Sean McVay and Matt LaFleur were only on the Rams coaching staff together for one year, but their relationship goes back much longer than that single 2017 season. They’ve known each other for years, first working together on Mike Shanahan’s staff in Washington.
That strong relationship helped McVay and LaFleur keep an open dialogue with each other in L.A., allowing them to speak their minds to each other for the better of the team. There was one time when the two had an argument during the 2017 season, and not because the Rams were struggling.
As LaFleur tells it, McVay yelled at him in front of the players, which didn’t sit well with the offensive coordinator. So LaFleur told McVay to just fire him if that was how it was going to be. McVay refuted LaFleur’s account of the story while on The Helliepod podcast with Dan Hellie, saying it happened in LaFleur’s office.
“We had an office argument because this was in his office,” McVay began. “He says, ‘If this is how it’s going to be, just fire me right now.’ I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to quit too.’ And he’s like, ‘No, don’t do that, man!’ This was at the time when we were rolling. We were getting ready to play the Titans to win the division to get our 11th win and here we are both ready to kill each other. He’s asking to be fired and I’m saying, ‘I’m not going to fire ya, I’m just going to quit myself.’ It was two minutes of us totally losing our minds, but I didn’t yell at him in front of the players.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAJ1GL4r2BQ?start=1802]
LaFleur wound up leaving the Rams to become the offensive coordinator of the Titans, allowing him to call plays for the first time. He and McVay have stayed in touch, however, and just recently, LaFleur’s family was in California catching up with McVay.
In fact, McVay said they were “crying laughing over that same story” when LaFleur was in town.
“We are like brothers. He was in essence like a big brother to me in Washington. We’ve been so close. I mean, he’s one of my best friends, so I love Matt,” McVay said. “I think there was such a close comfort that in a lot of ways, you’re taking on a lot of new roles and responsibilities – really both of us, when he’s the OC and I’m the head coach – and so Matt always had the right way, he always had the willingness to tell me things I needed to hear. Now, his timing wasn’t always the best. He’d come to me at the time and I’d say, ‘Matt, get the hell out of here right now.’ Then you think about it and you’re like, ‘Yeah, he’s probably right.’”
LaFleur is now the head coach of the Packers and had a very successful first season in Green Bay in 2019. He led the Packers to the playoffs after a 13-3 regular season, even winning his postseason debut against the Seahawks in the divisional round.