Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! Thanks for spending part of it reading The Lake Street Journal.

This week we’re talking about Bill Belichick’s standards, great history books, and the next world war. Let's get into it.

Unreasonably High Standards

"A lot of guys maybe don't want to say it, but they didn't want to play for Belichick when he came in," said one Patriots player who was on the team in 2000.

Players described Belichick's predecessor, Pete Carroll, as a "laid back, sunglasses-and-sandals Californian."

Belichick's nickname was Doom.

And doom is what the players felt when he took over because Belichick had unreasonably high standards.

At the beginning of training camp, he imposed a terribly difficult run test. He fined players for being out of shape. He called out players for not knowing plays.

"Tebucky," Belichick said to one of his safeties, "you ran a 4.43 at the combine, but you really run a 5.0 because you don't know where the fuck you're going."

"We have too many guys who are overweight," Belichick said, "too many guys who are out of shape, too many guys who just haven't paid the price they need to pay."

"It was honestly a living hell," recalled one player. "Not many human beings could withstand that first Bill Belichick training camp."

And Belichick didn't let up all season.

After his two and seven team lost to Cleveland, one player recalled what Belichick did next.

"He comes in and he's like, 'All right you heard those fans on Sunday. OK, I do suck. But here's what you mother fuckers did.' And then he has the lights turned off, and then the film goes on and it's ten straight minutes of nothing but screwups and bad plays...The overall mentality was that he was creating unity among the players, except that they were all unified in their hatred toward him. It was almost a strategy—that the disdain for him would bring them together."

Who knows if Belichick came up with this on his own, but it's not an original idea.

If you've ever seen Band of Brothers, the excellent HBO mini-series about the infamous Easy Company of WWII, the first episode has the same theme.

The men of Easy Company were training in Georgia, and a man named Captain Sobel was in charge of whipping them into shape. Sobel turned out to be a real piece of shit. None of the men liked him.

There's a particularly memorable scene where he pretends to reward the men with a huge spaghetti dinner only to force them to run up a mountain as soon as they finish. Vomiting ensued.

By the end of their training, the men who trained under him shared an unbreakable bond. A common hatred for their commanding officer.

Aside from the unity, Sobel got them into excellent fighting shape. The men of Easy Company were among the most celebrated soldiers of the war. Sobel had unreasonably high standards, and he never allowed them to be broken.

There's something to be said for that.

Did Belichick study Sobel before arriving in Foxboro?

Who knows?

But he was doing the same thing. He was raising the standard.

Were some of his tactics unnecessary?

Probably.

Could he have been a little nicer?

Sure.

But was he effective?

Without a doubt.

Under Carroll's three years with the Patriots, they had one playoff win. By the end of Belichick's second year, they had a Lombardi trophy.

That fact seems to speak for itself.

History Matters

I'm always beating the drum about reading and studying history. Both are incredibly important. One of my favorite ways to study history is to read David McCullough's books.

His massive biography of Truman opened my eyes to one of our greatest presidents.

Mornings on Horseback was the first book I read on Teddy Roosevelt.

And The Wright Brothers tells one of the most iconic stories in American history. Seriously, you need to read it.

Unfortunately, McCullough died in 2022, but his daughter recently published a collections of his essays in a book called History Matters.

I love books like this because they allow you to sample the work of a prolific author and decide where you want to dive in (American Sketches is another great book in this genre).

If you enjoy McCullough, appreciate history, or simply like to read thoughtful essays, you'll love this book.

2034

While I love history, I've also been reading more fiction this year. I think it helps with storytelling, it's a great way to wind down before bed, and it's just fun.

I'm currently reading 2034: A Novel of the Next World War by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis. It's fast paced and gripping, and it feels like it could be ripped from the headlines. It's wild. The events feel like they could happen which makes it both terrifying and impossible to put down.

If you're interested in the book, I also recommend this interview with Ackerman. He was a Marine Raider and has since written a bunch of novels. I generally enjoy interviews with former special forces guys, but this one had a different flavor. More intellectual and seemed to come from a slightly different political point of view. Always interesting to hear different takes from people with similar experiences.

Workout of the Week

I've been working in some shorter metcon workouts that won't leave me insanely sore. Did this one yesterday and really enjoyed it.

"Hell's Angel"

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

Devil's press (35s)

* 8 cals on the assault bike after each round

For example, one devil's press, eight cals, two devil's press, eight cals, etc.

The last couple rounds are brutal, as you might imagine. My time goal was under 15 minutes, and I finished in 14:34. Let me know how you do!

Quote of the Week

“Know these stories so we can remember a way that is different than now. The future is in the remembering.” - Elliot Ackerman

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Talk soon,

Joe