What a Michigan football writer learned about Chase Winovich and Tom Brady
Author John U. Bacon reveals the stories behind Michigan football.
What drives Chase Winovich?
While the Patriots defensive end is making a name for himself early in the 2019 NFL season, not many know that his biggest inspiration is UFC fighter Conor McGregor. While playing at Michigan, Winovich idolized McGregor’s attitude and approach to training, and can repeat lines, word for word, from McGregor videos he’s watched on YouTube. Winovich lives by the fighter’s personal mantra: There’s no talent in this game, just outworking everyone.
These details and more are revealed in longtime Michigan football writer John U. Bacon’s newest book, Overtime. The New York Times best-selling author has covered the team for more than 25 years, and Overtime captures the stories of the team’s coach, Jim Harbaugh, and his players throughout the 2018 season. Covering college football, Michigan football specifically, is a line of work that connects with Bacon personally.
“Michigan football has always been a part of my life,” Bacon said in a phone interview.
Bacon grew up in Ann Arbor and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in history and a Masters in English. After working as a teacher and hockey coach, he got a job writing feature stories for the Detroit Free Press. He also freelanced for ESPN, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, but in the past 10 years, he’s written about the history and inner workings make up Michigan football. His books include Three and Out, Fourth and Long, End Zone and now, Overtime, which was published in September.
In it, Bacon dove deeper into the lives of the players, coaches, athletic trainers, and the families that make up the program.
“I wanted to find out how the whole machine worked when it was humming properly, from the head coach to the equipment manager…I wanted to learn what a pivotal season looked like from the players’ perspective.” – excerpt from Overtime
“It has to be about much more than that [current] season,” Bacon said. “If it’s only about that season, then hell, you already know what happened. What you have to get is what people don’t know, which is what is behind that season. What’s it like to be a football player on that team? What it’s like in real time to be a coach, a staffer, from the nutritionist to the trainer to the videographers. What are all those things like?”
Bacon followed eight players throughout his reporting, such as Winovich. He wanted to uncover who these players were, on and off the field.
“When you tell a story like that, including Chase [Winovich]’s story – he was a three star out of high school. No one called him an NFL sure thing, and there he is. Tom Brady, same thing. Those stories I like telling the best.”
Through spending time with Winovich and his family, Bacon wrote about an underdog who worked hard to get where he is now: a third-round NFL draft pick making two solid appearances in the Patriots’ three game winning streak this season. Bacon dedicated Chapter 27, The Lightning Rod, to telling Winovich’s story: how his grandparents moved from Serbia to the United States and changed their last name, Avoinavich (“wolf-like”) to Winovich. His parents settled in Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania, and Chase yearned to follow the path his older brother Peter took by playing football, which came with expectations. Winovich struggled to “fit the mold” throughout his athletic career and played numerous positions, such as linebacker and tight end, in high school and at Michigan. By his sophomore season, a phone call from Harbaugh dictated that Winovich would be playing defensive end, which allowed him to really showcase his talent.
“Being on that side of the ball gave me a special kind of energy. Attack!” he told Bacon.
Michigan defensive lineman Chase Winovich celebrates with defensive lineman Michael Dwumfour after a sack of Penn State quarterback Trace McSorley.
While he gained motivation from his new position, he also found some from his “role model,” Conor McGregor. While picking up honey barbecue wings at Buffalo Wild Wings, Winovich watched McGregor take on Jose Aldo and was inspired. He read articles about him, watched videos of him, studied his mindset and approach. “I decided, right then and there, that’s what I wanted to be,” he said. “Not a UFC fighter, but a champion: unabashed, unapologetic, unafraid.”
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Bacon watched Winovich’s work ethic pay off in college.
“I’ve rarely seen a player work so hard with such joy as Chase,” he said. “He’s always like that: he’s upbeat, he’s fun, he’s smiling, he loves what he’s doing. And, through Conor McGregor, he’s completely owned who he is. He’s a player that other fans love to hate and he says bring it on. There’s something very refreshing about that. “
Bacon’s not surprised that it’s translating to his performance on the Patriots. As a rookie, Winovich is third on the team in sacks.
“I think that whatever opportunities Bill Belichick and the coaching staff at the Pats give him, he will take full advantage. This is not a guy you need to motivate, not a guy you need to push. He’s self-pushing, self-motivated. He’s also got the right kind of chip on his shoulder [and he] is always out to prove his doubters wrong.”
“I guarantee you that he’ll keep track of the guys in his draft class and makes sure he plays longer and better than they do. I bet if you ask them right now, he knows their names. ”
Even with that edge, Bacon explained that Michigan stresses the importance of being a team, along with winning. It’s one of the reasons why Winovich, perhaps, has transitioned so well into the Patriots’ system.
“The old mantra is – the team, the team, the team,” he said. “I bet if you ask Belichick, when they get a Michigan player, they usually know right away what they’re getting. There’s all the intangibles: showing up on time, working hard, putting the team first…You have very few issues from Michigan players [and] that starts with Tom Brady.”
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Bacon has not written about Brady in one of his books specifically, but he wrote about Brady’s time at Michigan for The Detroit News. He has a story or two about him, too.
“At Michigan, the players loved him,” said Bacon. “His lineman loved him. On autograph day his junior year, when he was sharing time with Drew Henson the freshman phenom, [Henson] had a line from the goal line to the midfield for autographs. Nobody wanted [Brady’s] autograph and he stood in the tunnel with his friend Jay Flannelly, talking about it. That’s where Brady stood as a junior at Michigan and he fought through all of that.”
Off the field, Brady even did other people’s laundry. “A friend of mine [that lived in the dorm] came down to do laundry and Brady was folding his t-shirts,” Bacon recounted. “That’s the kind of guy Tom Brady was – a detail man that looks out for others.”
Those off-field stories are the ones Bacon loves to tell.
“I love presenting the players as human beings and not Xbox characters,” he said. “We know their stats. Get beyond that.”
