Sean McVay recently revealed that he seriously considered quitting football after the disastrous 2022 season with the Los Angeles Rams. And honestly, after going from Super Bowl champion to a brutal 5-12 record, you can kind of understand why the man was stressed.
One year you are getting showered in confetti, the next year you are probably staring at game film wondering if Mercury is in retrograde.
During an appearance on the Bussin’ ‘With The Boys’ podcast, McVay admitted he came close to walking away from coaching completely. Not “take a vacation” close, actual retirement close.
“I almost quit coaching,” McVay said (h/t Mike Kadlick of Sports Illustrated). “And you can use the narrative that I was gonna go to media or whatever. But the truth would have been, I was quitting. I couldn’t handle the losing. It was almost like a scarlet letter. I mean, there was moments … I was like counting down the days for that season to be over. Like, what a fraud.”
“I remember explaining the situation to my wife, Veronika,” he continued. “‘You know, maybe I’ll step away, it’s going to be a really tough upcoming season … here are my options.’ Had some media stuff, and if I had done that, I would have conveniently hidden behind that. I would have been quitting.”
But the real MVP of the story ended up being his wife, Veronika McVay.
“She was like, ‘You know, that never really sounded like the leader you wanted to be.’ And I was like ‘boom,'” McVay said. “It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I also remember thinking to myself [that] the most important thing I’ve always wanted to do is be a father and be a husband, and I’ll never be able to look at my little boy when he grows up and goes through adversity and say, ‘Do as I say, not as I did.’ And that was when [I said] I’ll never be able to live with myself if I [do] this.”
NFL coaching looks glamorous until you realize these men basically age seven years every Sunday. One losing streak and coaches start looking like they have not slept since training camp.
McVay’s honesty also reminded fans that even championship coaches feel pressure. Winning a Super Bowl does not suddenly make every season easy. Sometimes it actually makes things harder because expectations become ridiculous.
