Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the Pursuit of Everything

Pierce offers a genial look at the unlikely rise of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady from embattled Michigan player through draft afterthought to multiple Super Bowl MVP. But while the book might seem late considering the Patriots won their third Super Bowl in four years in 2004, it actually benefits from Pierce using the team's trying 2005 season as a backdrop against which to highlight his main argument: that Brady's intangible abilities as a leader under any circumstances are worth far more than what can be measured with a stopwatch. In addition to stories from Brady's coaches and teammates that bear out this assessment, journalist Pierce serves up some entertaining prose. He describes the bombastic NFL as "less like family entertainment and more and more like the strategy... used to pry Manuel Noriega out of Panama," and skewers Gov. William Weld of Massachusetts as "so flighty that he made Mayor McCheese look like Benjamin Disraeli." In all, it's a buoyant if blindly reverential account that's sure to appeal to anyone with more than a passing interest in one of the game's most celebrated players. Photos not seen by PW . (Nov.)