Bills head coach Sean McDermott is not unaccustomed to handling outside scrutiny or criticism, but his character hasn’t been called into question.
Until now.
A 3 part piece was posted this week on GoLongTD.com by blogger Tyler Dunne critiquing and, at times, dragging McDermott via quotes from unnamed and unconfirmed sources. They allegedly include team personnel and former players, including staff who may have been with him in Carolina and Buffalo. The quotes range in tone from critical and opinionated, to even slanderous toward the Bills HC.
It includes a speech the coach gave to Bills players in 2019, one McDermott said he apologized for afterward as his message wasn’t communicated properly, per ESPN’.
The article at times extended beyond professional criticism or job performance to aim at McDermott’s character.
And one of the Bills’ defensive leaders isn’t having it.
Veteran safety and Bills captain Micah Hyde stood up for his coach on Friday, stepping up at the end of a McDermott-held meeting with Bills players to clear the air on the 2019 mis-speech, as well as to the media.
“I think it’s a low blow to question Sean’s character,” Hyde said to WIVB-TV. “So for guys to do that, it’s kind of messed up in my eyes. I’m pro Sean McDermott.”
For Dunne’s part, he’s written on his own site since 2020 and is a Salamanca native who attended St. John Fisher College before transferring to Syracuse.
As a beat writer, he covered the Green Bay Packers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for four years followed by a one-year stint with The Buffalo News, and a long-form national feature writer position with Bleacher Report (B/R) that ended when B/R Mag was shut down. He even co-hosted an episode of One Bills Drive while with B/R in 2019, the year of the speech-in-question.
In the past, he’s emphasized reporting and interviewing sources as driving factors in his writing while simultaneously noting his feelings towards being granted less and less access by the NFL or teams for interview requests and that he tries to circumvent that system.
Some have questioned whether the past relationship Dunne had with fired Bills GM Doug Whaley and former Bills player-personnel director Jim Monos (with whom he’s co-hosted the Go Long Podcast), his not being press-credentialed by the team under GM Brandon Bean and McDermott, or his no longer writing for a professional press outlet (or having editorial oversight above him) were potential factors in his writing of this latest piece.
McDermott noted the effect the piece has had on him
“Clearly an attack on my character,” was how he categorized Dunne’s story. “I think in any of our lives if this came up for any of us, something like this, it definitely gets your mind spinning, just being real. And it’s been disappointing. It’s been hurtful. At the end of the day, I know who I am. At the end of the day, I know how I handle myself. As I’ve said, humbly, I’m not without flaws. I wake up every morning and try and do the best job that I can to win games for the fans of the Buffalo Bills and do it the right way.”
Bills GM Brandon Beane spoke to the meeting McDermott had with the players while defending his character to the press as well.
“I went into the team meeting yesterday, I think he talked to you guys first, went into the team meeting and I thought it was very authentic,” Beane said, also noting that McDermott “was very vulnerable.”
“I thought the guys all saw that, felt that, and know Sean for who he is. I think you guys that have been around here some years know who Sean’s character is. I’ll stand by his character every day of the week.”
About the team meeting, Hyde said about the players “We’re all sitting there and supporting Sean and I don’t think that anybody in there was thinking otherwise.”
McDermott also shared the expressed support of his players when speaking about the meeting he had with them.
“It went well. Their support was clear and much appreciated.”
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