
The Why Is Everything
A Story of Football, Rivalry, and Revolution
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Narrated by:
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Mike Chamberlain
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By:
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Michael Silver
About this listen
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. 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.
©2024 Michael Silver (P)2024 Ascent AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
We are living in the Wild West of college sports. Name, Image and Likeness endorsements, the transfer portal, collectives, conference realignment, the powerful influence of media companies have all rendered the notion of amateur athletics a quaint relic of the past, replaced by a Brave New World where money and self-interest rule. The Price is a sweeping, in-depth, thought-provoking look at an inflection point in big-time college football.
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In-Depth And Off The Rails
- By BrettSBaker on 10-06-24
By: Armen Keteyian, and others
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The Players’ Coach
- Fifty Years Making the NFL’s Best Better (From Bradshaw to Manning, Brady and Beyond)
- By: Tom Moore, Rick Stroud - With
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The Players' Coach is a player-development masterclass. It is also an inspirational life story, from humble beginnings to becoming the quarterback for the University of Iowa, a college coaching career, and then to assistant-coach and offensive-coordinator roles in six different decades. This book is destined to be a football classic, a coaching Bible, and a must-listen on leadership.
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Best Offensive Assistant in NFL History
- By Paul on 02-20-25
By: Tom Moore, and others
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The Dynasty
- By: Jeff Benedict
- Narrated by: Todd Menesses
- Length: 25 hrs
- Unabridged
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How was the Patriots dynasty built? And how did it last for two decades? In The Dynasty, acclaimed journalist Jeff Benedict provides richly reported answers in a sweeping account based on exclusive interviews with more than 200 insiders - including team executives, coaches, players, players’ wives, team doctors, lawyers, and more - as well as never-before-seen recordings, documents, and electronic communications.
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I could not put this down!
- By Mark on 12-29-20
By: Jeff Benedict
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Football Is a Numbers Game
- Pro Football Focus and How a Data-Driven Approach Shook Up the Sport
- By: Matthew Coller
- Narrated by: Matthew Coller
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 1980s, Neil Hornsby was one of very few National Football League fans in England. Never one to do anything casually, he began keeping hand-written score sheets of every game using his own tracking system. Soon he'd enlisted some fellow British super fans in his mission to take football information an extra layer deeper. This was the beginning of Pro Football Focus, an analytics company that now supplies data to all 32 NFL teams and every major broadcasting corporation. In Football Is a Numbers Game, Matthew Coller chronicles this improbable start-up tale with unprecedented access.
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A unique listen on data and the NFL!
- By Austin on 11-22-23
By: Matthew Coller
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Boys Will Be Boys
- The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty
- By: Jeff Pearlman
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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They were America's Team - the high-priced, high-glamour, high-flying Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s, who won three Super Bowls and made as many headlines off the field as on it. Led by Emmitt Smith, the charismatic Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, and Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, the Cowboys rank among the greatest of all NFL dynasties.
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This is a football book right?
- By Aaron on 12-07-09
By: Jeff Pearlman
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Swagger
- Super Bowls, Brass Balls, and Footballs - A Memoir
- By: Jimmy Johnson, Dave Hyde
- Narrated by: Chris Henry Coffey
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Hall of Fame football coach Jimmy Johnson’s house isn’t on the way to anything. Yet, his private sanctuary on the Florida Keys’ Islamorada islands is a popular destination to which college and professional coaches, general managers, and team owners regularly trek to seek advice—how to build a positive team culture, draft elite players, balance work and family life, and lead a team to win. Why? Because Jimmy Johnson has done it all. Now, written with sports journalist Dave Hyde, Johnson shares a candid account of his life experiences that have turned him into a legend in the coaching world.
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AMAZING AND NECESSARY READ FOR FOOTBALL FANS EVERYWHERE
- By elaine clancy on 01-24-23
By: Jimmy Johnson, and others
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The Football 100
- Sports Series, Book 1
- By: The Athletic, Dan Kaufman
- Narrated by: Jaime Lincoln Smith
- Length: 18 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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At The Athletic, home to the best newsroom in sports, this question would become a labor of love for dozens of the best football writers on the planet, including Mike Sando and Dan Pompei. Over the course of 100 riveting profiles—each drawing upon unparalleled access and superlative storytelling to offer intimate perspective on what made the greatest players tick—these writers reveal their findings. In the process, they also uncover the history of football.
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Many interesting stories of football greats
- By Donald J. Bentley on 02-16-25
By: The Athletic, and others
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The Captain
- The Journey of Derek Jeter
- By: Ian O'Connor
- Narrated by: Nick Pollifrone
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Every spring, Little Leaguers across the country mimic his stance and squabble over the right to wear his number, 2, the next number to be retired by the world’s most famous ball team. Derek Jeter is their hero. He walks in the footsteps of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle, and someday his shadow will loom just as large. Yet he has never been the best player in baseball. In fact, he hasn’t always been the best player on his team. But his intangible grace and Jordanesque ability to play big in the biggest of postseason moments make him the face of the modern Yankee dynasty, and of America’s game.
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Great book, terrible narrator.
- By Butter on 05-09-14
By: Ian O'Connor
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Blood in the Garden
- The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks
- By: Chris Herring
- Narrated by: Brian Hutchison
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The definitive history of the 1990s New York Knicks, illustrating how Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Anthony Mason resurrected the iconic franchise through oppressive physicality and unmatched grit. Blood in the Garden is a portrait filled with eye-opening details that have never been shared before, revealing the full story of the franchise in the midst of the NBA’s golden era. And rest assured, no punches will be pulled. Which is just how those rough-and-tumble Knicks would like it.
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Great book, horrible performance.
- By Sean Conway on 07-21-22
By: Chris Herring
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Out of the Darkness
- The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers
- By: Ian O'Connor
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Aaron Rodgers is among the two or three most talented players to ever hold the most important job in American team sports–quarterback. He also stands as the most mysterious and polarizing figure in the modern-day national pastime that is professional football. From his controversial Covid stance to his methods of spiritual awakening to his estrangement from his family to his high-profile romances to his devastating Achilles injury a mere four plays into his New York Jets career, Rodgers has long dominated the NFL’s news cycle.
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Author seems clueless as to what draws a lot of people to Aaron
- By Amy on 09-12-24
By: Ian O'Connor
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Once a Giant
- A Story of Victory, Tragedy, and Life After Football
- By: Gary Myers
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The 1986 New York Giants are legendary. A championship team coached by Bill Parcells and his wunderkind assistant Bill Belichick, featuring future Hall of Famers and All-Pros like Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, Mark Bavaro, and Harry Carson. They were dominant on the field and formed a unique and lasting bond off of it. More than thirty years later, it's the friendships that have proved more important—a matter of life and death. In Once a Giant, bestselling football writer Gary Myers tells the story of that team and what became of it.
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Must Read for Big Blue Fan
- By Mark A. McCoy on 03-05-24
By: Gary Myers
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The Last of His Kind
- Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness
- By: Andy McCullough
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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More than any baseball player of his generation, Clayton Kershaw has embodied the burden of athletic greatness, the prizes and perils that await those who strive for it all. He is a three-time Cy Young award winner, the first pitcher to win National League MVP since Bob Gibson, and a surefire, first-ballot Hall of Famer. Many of his peers consider him the greatest pitcher to ever climb atop a big-league mound.
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Last of his kind is one of a kind
- By Anonymous User on 01-28-25
By: Andy McCullough
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Legendary
- The 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers Defense, the Zone Blitz, and My Six Decades in the NFL
- By: Dick LeBeau, Scott Brown, George Von Benko
- Narrated by: Dick Lebeau, Todd Menesses, Troy Polamalu, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In Legendary, LeBeau along with veteran Steelers’ scribes Scott Brown and George Von Benko will revisit that unforgettably dominant 2008 defensive unit, one of the most feared and successful in the modern NFL landscape. A deep dive into each game of the 2007-2008 championship season, with added perspective of how that “Blitzburgh” defense stacks up against the other great contemporary defenses, LeBeau also intersperses revelations about the 2008 Steelers with anecdotes from his nearly 60 years in the NFL as both a star player and groundbreaking coach who spanned decades of football innovation.
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Change The Lombardi to The Lebeau
- By C. Wright on 08-08-24
By: Dick LeBeau, and others
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Pipeline to the Pros
- How D3, Small-College Nobodies Rose to Rule the NBA
- By: Ben Kaplan, Danny Parkins
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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For the first time in league history, NBA coaches and general managers are just as likely to have played Division III basketball as they are to have played in the NBA. While the number of former D3 players working in the NBA is higher than ever, small college alums have served in leadership positions since the league's founding.
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For basketball junkies
- By steven on 11-04-24
By: Ben Kaplan, and others
What listeners say about The Why Is Everything
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-04-24
Great if you love the nfl
Good mix of profiling and building stories around each coach, the insider view, NFL gossip, what makes coaches succeed, and how the leagues innovation happened
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- Dennis
- 12-28-24
the sheer football knowledge
if you are football a football you will love this book merry Christmas football fans
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- Patrick Ryan Hunt
- 12-29-24
A Brilliant Deep Dive into Modern Football Strategy and Innovation
This masterful analysis had me completely engrossed from start to finish. Silver expertly weaves together football's rich history with contemporary strategic innovations, offering unique insights into how today's elite coaches think. The book transforms how you watch the game - every play call now carries deeper meaning as you understand the chess-like intelligence and historical evolution behind each decision. It's rare to find a book that makes an already fascinating sport even more compelling, but this one achieves exactly that through its detailed exploration of football's tactical evolution and the brilliant minds shaping the modern game.
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- Timothy
- 10-09-24
Excellent sports journalism
An old school sports reporter telling great stories about some of the best young coaches that have taken over the NFL. I especially enjoyed the stories about Mike McDaniels.
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- casey and kelsey
- 11-20-24
Great book
Tons of behind the scenes information and conversations. Really enjoyed being put behind the scenes.
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- Kindle Customer
- 12-23-24
Keep fighting
Bought this for my boss and boss’s boss. And tell everyone that mentions football about it to the embarrassment of my children.
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- John Cunningham
- 12-28-24
How Did The NFL Reinvent Itself?
This is an excellent chronicle of the NFL’s new guard. From Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVey to The La Flur brothers, Mike McDaniel and Raheem Morris. Getting into and keeping a coaching job in the NFL is a life-long grind. Wonderful read.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-30-25
learning behind the scenes details about NFL coaches
this book is a great explanation for how men who are on the Washington coaching staff 13 years ago became head coaches in a matter of 10 years and the origin story for each of them and how all of their lives are intertwined
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