Rate this book

Home Team: Coaching The Saints And New Orleans Back To Life (2010)

by Sean Payton(Favorite Author)

4.08 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0451232615 (ISBN13: 9780451232618)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

NAL Hardcover

review 1: Home TeamBy: Sean PaytonPages: 295Genre: Non-fiction Home Team is a book written by Sean Payton, head coach of the NFL's New Orleans Saints themselves. In summary, before Sean Payton had come to the Big Easy, the "Saints" weren't exactly...saints. The pre-Sean Payton era was a completely mess. From the Saints inception in 1967 until 1987, they weren't even competitive: for those 20 years they never had a winning season, and only managed to finish with as many wins as losses twice. This is a record that is yet to be broken albeit, one that SHOULDN'T be beaten. But there were some bright moments though. In '87, the Saints managed to make it to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Even then, they never won a playoff game until 2000. This was against the ... moreSt. Louis Rams in the division playoff game, which sent the Saints to a first NFC Championship Game which they ultimately lost. Surprisingly, this wasn't during the Sean Payton era. When Sean Payton took over the job in 2006, the previous year had been one of tragedies. On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, killing over 1,000 people and leaving the Saints without a stadium for nearly the entire 2005 season. This left many fans without hope. But when Sean Payton came, he said he was "ready to bring a change to the Big Easy." He admitted that he felt like he was under a lot of pressure to succeed, but he was ready. Pre-season football in 2006: Payton was ready. He worked hard on disciplining the players, keeping their hopes up and getting the team ready for a fresh new start. "It took a lot of work, but in the end, I knew it'd be worth it" he exclaimed. That season was a special one: the Saints finished with an excellent 10-6 record, much improved on last years 3-13 record without Payton. They made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game. They lost to the Chicago Bears, but the season left many fans excited. "Even though we lost that game, it made me feel very good. It made me feel like I could accomplish even more. I was very happy with that season and I have my eyes on a bigger prize: the Super Bowl" he said. This goal would be accomplished: 3 years later the Saints ended the 2009 season with a franchise-record 13 wins, and proceeded to win the Super Bowl against the 14-2 Indianapolis Colts by a score of 31-17. Payton would later go on to say following the win: "to all the fans who beared through those rough times and extreme lows, I'd like to say that after 42 years of suffering, here is your first Super Bowl!" Ever since then, Payton has had a franchise best 67 wins and 32 losses in his 5 years at head coach. Home Team is another one of those great non-fiction narratives on sports. What made me intrigued to get this book was that this book was written and narrated by an NFL coach himself (Sean Payton). I thought it'd be really cool if I could see Sean Payton's experiences as a head coach from his own point of view, so I decided to choose this as my non-fiction book for the quarter. Boy, I didn't know what I had just gotten myself into! The story was very crisp, with the coach expressing his feelings and experiences in the best way possible. What really got me into the book was the coach's attitude toward starting a season. It was so straightfoward, and yet he led his team to a cinderella story...twice! Because of these reasons, I'm giving this book a 5 out of 5 stars. BUT, if this wasn't narrated by the coach himself, I probably would've rated this lower (maybe even as low as a 3 out of 5 stars!) because I would want the most accurate info possible. And what more to ask then to have the coach describe the events, who probably knew and remembered every single thing that happened during his tenure? I would only reccomend this non-fiction book for people 11 and up, as it's somewhat a hard book to follow with the amount of pages and I'd reccomend this book for people who like sports and want some more info from the game from a certain person's perspective.
review 2: Man, this book was so touching to read. Most of the imagery of post Katrina New Orleans and reading about the 2006 was enough to bring tears to my eyes. That said, there are times when it seemed repetitive though. I really enjoyed reading it because I felt like I was getting to know coach better than just seeing him on the sidelines and watching his post game press. Great book to read for any Saints fan! less

Download links for: Home Team: Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life

Advertising