The Why Is Everything
A Story of Football, Rivalry, and Revolution
-
-
4.6 • 24 Ratings
-
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
“A densely packed tour through the fickle, cruel, fad-crazy, crassly opportunistic, money-drenched, alcohol-fueled and hypercompetitive world of the NFL.” —S. C. Gwynne, Wall Street Journal
From an award-winning journalist, the inside story of the brilliant, hypercompetitive young coaches who threw out decades of received wisdom to fundamentally remake America’s most popular sport.
When Kyle Shanahan became the NFL’s youngest offensive coordinator in 2008, he had one prevailing rule: Tell me the why. If a colleague couldn’t justify his position by providing the unassailable reasoning behind it, he was told to get the hell out of Shanahan’s office. Shanahan and the members of his coaching tree—including Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, Raheem Morris, and Matt LaFleur—came up in a sport where innovation was the exception, not the rule. There had been brilliant football minds before, from Paul Brown to Bill Walsh to Bill Belichick. But for the most part, coaches learned a particular system and stuck to it no matter what—no matter the players on their team, no matter what the opponent might do.
This group of young coaches would change all that. The Why Is Everything is the story of old dogmas falling before astonishingly creative new strategies and game plans. Drawing on unmatched access across the league, longtime NFL reporter Mike Silver takes us into the key moments in this still-unfolding revolution, from the education of Mike Shanahan, Kyle’s father and a two-time Super Bowl champion, in the 1980s; to the Washington Redskins’ football laboratory in the early 2010s, where the coaches first worked together, shocking the league with their cutting-edge scheme for rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III; to McVay’s Super Bowl victory in 2022 and Kyle Shanahan’s Super Bowl agony in 2019 and 2024.
Less than a decade after their emergence, these men are the stars of their profession and have helped propel the NFL to new heights of viewership and drama. With The Why Is Everything, Silver reveals how it all happened, and in the process gives us a timeless account of friendship, rivalry, and the never-ending pursuit of perfection.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this illuminating report, journalist Silver (Golden Girl) details how in the early 2010s, Washington Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and "his Brat Pack of disciples" developed a novel approach to coaching that transformed the NFL. Their system relied on developing unique strategies for each opposing team and tailoring plays to their own players' individual strengths. For instance, Silver discusses how for the 2012 season, Shanahan fused the "plays and blocking schemes that showcased Morris's ability with a system that Griffin could digest and operate from the get-go," helping the Redskins win the NFC East. Rivalries developed between members of the Redskins' brain trust as they moved on to other teams, Silver writes, describing how as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Shanahan "was almost too angry to speak" after he was denied a spot in Super Bowl LVI by a loss to the L.A. Rams, headed by his former Redskins protégé Sean McVay. Silver is a true football wonk, delving into the minutiae of Shanahan and company's plays to explain what made them so brilliant. By tracing how five Redskins assistant coaches went on to become head coaches in the NFL, he makes a persuasive case that the brat pack has been a "pivotal force in football." This deep dive delivers plenty of rewards.
