Taking the reins of the desperately failing New York Giants in 1983, Parcells not only turned the team around but took it to the Super Bowl -- twice (in 1986 and 1990), and twice the Giants won. Then, with the downtrodden New England Patriots he again managed to work some of the same gridiron magic by propelling them to the Super Bowl in his fourth season at the helm. Returning to New York in 1997, this time to rally the Jets, he faced perhaps his greatest coaching challenge yet, but in two seasons the team with a lamentable 1-15 record had won a division title at 12-4 and missed the Super Bowl by only a game.

While this no-holds-barred biography of Parcells examines and assesses the career of this consummate coach, it also explores the force that defines the public personality and drives the private man. Call that force ambition, a dream, bulldog spirit, or perfection