April 26, 2006 For more information: Frank R. Scatoni 619-807-1887 frank@ventureliterary.com "No Kill Date" Venture Literary Sells New England Patriots Narrative to Thomas Dunne Books On April 26, 2006, Frank R. Scatoni of Venture Literary sold the North American rights to Christopher Price’s The Blueprint: How the New England Patriots Beat the System to Become the NFL’s Last Great Superpower to Peter Wolverton at Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press. In The Blueprint: How the New England Patriots Beat the System to Create the NFL’s Last Great Superpower, award-winning New England sportswriter Christopher Price provides readers with a thorough portrait of the inner workings of the New England franchise and what has made them such a success over the last five years. The book chronicles the arrival and impact that all of the major figures have had in shaping the franchise, from coach Bill Belichick and GM Scott Pioli down through the rest of the coaching staff and the players. Along the way, he shows readers how Belichick, Pioli, and owner Bob Kraft provided a model for Fortune 500 CEOs across the globe as to how a successful organization should be run. Over the last five years, the team has become one of the most lucrative sports franchises in the world, and last year, the Forbes 2005 National Football League team value-rankings put New England at No. 3, at $1 billion. Price’s level of access takes the reader inside the franchise to give him a dynamic portrait of a mighty organization at the height of its power—and how they plan to stay that way. For example, readers go inside the locker room in the strange and tumultuous days of 2001 and 2003, when major personnel moves involving a pair of the most popular players in franchise history—Drew Bledsoe and Lawyer Milloy—threatened to rock their championship foundation to the core. Similarly, Price analyzes what went wrong in a 2005 playoff game against Denver and then explores how the team plans to bounce back to Super Bowl form in 2006. Christopher Price has covered the Boston sports scene for the last ten years, bringing insightful game stories and in-depth features to a variety of local and national media outlets. An award-winning sportswriter who has been honored by Northeastern University, New England Press Association, and the North Carolina Press Association for his work, he’s served as a contributor to ESPN.com, SI.com, Sportsticker, and Baseball America, as well as The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, Boston Metro, and The Cape Cod Times. A guest columnist for www.patsfans.com, he brings a unique insight into the game of football, one that can only be gleaned from being with the team on a daily basis. However, his greatest achievement was the groundbreaking book Baseball by the Beach: A History of America’s National Pastime on Cape Cod. To learn more about Venture Literary, visit: www.ventureliterary.com. To learn more about Thomas Dunne Books, visit: www.thomasdunnebooks.com.