During the coronavirus shutdown, each day we will bring you a recommendation from The Post’s Peter Botte for a sports movie, TV show or book that perhaps was before your time or somehow slipped between the cracks of your viewing/reading history.

One of my fascinations as a sports fan always has been what makes a successful head coach tick, leading me to devour books about legends such as Red Auerbach and John Wooden, Pat Riley and Phil Jackson, Joe McCarthy and Joe Torre, Bear Bryant and Scotty Bowman.

That goes double for leading men in the NFL, and these are compelling reads about the pair generally regarded as the finest and most complex coaches in pro football annals.

Maraniss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter and editor, digs deep and well beyond the sound-bites frequently attributed to Lombardi, the Packers legend, such as, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” He presents a nuanced and detailed representation of Lombardi that takes us through his Sheepshead Bay roots, his rise as part of Fordham’s historic Seven Blocks of Granite, his days at West Point and with the Giants, his five NFL titles in a seven-year span with Green Bay, including the first two Super Bowls, and his death from colon cancer in 1970. (The championship trophy, of course, now bears his name, as does a famous New Jersey Turnpike rest stop).

O’Connor, meanwhile, uses numerous insightful interviews — albeit not with the coach himself — to paint Belichick as much more complex than simply the guarded former defensive coordinator for both the Giants and Jets who went on to become the hated, hooded genius in what now have been 20 seasons — and an unprecedented six Lombardi Trophies — alongside the since-departed Tom Brady with the dynastic Patriots.

Quote of Note: “Tom knows Bill is the best coach in the league, but he’s had enough of him. If Tom could, I think he would divorce him.” — A source in 2018 to author Ian O’Connor, two years before Brady bolted New England to sign with Tampa Bay.

Botte Blows: 4.6 of 5