SAD NEWS: Sean McVay, the head coach, has angrily terminated his biggest contract ever due to a serious
SAD NEWS: Head coach Sean McVay abruptly ended his largest contract ever, citing a significant
Seattle The Rams‘ perception of their head coach’s permanence ended on Sunday night, along with their perception of their lengthy NFL season.
Many club and league sources with firsthand knowledge of the current situation told me over the last week that Sean McVay is considering his options on whether or not he wants to rejoin the team in 2023. He has been getting advice and opinions on the subject from friends, confidants, and advisers. I gave anonymity to those I spoke with so they could be open and honest.
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Some in the Rams organization think he will eventually take the leave of absence that we have all known was inevitable. As a head coach, McVay is a stickler for both ends of the stick and finds it difficult to incorporate delegating tasks and taking breaks. Some inside the company think he’ll stick around as well. According to a league source, the Rams’ overall course will be determined by events during the next two weeks.
Broadcasting firms have been publicly courting McVay for a long time. They continue to show him increasing amounts of money, even to the point where last summer he inked a deal with the Rams until 2026, putting him in the exclusive group of NFL coaches who earn the highest salaries. Everyone I spoke with agreed that this isn’t really about McVay wanting to pursue a broadcasting career right away, even if he has made it known that he hopes to do so in the future.
In Sean McVay’s sixth season in L.A., the Rams won the Super Bowl. After their Sunday loss to Seattle, the Rams ended 5-12 a year later. (USA Today/Joe Nicholson)
From his explosive 2017 entry into the league at the age of 30, when he became the architect of an offense that no one could stop, to his incredible winning percentage during his first coaching season, McVay experienced an all-out sprint of success with minimal criticism. His season has never been this bad; only months after winning the Super Bowl, he is embarrassing himself in front of the public.
He has never experienced an offseason like this one, where he has had little to no control over an exceptionally short recovery period for both players and himself, and where he has had few answers to a league that is quickly adapting to counter everything he and the front office have built. He just hasn’t had enough time to locate them or to identify the personnel he needs to assist him in solving problems. This Rams season has been publicly referred to by McVay as a “professional failure,” and he has stated that it has made him face “insecurities” he was unaware of before.
He has experienced loss and worry in his personal life. Days after they’d giddily drunk champagne on the roofs of Super Bowl parade busses, he and his wife Veronika sat on their couch in the spring and watched as her native Ukraine was invaded. McVay lost his grandfather, John, in the fall. John was a man who embodied being full, human, and sympathetic—even in the face of extreme hardship. These are the attributes that McVay values in others and strives to emulate. At his post-funeral press conference, McVay revealed that he would not have been able to have nearly the career he has without his grandfather’s NFL connections, even though he was on the verge of tears.
When uncontrollable events arise in a setting that McVay has spent the last five plus years painstakingly perfecting to his exact specifications, sometimes even to the point of self-insulation—like the Rams’ disastrous injury run through the 2022 season—who is McVay? Without his job, who is he? Is he aware? Is he curious to know? If someone gets stuck in the wheel they created, success can become more difficult.
He still has complete autonomy in this situation. According to two sources who spoke with me, the Rams are completely amenable to him staying or stepping down. This includes implementing significant adjustments to his assistant coaches’ duties and responsibilities, as well as any adjustments to his personal or professional habits. The Rams do not think McVay would permanently retire from coaching, according to a source who was given anonymity so they could discuss their direct knowledge of the team’s backup plans in case of either scenario.
Several people with knowledge of the process stated that McVay is not under any time constraints to make this decision, nor is he receiving a deadline from the Rams.
He should take the time necessary to sort his thoughts out because he is a person. I have a great deal of respect for those who are sensitive to their emotions and make an effort to comprehend both their inner and outer selves. There are levels to this, though. It’s not easy.
If I were one of the players or the assistant coach, I would be somewhat frustrated with the whole thing, but I would also want what’s best for McVay. Both may be accurate, but let’s not overlook the tremendous obstacles most players—many of whom come from quite different backgrounds than his own—had to overcome in order to reach the NFL, including psychological, physical, and environmental ones. Remember that many assistants and their families may not know their own destiny until McVay makes a choice.
It’s important to have compassion and understanding for McVay’s situation, as well as for the people this choice will impact. People who are familiar with McVay’s mentality claim that he is aware of the far-reaching effects that every choice he makes will have on those who, unlike him, are not certain of their financial or professional futures. He has the option to leave and return with a significant contract still in effect. Nobody who is impacted by this circumstance can make the same claim.
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After the Rams lost their season-ending game in Seattle, Bobby Wagner—who McVay claims he has relied on because to his leadership and consistency during a season in decline—said, “You gotta control what you can control.” It goes without saying that he has a lot of problems to solve and other things of that kind. I am not in his position. Thus, you just manage the things under your control and respond to events as they arise. I am his everlasting friend.
Since their first encounter on a plane to the NFL combine prior to his rookie season in 2018, quarterback Baker Mayfield, who joined the Rams in Week 14, has become closer with McVay. Following the game, a number of players expressed uncertainty about McVay’s future, and Mayfield went on to say, “(McVay) is so truly invested in (putting) everything he has into this game.” He thinks about football all the time.
“You can see the toll it takes on him because of this.”
As the Rams’ season officially came to an end on Sunday night at Lumen Field, McVay was all smiles as he stood at the podium. Usually, when he loses, I can sense his blatant dissatisfaction and when he wins, his barely concealed bravado. We’ve made fun of the fact that he never has a poker face because you can always tell where he stands—either good, bad, or somewhere in between.
This time, I observed a person who is fervently seeking solutions that elude him. Someone close to breaking down in tears? A fit of rage? He didn’t seem confident even here; he appeared to be at odds with his emotions, which made sense given where he was. I have no doubt that McVay is experiencing more than just burnout or the agony of experiencing defeat for the first time in his life. I have little doubt that McVay is resolving a more significant psychological issue that he may not completely comprehend just now.
I then pondered what it may be like to be someone who thought that once he reached the summit, he would finally find himself, and who might now be afraid of discovering that even after he did, he still lost.
