cover image Think Like a Champion: Building Success One Victory at a Time.

Think Like a Champion: Building Success One Victory at a Time.

Mike Shanahan. HarperCollins Publishers, $26 (214pp) ISBN 978-0-06-662039-8

The format is familiar: star sports coach offers wisdom gleaned from the field for armchair quarterbacks (and armchair CEOs). Shanahan, head coach of the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, doesn't depart much from the expected, peppering aphoristic advice with anecdotes from practice and from big games. Each chapter (e.g., Preparing, Sacrificing, Believing, Taking Risks) ends with a brief testimonial to Shanahan written by a player or coach with whom he's worked (Joe Montana, Steve Young, John Elway and others contribute). Shanahan clearly prides himself on his direct personality and, writing with Denver Post sportswriter Schefter (TD: Dreams in Motion), he's winningly forthcoming about his experiences with players and the front offices (including being fired repeatedly), venting some simmering bile toward such figures as Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis and Dan Reeves, under whom Shanahan once worked as an assistant. (His rough treatment of Reeves is arguably a case of piling on, since Reeves is now head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, the team Shanahan's Broncos defeated in the most recent Super Bowl). In fact, Shanahan's pep talk is less interesting for its motivational truisms than for its dishy NFL gossip. 25-city radio tour; 15-city TV satellite tour. (Sept.)