The Game Plan by Bill Polian, review

Team-building in the NFL is complicated. The general manager has to get the best player at each position, ensure that there is depth behind those players, and do it all without breaking the salary cap. Bill Polian built his first teams in the era before the salary cap: he was the driving force behind the Buffalo Bills teams that went to four consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1990s. After that, he was GM of the expansion Carolina Panthers, building a team that went to the Super Bowl in only its second season.

At that point, although he had built five Super Bowl winning teams, he still hadn’t won. That changed at his next stop, the Indianapolis Colts. He was GM and team president from 1998 to 2009, overseeing two Super Bowl appearances, including a win in Super Bowl XLI. He handed the GM role to his son Chris in 2009 but remained as president until 2011, when he and Chris were both sacked after a 2-11 season.

Since then Bill Polian has worked primarily as a media analyst but this 2014 book is light on football punditry and focuses on his career as a team-builder. He’s clear about how cost is a factor even in the way a team plays, noting that it costs more to build a 3-4 defense than a 4-3. He reflects on numerous player negotiations, explaining the importance of data to support the salary a player is being offered. And he talks about his relationships with coaches and owners from Marv Levy to Jim Irsay.

The bulk of the book centres on Polian’s time with the Bills, but there’s enough here for fans of the Colts and Panthers.

Title: The Game Plan
Author: Bill Polian with Vic Carucci
First published: Triumph, 2014
Distinctions: Featured in The Scouting Academy football books list
Buy the Book: Amazon US | Amazon UK

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THE AUTHOR

Bill Polian is the former general manager of the Buffalo Bills (1986-92), Carolina Panthers (1995-97) and Indianapolis Colts (1999-2009). His teams have reached the Super Bowl seven times, with the Colts winning one. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015. The Game Plan is his first book.

EXCERPTS

Teams should increase the size of the talent pool that they are selecting decision makers from; The primary reason that the NFL has one Bill Belichick, and not 32 Belichicks is that the league is drawing from a talent pool that is unnecessarily small. By drawing decision makers from former football players, the league is adding a physical requirement to a cognitive job. It’s an unnecessary restriction that is removing potentially qualified individuals from the talent pool.

“What it takes to win is simple, but it isn’t easy.” I didn’t coin it; Marv Levy, the Hall of Fame coach for the Buffalo Bills, did.

Having the ability to spell that out and create the blueprint is how you succeed as an organization. It’s not just, “Get good football players.” Anyone can say that. You have to know specifically what you’re looking for and be able to recognize it when you see it.

What we found was that, in selecting players, we could sacrifice height as long as every other personal quality was outstanding. In Dwight Freeney’s case, he was exceptionally fast, exceptionally explosive, exceptionally strong, and he had quick twitch, which fast and explosive people don’t always have.

REVIEWS

Ten years on from when this book was first published, some elements of it have dated. The distinction between 3-4 and 4-3 defenses matters less than it did, for example, in a league where most teams are based in nickel. However, if you look at the principles rather than the specifics, there is plenty of good advice here. It might not work for a team today to sacrifice height in player selection but the principle that you have to find something you’re willing to do without if you want to build a successful team is a good one. Teams that are successful year-in, year-out, rarely have the option of bringing in the very best players. They are simply too expensive. So there’s plenty here to learn about team-building in the NFL, and how it changed over Polian’s 30 years at the top.
— Shane Richmond, Pigskin Books

More than just a “how-to” or guide book, however, “The Game Plan” gives a behind-the-scenes look into the construction of Polian’s Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, and Indianapolis Colts teams.
— Josh Wilson, Stampede Blue

BUY THE BOOK

Amazon US | Amazon UK

Photo: Josh Hallett
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