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If the point of a press tour is to generate headlines, then Bill Belichick’s recent promotion for his memoir, The Art of Winning, is a rousing success. The eight-time Super Bowl winner’s Sunday interview with CBS went viral after his 24-year-old girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, shut down journalist Tony Dokoupil’s line of questioning about how the two met.
Hudson followed up the interview with a screenshot of an April 10 email sent by Belichick, decrying the media’s attention on the “negatives” in the book. The book, subtitled “Lessons from my Life in Football,” will be published on May 6 by Simon & Schuster. It’s currently in the top 20 on Amazon‘s biographies section, perhaps lending credence to the theory that any press is good press.
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Belichick also released a statement following the interview, which read, “I was surprised when unrelated topics were introduced, and I repeatedly expressed to the reporter, Tony Dokoupil, and the producers that I preferred to keep that conversation centered on the book.”
More pertinently for football fans, Dokoupil questioned Belichick about the omission of Patriots CEO Robert Kraft from the memoir, despite Kraft hiring the coach in 2000. Belichick called leaving the Patriots a “mutual decision for us to part ways,” and Dokoupil responded, “He said ‘fired.’” Belichick then reiterates, “It was a mutual decision.”
In the January Instagram post announcing the book, Belichick wrote, “My life in football over the last 49+ years involved a lot of winning, losing, and more than anything: learning. I have learned from all of the teams I was apart [sic] of since early childhood, from my players, competitors, and colleagues in the NFL, and from coaches and players at UNC and the U.S. Naval Academy alongside my beloved father.
“My hope with this book is that you learn about what I learned in the NFL about sustained success, leadership, and what it means to be a team player.” The book also prominently features a blurb from Tom Brady, who wrote, “Coach Belichick brought out the best in me. His book will do the same for you.”
Under Belichick, the Patriots won a record six Super Bowl championships, most recently at Super Bowl LIII in 2019. Belichick also won two Super Bowl titles as defensive coordinator with the New York Giants. Belichick left the Patriots in 2024 after 24 seasons and 333 wins to his name, second only to former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula’s 347 wins. Since leaving the NFL, Belichick joined the North Carolina Tar Heels as head coach.
