As he enters the biggest game of his professional life followed by the biggest summer of his personal life, Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay spent time Friday pondering what all of that means for his future.
McVay doesn’t yet have the answer to the ideal work/life balance but he made it known during his team’s final media availability before Sunday’s Super Bowl LVI that it’s something that has been on his mind.
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Moments after answering a question by saying he “won’t make it” if he’s coaching until he’s 60, McVay was asked why he didn’t think that would be the case. McVay, 36, started his response by saying he was joking but then gave a roughly 90-second answer on the other things he wants to pursue in life.
“I love this so much that it’s such a passion but I also know that what I’ve seen from some of my closest friends, whether it’s coaches or even some of our players, I’m gonna be married this summer, I want to have a family and I think being able to find that balance but also be able to give the time necessary,” McVay said. “I have always had a dream about being able to be a father and I can’t predict the future, you know? I jokingly say that.
“I don’t really know. I know I love football and I’m so invested in this thing and I’m in the moment right now. 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.”
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Those thoughts come against the backdrop of multiple sources telling ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry in the past and again recently that McVay has considered working as a television analyst as an alternative to coaching.
In January, multiple league executives suggested to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler that McVay could follow a similar coaching/broadcasting path to Jon Gruden, whom McVay coached under in Tampa Bay in 2008, and take a break from coaching for a lucrative TV job.
One NFC executive told Fowler, “I think he’s trying to get that Super Bowl ring quickly so then he can have options. … If he wants to do TV for a while, he’d be great at it and can always go back and coach any team he wants after that.”
The New York Post reported Thursday that television executives would have interest in McVay if that was something he wanted to pursue, noting “it is not clear yet if he would want to do it.”
The lure of starting a family is something McVay was clear about Friday. He and fiancée Veronika Khomyn were originally slated to get married in the south of France in 2020 and then in Southern California last year but have postponed their nuptials both times for pandemic-related reasons.
McVay’s thoughts on family run deep and he offered some perspective on that when talking about his own childhood experiences. He said Friday that his father Tim would have been “an unbelievable coach” but never pursued it seriously because he saw the time it meant he would be away after observing his father, John McVay, work as the head coach of the New York Giants and general manager of the San Francisco 49ers.
“I also know how much time is taken away during these months of the year and I saw that growing up,” McVay said. “He has such a special relationship with my grandpa who was a coach and in personnel but one of the things that prevented him from getting into coaching was, ‘Man, I had such a great relationship but my dad missed out on a lot of the things’ but didn’t want to do that with me and my little brother. So, I always remembered that and at some point, I want to be able to have a family. So, that’s why I say that. But, s—, you’ll probably be talking to me when I’m 61 doing this stuff.
“Who knows?”
McVay and general manager Les Snead signed extensions with the Rams in January 2019 that have them under contract through the 2023 season. Since taking over in 2017, McVay has led the Rams to a 61-29 record, including the playoffs, three NFC West division titles and a pair of NFC championships.
For now, McVay’s focus is on winning the Lombardi Trophy that has evaded him and the Rams since losing to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII. Atoning for that loss, a game in which McVay has admitted he was outcoached, has been another storyline surrounding the Rams coach this week.
“I think what you do to get over it is you look at yourself in the mirror, you take accountability and you keep it moving,” McVay said Monday. “I think as a competitor, you have to be able to handle those tough moments and I’ll never run away from the fact that I didn’t do a good enough job for our team within what I feel like my role and responsibility is to these guys.”
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