J-Speaks: The Latest Coaching Prodigy in the NFL

As National Football League (NFL) embarks on a new season as Training Camps are underway. Among the teams that bares a close eye for all of us resides in the “City of Angels” the Los Angeles Rams. It not just because they are both young and talented on both sides of the ball, offense and defensed but because their head coach, who they hired last season is being viewed as the latest genius of in business. It is a title that this gentleman who is as old as some veterans in the league, but no up and comer has earned that title than this Dayton, OH native who went from an assistant wide receivers’ coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers nearly a decade ago to the top job with the Rams.

At around 4 a.m. back in June, Rams head coach Sean McVay begins his work day driving from his home in the suburbs in L.A. to his office at the Rams facility.

It is part of his daily routine, despite that it is only June and the start of the NFL season is not until September.

On that day, McVay was the first to arrive in the office, giving him the opportunity to study practice film without interruption and prepare for practice.

To put that early start into context, it will be seven hours before practice begins and the preparation for the upcoming season commences.

One distinct difference between McVay and the other head coaches in the NFL is his boundless energy. When that practice got underway, you could hear McVay’s voice literally and figuratively as he prepares his team.

In one sequence from an interview he did with HBO “Real Sports’” Bryant Gumbel McVay at the start of practice displayed that drive to be great by saying, “Here we go. Stretch, stretch, stretch! Get you helmets, here we go!”

He then said as practice was continuing and the players were getting into individual drills, “Let’s look sharp. Let’s look crisp. Let’s do things the right way.”

During that two-hour off-season practice, McVay was in constant motion, communicating with everyone, non-stop.

When asked by Gumbel nearly 10 hours into his day that if he was gassed, McVay’s response, “No. I feel good. You know, I think you get energy from being out here on the field with the guys.”

“Usually after we go through the practice film and stuff like that, then you usually start to wear down.”

If you are wondering how old McVay is, he is 31-years-old. When the Rams hired him to be their 28^th head coach in franchise history on Jan. 12, 2017, he was all of 30 years and 354 days old, younger than the average NFL lead man on the sidelines by 23 years. McVay became the youngest head coach in the history of the NFL upon his hire. He surpassed now Florida Atlantic University Football head coach Lane Kiffin, who was held the record of being the youngest head coach in modern NFL history when he was hired by the Oakland Raiders nearly 10 years prior at 31 years and 259 days old.

“Football was something that it kind of has always run in our family, and I couldn’t picture myself doing anything else,” McVay said to Gumbel.

When Gumbel said to McVay that admires of his that know some of his backstory that he was destined to coach football.

McVay said to that, “I don’t know about that. I think I was really fortunate where I’ve been exposed to some great coaches. You know, going back to my grandpa. Just people willing to invest in me.”

One of the people that invested in McVay was his grandfather John McVay, the former head coach of the New York Giants in the late 1970s, who later in the early part of his two-decade tenor in the front office with he San Francisco 49ers, led by Hall of Fame head coach Bill Walsh helped build a championship dynasty in the Bay Area.

It was McVay’s idea to select a quarterback Joe Montana with the 82^nd overall pick in the 1979 draft.

This pick would begin the start of one of the greatest Super Bowl runs in NFL history where the 49ers would win five Vince Lombardi trophies and Montana would be game MVP in three of the four they won in the 1980s and the fifth Super Bowl was won with now ESPN NFL analyst and Hall of Famer Steve Young leading the way in the 1994 season.

Having a front row seat for all of that success of the 49ers was Sean and after completing his collegiate career at Miami University in Oxford, OH, where he played as a wideout, as his grandfather did, and graduated in 2008, he went right into coaching.

Thanks to a connection from a family friend, McVay got his first shot with the Buccaneers, led by the new head coach of the Raiders and former ESPN Monday Night Football color analyst John Gruden.

After serving as the quality control/wide receivers coach for the former Florida Tuskers, now the Virginia Destroyers of the American Football League (AFL), McVay made his way to the Washington Redskins where he went from the assistant tight ends coach all the way up to the Offensive Coordinator from 2014-16.  

One of the first players to fully see what the Rams see on a daily basis now is former All-Pro tight end of the Redskins Chris Cooley, who remembers the first meeting he had with the gentlemen that was his position coach for two seasons and this meeting came towards the end of a terrible season.

Cooley said of the then 26-year-old McVay that he had this meeting prepared like it was the first day of training camp. That presentation he said was a power point presentation that had him and many of the other players shaking their heads and in shock.

“We’re like, ‘Sean, what in the world man,’” Cooley said about that presentation.

It was that meticulousness and attention to detail that would serve McVay well as the Redskins offensive coordinator, at age 28. He would become one of the best player callers in the NFL and help turn starting signal caller Kirk Cousins, an average understudy into a one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

It was then that McVay became a hot commodity to become a head coach, even though many in NFL circles could never imagine someone entering their 30s to be at that high of a position on the pro football field, not even in his own family.

“He said I think I’m going to get an opportunity to interview for some of the open positions. And I said that’s would be fantastic,” Sean’s father Tim said to Gumbel.

Mr. McVay said that his son told that if he gets an interview he will land one of the vacancies.

He then said to Gumbel about the idea of that happening, “I’m all for you man.”

Mr. McVay said after that phone conversation, he wife Cindy asked him could he get one of those jobs this soon? Her husband’s answer was, “Nah.”

Well Sean did land one of those jobs with the Rams, who saw in McVay a person with boundless energy, but someone with a tremendous work ethic, and an understanding of the game that many years at his position never grasp.

While he is still early into his head coaching career, McVay has earned a reputation as a football savant, who can recall every single play of every single game he has ever coached.

Like a play in Week 16 of last season at the Tennessee Titans a 2^nd & 11 at the Rams own 20-yard-line with 4:24 remaining the opening half, McVay hoped his team could flip the field and pin the Titans on their side of the field. Instead it was a screen pass to running back Todd Gurley.

“After we had on the first play, we went a negative one-[yard]. Then the series before that, they recovered a fumble for a touchdown when our guard went the wrong way,” McVay said to Gumbel about what transpired before that play that went for a touchdown.

McVay also recalled a play at the Giants in Week 9, where at the 2:40 mark of the second quarter with the Giants in position on 3^rd & 10 at their 14-yard-line, Rams cornerback Turmaine Johnson picked off the pass from quarterback Eli Manning.

“He will remember every situation. He will remember every play,” Cooley said of the great memory of McVay. “His wealth of football knowledge is more than any person that I ever met.”

That single mindedness about football and nothing else has been a great help to the Rams, as last season they went 11-5, to win the National Football Conference (NFC) West Division and made the playoffs for the first time in since 2004.

Their offense when from dead last, No. 30 in the NFL in scoring to first. That is how they went 7-1 on the road a season ago.

While the times seem to be filled with nothing but joy, there is no one who better understands how the climate and feelings for coaches in the NFL can change than the Sean’s father Tim.

On Nov. 19, 1978 the most famous fumble took place and added a layer in the storied rivalry between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Giants.

In what would be named as, “The Miracle at the Meadowlands” and to Giants fans it would was the worst of nightmares.

With a 17-12 lead with just seconds remaining, Giants head coach John McVay, Tim’s father were on their way to a win versus the rival Eagles.

CBS was so sure that the outcome was inevitable, they began rolling the closing credits before the game and the history for one man completely changed.

As Giants’ QB Joe Pisarcik was taking the handoff under center, everyone expected him to take a knee to run out the clock and preserve the win.

Unfortunately, he took hand off, attempted to hand off the ball to Hall of Fame fullback Larry Csonka, but the exchanged was fumbled and now Arizona State head coach and former head coach and ESPN analyst Herm Edwards picked the errand exchange that resulted in a 26-yard run back for the game-winning touchdown.

That one play ended the coach career of John McVay and it still haunts him to this very day, as his son Tim said to Gumbel.

“I remember I said, ‘Hey pops, someday will look back on this and laugh and he said no [expletive] way,” he said of that moment, where the Giants fired him a month later.

In the NFL there are two kinds of coaches when it comes to them being on the chopping block. Those that get fired and those who are going to be fired.

When Mr. McVay was asked if he is worried about that for his son Sean, he said, “Yes”

“These guys are all measured by 16 days a year. A three-hour window, and you could design up a great play and somebody could fumble it, and a guy can pick it up and go the other way.”

At the moment McVay’s Rams enter the 2018 season as a team with a lot of promise as one of the team’s many believe can be playing in the Super Bowl in Feb. 2019 and are just two years away from moving into a brand new $4 billion state-of-the-art stadium.

At the head of their leadership on the field is a head coach who looks the part of a town where appearance is everything. Sean McVay is young, handsome, and strong.

Even with all those qualities in his favor, he is someone that likes being low key and is comfortable being at home with his girlfriend Veronika Khomyn and their dog Calli. Instead of doing up the L.A., he is in bed most nights by 10 p.m. local time.

When asked by Gumbel if he is a celebrity yet, McVay said, “No, I don’t think so.”

“I think my girlfriend gets more recognized than I do. So, I know I outkick my coverage, so will take that one.”

So far, Sean McVay has had a picture-perfect start to his head coaching career. He has a team on the rise led by last season’s Offensive Player of the Year in Gurley and the 2017 Defensive Player of the Year in defensive tackle Aaron Donald. Ownership that believes in his direction and a perhaps the best thing, no expectations of winning a title.

The two big questions going forward for McVay is how will he respond when the calls come for him to win a title? Second can he see being an NFL head coach for 20-plus years?

Today the average career for a player and a head coach are basically the same, of a little over four years.

“You know what, I love this game so much, but I got to continue to do a better of figuring out that work-life balance,” he said to Gumbel. “Being able to shut off, because there’s you’re always kind of thinking through things. Your mind is always racing and I know it can’t be healthy to continue to do this for a long time, but while your able to do it, and you feel like you got some energy, you sure love it.”

Information and quotations are courtesy of 7/24/18 10 p.m. edition of HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel;” https:’’en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_McVay; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Los_Angeles_Rams_seasons; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_49ers; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Montana; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McVay; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_at_the_Meadowlands.