also allowed this group of hard-working, never-say-die players to complete one of the most amazing turnarounds in NFL history. Won for All gives you the complete inside story of a team that went from last place to first in a single, incredible season. Pepper Johnson, former All-Pro linebacker and thirteen-year NFL veteran, takes you behind the scenes of one of football's great Cinderella stories for a riveting look at the Patriots' rags-to-riches saga. As the team's inside linebackers coach, Johnson lived the entire story, beginning with the 5-11 season of 2000 (the first for head coach Bill Belichick), a season that ended with veteran safety Lawyer Milloy telling his teammates they were losers and promising it wouldn't happen again. Yet despite an upgrading of personnel through the draft and the signing of several key free agents prior to 2001, the fans, media, and even one of the team's top scouts didn't see the Patriots winning more than eight games. Given this scenario, no one predicted that the team would even make the playoffs, let alone contend for pro football's biggest prize. In this fully illustrated chronicle of all of the 2001 season's memorable moments, Pepper Johnson takes you on a complete journey, beginning in training camp, continuing through the winter snows of Foxboro, and improbably ending at the Super Dome in New Orleans. He not only recounts the many exciting games and individual plays that ultimately brought the team its greatest victory but also relates how a hard-working coach and his dedicated staff went about molding and motivating a championship team, taking a group of diverse individual talents and bringing them together with a single goal--to win. With his insider's eye, Johnson explains the qualities that made players like Tom Brady, Troy Brown, Lawyer Milloy, Tedy Bruschi, Bryan Cox, and Adam Vinatieri take up the gauntlet thrown down by their coaches and shock the football world. In a year when patriotic fervor swept the country, the Patriots overcame a 1{-}3 start, a number of key injuries, and other distractions to eventually become the unlikely heroes of the Super Bowl. "Paxton's snap was perfect. Walter set it down, spun the laces, and Adam stepped up and swung his leg through the ball. As soon as it left his foot, he began jumping up and down. He knew. We all watched, and in a few seconds, we all knew. . . . We had done it. We had beaten the Rams and, as Lawyer Milloy would say, we shocked the world. The New England Patriots had won the Super Bowl."--Pepper Johnson They began the season as losers in the eyes of the football world. When they started out at 1-3 and lost their starting quarterback to a devastating injury, the outlook for the New England Patriots was decidedly bleak. Not once since the team began as the Boston Patriots in the old American Football League in 1960 had they brought their fans a championship. It would take a miracle, but nobody expected one--not the fans, not the press, and perhaps not even the Patriots themselves--and certainly no one could have predicted the incredible saga that was about to unfold. In this in-depth chronicle of the Patriots' mind-boggling Super Bowl season, Pepper Johnson, the Patriots' inside linebackers coach and thirteen-year NFL veteran, takes you from the meeting rooms to the locker room and out onto the field as he brings you the inside story: the disheartening early defeats, the gradual coming together of an entire team, and the final heart-stopping victories that led an often-maligned franchise to overcome adversity and eventually win it all.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Adam Vinatieri's game-winning field goal not only clinched the New England Patriots' victory in Super Bowl XXXVI, it ended one of the most famous dry spells in the history of professional sports. Patriots inside linebacker coach Thomas "Pepper" Martin and sportswriter Bill Gutman offer an inside view of the team's improbable championship season. Johnson's discussion of team morale and coaching strategies make this attractive book much more than a Super Bowl keepsake.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When Adam Vinatieri booted the ball through the uprights from forty-eight yards out in the final, stirring seconds of Super Bowl XXXVI, he had done much more than give the New England Patriots a heart-stopping 20-17 victory over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams. Vinatieri's last-second, clutch field goal not only enabled the Patriots to win their first-ever Super Bowl but also allowed this group of hardworking, never-say-die players to complete one of the most amazing turnarounds in NFL history. Won for All gives you the complete inside story of a team that went from last place to first in a single, incredible season.

Pepper Johnson, former All-Pro linebacker and thirteen-year NFL veteran, takes you behind the scenes of one of football's great Cinderella stories for a riveting look at the Patriots' rags-to-riches saga. As the team's inside linebackers coach, Johnson lived the entire story, beginning with the 5-11 season of 2000 (the first for head coach Bill Belichick), a season that ended with veteran safety Lawyer Milloy telling his teammates they were losers and promising it wouldn't happen again. Yet despite an upgrading of personnel through the draft and the signing of several key free agents prior to 2001, the fans, media, and even one of the team's top scouts didn't see the Patriots winning more than eight games. Given this scenario, no one predicted that the team would even make the playoffs, let alone contend for pro football's biggest prize.

In this fully illustrated chronicle of all of the 2001 season's memorable moments, Pepper Johnson takes you on a complete journey, beginning in training camp, continuing through the winter snows of Foxboro, and improbably ending at the Superdome in New Orleans. He not only recounts the many exciting games and individual plays that ultimately brought the team its greatest victory but also relates how a hardworking coach and his dedicated staff molded and motivated a championship team, taking a group of diverse individual talents and bringing them together with a single goal -- to win.

With his insider's eye, Johnson explains the qualities that made players like Tom Brady, Troy Brown, Lawyer Milloy, Tedy Bruschi, Bryan Cox, and Adam Vinatieri take up the gauntlet thrown down by their coaches and shock the football world. In a year when patriotic fervor swept the country, the Patriots overcame a 1-3 start, a number of key injuries, and other distractions to eventually become the unlikely heroes of the Super Bowl.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly