Bill Reynolds: 'Belichick' book insightful at a pivotal time

It's called "Belichick,'' this new book by Ian O'Connor, a senior writer at ESPN.com, and rest assured Bill Belichick won't be handing it out at Christmas, even though O'Connor calls him the greatest NFL coach ever.

"Belichick'' is a 450-page inside look at both Belichick and the Patriots, too, taking us to places where the TV cameras never go, the Patriots viewed from the inside out.

And this is an intensive look inside the deep state [...]

It's called "Belichick,'' this new book by Ian O'Connor, a senior writer at ESPN.com, and rest assured Bill Belichick won't be handing it out at Christmas, even though O'Connor calls him the greatest NFL coach ever.

"Belichick'' is a 450-page inside look at both Belichick and the Patriots, too, taking us to places where the TV cameras never go, the Patriots viewed from the inside out.

And this is an intensive look inside the deep state that is the Patriots, the antithesis of all the infamous Bill Belichick news conferences where his goal obviously is to get through them without saying anything of importance, delivered in a style meant to scare all the kids away from his house on Halloween night. A book that takes us to the story behind the story, the things Belichick always tries to protect the way his offensive linemen always try to protect Tom Brady.

In short, it's the book we've been waiting for, a look inside the palace gates.

And like so many great stories, its roots are in the past, in the Annapolis of his childhood, where his father was a longtime assistant at the Naval Academy, and he was all but weaned on the family game, learning it from the inside out, like an apprentice in a football workshop.

Is it any wonder he grew up wanting to be a football coach?

And though he never was a great player, whether it was in high school in Annapolis, a prep school year at the famed Exeter, or his four years at Division III Wesleyan, he always impressed everyone around with his football knowledge.

As one old teammate says in the book, "He realized the game is a game of chess, not just brute strength.''

That arguably always has been one of Belichick's great strengths as a coach, of course, to see an NFL football field as one big chessboard, a game within a game, one that can be about skill and guile as well as the obvious gifts and great physical ability. His record tells us that. Most of all, his stature tells us that.

Once he got inside the gates of the NFL it was his knowledge that kept him there. Not his father. Not his name. Certainly not his personality, which could be called dour on a good day. To the point that when he worked for Bill Parcells with the New York Giants back in the day, Parcells always referred to him as "Doom."

But he wasn't there to be the class clown. He was there to be the defensive specialist, his ticket to the NFL in the first place. He was there for his knowledge. Save the laugh track for someone else. But in his own inimitable way he has a certain sense of style. Or maybe it's because he's worn it for so long now it's almost starting to look like locker room chic.

Almost.

But now it's getting complicated.

One of the themes in this new book is Tom Brady's future, this 41-year-old quarterback who might not be able to write his own ending. Another is that there are people among the Patriots' hierarchy who don't think Brady is as good as everyone else does.

Think about that for a second.

Then think about what Brady thinks about it.

And you wonder what the mood in Foxboro is?

What to do with a 41-year-old in a young man's game, never mind a New England icon? Do you trade him and take the heat? Or do you let him play it out as long as he wants because he's TOM BRADY and obviously he still has game left?

What do you do?

That's just one of the questions now floating around in the Foxboro breeze, and you can be sure it's on Belichick's mind.

All this and the shadows are starting to spread across Belichick's career, too.

All this, and the Patriots' record going into Sunday is 1-2.

Is this the new reality, a preview of the season that's going to show that an amazing era is ending right in front of us? Or is it just an early-season aberration?

Those are the questions that now hover over Sunday afternoon's game in Foxboro, one that goes deep into the heart of this franchise.