Sean McVay got his start in the NFL on Jon Gruden’s coaching staff with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in 2008 when he was an assistant wide receivers coach. McVay has talked about the impact that Gruden had on his coaching, with the two building a connection over the years.
So when the New York Times uncovered racist, misogynistic and homophobic emails sent by Gruden dating back to 2011, it surprised McVay. The Rams coach addressed the situation during his press conference on Wednesday, saying he hadn’t seen that side of Gruden and is saddened by the negative impact those emails have had on people.
“Want to just kind of get ahead of it, it’s really an unfortunate situation that’s gone on with the Raiders and Coach Gruden. Hated that so many people have been negatively affected by this. Thoughts and prayers are with all those people that are and really just want to leave it at that and we’re focused on the Giants,” McVay said to begin his press conference.
He was for his initial reaction to the news about Gruden that came out this week, once again reiterating that he’s sad about the entire situation.
“Just sad about it. It’s unfortunate,” he said. “… I just think it’s a really unfortunate circumstance. I’m sad for the many people that have been negatively affected, anybody that was offended by this. There’s a lot of families, there’s a lot of things that go into this and there’s a lot of people that have been affected and that’s what I’m sad about. It’s kind of a sad commentary all around and it’s an unfortunate thing that we’re even talking about it right now.”
Having known Gruden for more than a decade, McVay never saw a side of him that was reflected in those offensive emails. He was asked if the news surprised him, to which he said this:
“Yeah, it did. All I know is I can only speak on my individual interactions with him,” McVay replied. “Haven’t seen any of those types of things that you would expect that kind of stuff to come out in writing or whatever. We are responsible for the things that we do say but I have not seen that side of him and I was surprised by that.”
McVay has built strong chemistry in the locker room since becoming head coach of the Rams in 2017 and is someone players love taking the field for. The culture he’s developed in Los Angeles, be it in the community, with his coaching staff or with his players has been a bright spot for the Rams.
It’s something he takes pride in, too, helping bring people together from different cultures with one goal of winning a Super Bowl.
“I’ve been raised to love people, to care about people,” McVay said. “I think one of the great things about this game is you bring people together from a bunch of different backgrounds and I think there becomes an understanding of, man, you see people in their purest form and that’s what you love about being able to do this and the different amounts of people that I’ve gotten exposed to. … I saw that my uncle was on some of those chains, but I can’t speak on behalf of some of the content. Saddened is an appropriate word and I’d like to think there’s an atmosphere and environment here that’s about helping people reach their highest potential, having empathy, caring about people and that’s what I think we display and I think that’s what the people that have been in this building would say and that’s really important to me.”
McVay said he has not been contacted by the league about the ongoing investigation into Washington and former executive Bruce Allen, to whom Gruden sent the offensive emails, among others.