Rodney Barnes To Pen ‘Tiger Woods’ Scripted Miniseries, Entertainment 360 Comes On Board

Jeff Benedict’s Inside Account of the New England Patriots Dynasty to be Published by Avid Reader Press in September

New York, NY, May 19, 2020—The New England Patriots, the most dominant franchise in professional team sports over the past twenty years, are the subject of a new book by Jeff Benedict, it was announced today by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Benedict, most recently the coauthor of the critically acclaimed #1 New York Times bestseller Tiger Woods and a longtime special features writer for Sports Illustrated, secured exclusive access to the Patriots starting in 2018 and reported from within the organization for nearly two years. The book, titled The Dynasty, is a comprehensive account based on 250 interviews with more than 200 people and will be published in September 2020.

T. Boone Pickens (courtesy of T. Boone Pickens)

Today, T. Boone Pickens passed away at age 91. Eight years ago I had the privilege of shadowing him. Through that process, we became friends. He graciously hosted my family at his Texas ranch on numerous occasions. In his memory, I’m sharing here a short piece I wrote about my experience with him.

I spent the weekend with T. Boone Pickens, one of the wealthiest men in America. He made his fortune in oil and gas. Nobody knows energy like Boone.

But the college football world knows him as the booster who made the largest single gift to an NCAA athletic program in American history – $165 million to Oklahoma State back in 2005. The money built the finest facilities in the country and helped propel Oklahoma State to one of the best teams in the country last year.

In the preface to his opus “The Best and the Brightest” (the definitive account of America’s involvement in Vietnam), journalist David Halberstam shared the secret to writing a bestseller: “A book that burns in your belly — something that has to be written before you can go on to anything else.”