Sean McVay is regarded as one of the best head coaches in the NFL. His offensive mind is second only to the defensive genius of Bill Belichick, as evidenced by their battle in Super Bowl LIII.
McVay burst onto the scene as a head coach in 2017, leading the Rams to an 11-5 record — their best since 2003. He was named Coach of the Year and while his team was eliminated in the Wild Card Round, they would return to the postseason the following season and lose in the Super Bowl. McVay’s meteoric rise to the top of the NFL led several teams to hire people close to him. Bengals’ head coach Zac Taylor was the quarterbacks coach for McVay in 2018 and was the receivers coach under McVay in 2017. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was the Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2017 and worked with McVay on Washington’s staff for a few years. While McVay and Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury have never worked together, when Kingsbury was brought on by Arizona, they made sure to mention that Kingsbury was a close friend of McVay’s.
Still, despite all of these hires meant to replace/work as well as McVay, McVay reigns supreme as the only one to reach a Super Bowl. So, it may come as a shock to you that should McVay win the Super Bowl tomorrow, he may consider making the move from the sideline to the broadcast booth.
According to the report from MMQB, McVay, 36, is considering calling it a career after the Super Bowl in order to start a family. “I know I love football and I’m so invested in this thing and I’m in the moment right now,” says McVay. “But at some point, too, if you said, ‘What do you want to be able to do?’ I want to be able to have a family, and I want to be able to spend time with them.” McVay states that he’s always dreamed of being a father, and with his wedding just around the corner — set for this summer — McVay is unsure whether or not he’ll be able to give coaching his full attention.
Moving to color commentary would be a smart move for McVay should he decide he no longer wants to coach. For one, he’s got an insanely good memory. He can recall specific plays and moments from a decade ago. Just imagine how cool that would be in the broadcast booth. Something weird happens in a game, and Al Michaels or whomever McVay is working with says “I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like that,” all for McVay to chime in and say “Actually! It’s happened four other times in NFL history, the most recent being 1988.” That’d be awesome, and there would likely come a whole faction of Twitter accounts dedicated to fact-checking McVay’s insane memory.
Second, with McVay’s offensive mind, sparkling personality, dashing good looks, and youth, he could probably break down plays the same way Tony Romo does, all while offering the different perspective of a head coach as well. Sure, Bruce Arians may not have been the most enticing listen when he was on the CBS broadcast team, but McVay is young and sprightly enough to offer that same insight with a little more pizazz than Arians could offer.
Third, it would prevent him from getting hurt. Sean McVay does not play in the games he coaches, but doggone it, he tries to get out there. There is a designated “get-back” coach on the Rams’ sideline whose sole purpose is to make sure McVay doesn’t wander too far out onto the field while the game is going on. You might think, “Well, yeah, he shouldn’t be out there, but he won’t get hurt from doing that.” You’re probably right, but it is possible. We’ve seen coaches interrupt games while standing in the field of play before. Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin once famously stopped Baltimore Ravens’ return man Jacoby Jones from scoring because he was standing on the field during the play. Tomlin wasn’t hurt, but he definitely could’ve been. If McVay truly wants to be a father above all else, he’d likely want to put himself as far away from any harm as possible.
McVay still has a lot to offer as a head coach, but if he wants to focus on his family, that’s a pretty damn good reason to step away from football. The move to the booth makes sense and will only be more enticing to McVay should he win the Super Bowl. After all, networks would likely be willing to pay a lot more to have someone with Super Bowl Champion on their resumé. If McVay does choose to step away after tomorrow, he had a great career that ended too soon, but hey, hopefully his final act can be handing the Lombardi Trophy over to Matthew Stafford.
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
