Sean McDermott’s life after Bills firing includes school drop-offs, a new growth mission
McDermott isn't dwelling on his Buffalo firing: "Sometimes when one door closes, another one opens, also, right?"
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Sean McDermott plans to take a year off from coaching while looking to enhance his leadership skills. Sarah Stier / Getty Images
The grind looks a lot different these days.
This time of year in his old life, Sean McDermott would have found himself deeply immersed in the final stages of the Buffalo Bills’ NFL Draft prep and offseason workout planning.
But in January, McDermott’s run at Orchard Park came to an abrupt end when Bills owner Terry Pegula fired him following a gutting and controversial overtime loss to the Denver Broncos in the divisional round of the playoffs. So, after nine seasons as head coach of the Bills, and for the first time since entering the NFL in 1999 as a scouting coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles, McDermott finds himself without a team.
Three months after his exit in Buffalo — where McDermott helped spearhead a franchise revival, ended a 17-year playoff drought in Year 1, reached the postseason in eight of nine seasons and compiled a 98-50 record — the 52-year-old has settled into a new life.
He remains highly regimented and process-oriented. But no longer is McDermott a prisoner of the NFL calendar, which churns on endlessly even when games cease. Now the coach sets his own pace.
Having moved his family to south Charlotte, where he coached for six seasons before taking the Buffalo job, McDermott maintains a carefully tailored, yet far more balanced, routine.
His weekdays begin with the school drop-offs of his two youngest children, 15-year-old Gavin and 10-year-old Kelly. From there, McDermott makes his way to a local gym, where he gets in an hour-long workout, then swings by the area smoothie shop (his go-to: the green smoothie with whey protein).
By 9 a.m., the coach — joined by his shadow, a 5-year-old Bernedoodle named Champ — settles into the first-floor front room that now serves as his office. There’s no football memorabilia. Just a desk, computer and an extensive collection of binders filled with copious notes on an expansive range of football topics he has compiled over the years. Aside from a couple pieces of abstract artwork, the off-white walls remain bare. These are temporary digs.
As unassuming neighbors stroll past for their morning walks, McDermott dives into his work: six to eight hours of film study and research projects assigned to himself. Some afternoons he cuts out early if his wife of nearly 19 years, Jamie, can’t pick up the kids, or to attend a softball game for 17-year-old Maddie, a junior middle infielder and Notre Dame commit. McDermott prefers to watch the games in solitude from the outfield. From there, no one can hear his remarks, and he doesn’t have to hear anyone else’s.
Later, McDermott may throw some meat on the grill, or perhaps he’ll enjoy Jamie’s cooking with the family.
This certainly isn’t the life McDermott envisioned when the Bills entered the postseason ranked among the favorites to reach the Super Bowl. But McDermott prefers not to waste time gazing in the rearview mirror. He deems his time away from the game as a blessing in disguise. He’s making up for lost time with his family, but also using this time in exile to prepare for his next challenge.
McDermott has plotted a course that has him on an 11- to 12-month-long growth mission, taking self-inventory and dissecting the game in ways his schedule hasn’t previously allowed. He has also begun learning from the leaders of other programs, other sports and corporate America. When teams come calling next winter — because what struggling franchise wouldn’t want a coach who specializes in culture change and perennial contention — McDermott envisions them sitting down with a wiser, more understanding, more effective and more well-rounded leader.
“When you stop asking questions, that’s when you get yourself into trouble,” McDermott told The Athletic in a recent interview — his first since departing Buffalo. “People who are leaders, who think they have all the answers and aren’t asking questions, are the ones, I feel like, that run into trouble sooner or later, just in terms of not being the best versions of themselves. … So, I’m passionate about that; passionate about growing and evolving, and I think the NFL is so competitive, and you’ve got to be continually asking yourself, ‘What, why, how?’ If you want to continue to be successful, it’s in the margins.”
Football is often described as a game of inches, and McDermott and the Bills’ season came down to an even more minuscule gap. (Was that actually a Ja’Quan McMillian overtime interception, or a Brandin Cooks catch?) However, McDermott neither devotes energy to the questionable call nor whether he got a fair shake from Pegula, who raised eyebrows around the league with his — um, colorful — news conference to explain the thought process behind the coach’s firing.
“You know,” McDermott opined, “sometimes when one door closes, another one opens, also, right? … How many head coaches are able to do it for nine years and really take something, get it turned around, build a culture, break a 17-year playoff drought in the first season, and then go to the playoffs eight out of nine years? I mean, we — and I say we because it wasn’t just me; collectively, we as a team — accomplished a lot. So when you kind of take a step back and go, ‘Hang on here,’ I think perspective is healthy and important, right and powerful, and just be like, ‘Hey, I can’t control the decision.’
“I think a lot of people want the type of relationship we had for a better part of nine years, myself, (general manager) Brandon (Beane), Terry, and I’m extremely grateful to both of them; to Terry for the opportunity he gave me, and then working together with Brandon, and I think that organization is in a great spot. … The piece that we control what we can control, that’s really where my focus is.”
Ask anyone close to McDermott and they’ll tell you he has approached much of his life with that “control what you can control” mentality. As a two-time national prep school wrestling champion in the 171-pound weight class, McDermott was wired to understand that no one but himself could deliver an escape from difficult situations. He has applied the same mindset and a strong natural curiosity to preparing for the next chapter of his coaching career.
“Sean has always had just this competitive fire and he has it now, but it’s kind of the way he’s always been since he was 5, 6 years old,” explained Tim McDermott, the coach’s older brother by 18 months and the president of MLS’ Philadelphia Union. “I don’t think it’s something that he could necessarily coach/teach. It’s just something that’s in him. … He’s got this remarkable ability to push himself to outwork people. The concept of hard work is near and dear to his heart. But when I say this, like, no one will outwork him, I mean — I literally mean — that no one will outwork him, that that sort of fire inside of him has always been what makes him different, what makes him special. Then, I think he couples that hard-work mentality with a learning mentality, and so he’s not close-minded. He’s always trying to look for ways to make himself better.”
By the time the Bills fired him in mid-January, most head coaching searches were in the advanced stages, leaving McDermott with limited options. He could have sought to shoehorn his way onto another coach’s staff as an assistant. But after meeting with his family — wife, kids, parents, brother (“Rarely is it a conversation in the McDermott household that’s just with one person,” he said, laughing. “It’s usually collectively as a family.”), and picking the brains of successful NFL head coaches who had found themselves in his position, McDermott decided a reset and a year of learning and evolving would best serve him and his family.
McDermott also got advice from Steve Spagnuolo, who helped develop him while they were coaching together with the Philadelphia Eagles. Spagnuolo, now the Kansas City Chiefs’ defensive coordinator, took a similar gap year between his time as defensive coordinator and later interim head coach of the New York Giants (2015 to 2017) before he joined the Chiefs.
“I think it’s real beneficial when you go through something like that, to refresh and spend some time with family,” Spagnuolo said. “I thought he should reflect and refresh so that when he gets this next opportunity, he’d be ready for that. The things I suggested to him were to try to concentrate this offseason on things that he felt like we need to improve on — weaknesses, whether it was X’s and O’s or some head-coaching (responsibilities) — and kind of strengthen those.”
Sean McDermott, left, sought advice from many people, including Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.Bryan Bennett / Getty Images
McDermott zeroed in on leadership as an area that he wanted to study. And as he sketched out the mission ahead, he drew on lessons from two of the most influential figures in his life, his mother, Avis, and Chiefs coach Andy Reid, McDermott’s first boss in the NFL.
He would learn as much as he could from as many sources as he could.
“Our mom has always pushed us in the direction of ‘Hey, you always are learning. It doesn’t matter how old you get. You’re always pushing yourself to learn and adapt,’” Tim McDermott said. “New things, those new ideas, you figure out which makes sense for you, and you build them into your repertoire, and it makes you better.
“And just that concept, it’s like the Kaizen model of just constant improvements, constant improvements. Looking for that 1 percent, 2 percent and that makes you better. And it might be something that’s in the X’s and O’s. It might be something that’s more of a softer skill. It might be something in motivation. … And, hey, you don’t have all the answers and the best thing that you can do is be humble enough to ask people, ‘Hey, how do you do? How did you think about this? Where did you think of this? And how’d you come up with this?’ And then, when you get those answers, you decide how you want to incorporate those answers. And that started at a pretty early age.”
Meanwhile, back during his days in Philadelphia, Reid always encouraged McDermott to use the offseasons to travel the country to learn from other coaches rather than going solely off Reid’s teachings. During those years, McDermott visited premier college programs such as LSU, Texas and Virginia Tech to learn from coaches like Nick Saban and Frank Beamer, and always came back with lessons that helped him improve as a position coach and eventually a coordinator.
He’s taking a page out of that old playbook this offseason, but adding a new wrinkle by also setting up meetings with coaches outside of the football world. Earlier this offseason, McDermott spent time with Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, who last summer guided the Thunder to their first championship since relocating to Oklahoma City.
McDermott has also spent time with former collegiate and Olympic wrestling coach Dan Gable, and paid his brother and his Philadelphia Union staff a visit to learn about the running of the soccer organization and the recent expansion of its training campus.
Later this month, McDermott will attend PricewaterhouseCoopers’ annual leadership conference. Towards the end of May, McDermott is scheduled to meet with Robert Gates, the chancellor of his alma mater, William & Mary, and then attend a William & Mary-sponsored event featuring high-performing leaders from the corporate world.
“I could go visit people I know, but I already know what they’re about and what they believe in,” McDermott said. “But (I’m) visiting some people that do things a little bit different than maybe I’ve done. … It’s this guy that seems to have had success, or this gal’s had success and their personalities may be a little bit different than mine. So, I’d like to get in on the ground floor and just see how they handle the day in and day out and how it translates to the NFL.
“I don’t think it’s healthy to stop just in sports, but to talk to people in the corporate world, those that are high-level performers, even though it doesn’t directly overlap, there’s correlation. … I think going outside of football is healthy and productive and powerful.”
Coaching an NBA team or coaching an individual sport such as wrestling, differs greatly from running a football team that rosters 53 players during the regular season. So too does leading a corporate giant. The style of leadership that McDermott views as most effective applies to a wide range of fields.
“One question I’ve had is, ‘How can I serve more?’” said McDermott, who also repeatedly asked himself, “Are you able to give your staff and players what they need the most?”
Andy Reid, left, is one of the most influential voices in Sean McDermott’s life.Jason Miller / Getty Images
Explaining the inspiration behind those questions, he said, “At the end of the day, they’re the ones that are playing. I’m not, right? And so it’s one of the things that I feel like is highly important: getting them into the right space mentally so that they can perform. … These players are highly exposed to all the things that are now out there, and with that, it’s to me, critically important that we, that I, as a coach, as a leader, try to help get them in the right headspace, week in and week out, to perform at their best and with the staff too.”
McDermott found himself impressed by the level of empathy Daigneault displays while guiding Thunder players. And while McDermott has long stressed the importance of team mentality, he came away from his time with the basketball coach realizing he could do more to connect with and support players off the field as a tool to position them for greater success on the field.
“Outsiders may think that these players aren’t human, right? But they are,” McDermott stressed. “They’re real people. And in order for us to lead, we’ve got to understand that they’re real people, and they’re dealing with real problems, much like you and I. … The people quotient is very important. We get credited a lot in Buffalo for building a culture. And that’s really where it starts: the people. … So, one of my goals this offseason is to really hone in on that question.”
As he navigates this year of exploration and growth, McDermott also seeks balance. While adhering to the daily routine and month-by-month timeline he has composed, he also received advice from fellow coaches to avoid overdoing it.
Among others, McDermott sought counsel from newly hired Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike McCarthy, who twice has taken a year off after his stints, first with the Green Bay Packers and then the Dallas Cowboys.
McCarthy said he took a heavy football-focused approach in 2019 after his Packers exit, but elected for a more family-centric 2025 and found the latter more beneficial and believes a balanced approach can prove “really rewarding” for McDermott on both fronts.
“He’s done it for a long time,” McCarthy said. “And he’s done it at an incredible level for a long time, but (there’s) no chance to study yourself and look at the other things that are going on in the league. … As football coaches, there’s always a film to watch, there’s always a report to write. There’s always something going on with the game that piques your interest and you want to look at. So, just try to be disciplined during that time.”
Thus far, between attending his daughter’s softball games, taking his quarterback son to seven-on-seven football tournaments and enjoying daily family routines, McDermott is enjoying this sabbatical. At next week’s draft, McDermott will make a handful of guest appearances on behalf of skin care awareness. He joked that the time off has provided him a glimpse into life as a retiree, and also confirmed to him that he’s not at all ready to turn in his whistle.
Late this summer and fall, McDermott expects to feel the strongest tug as he remains home instead of reporting for training camp for the first time in 25 years, and eventually watches games from home each Sunday rather than roaming a sideline. But McDermott believes the time will pass quickly, and he expects to learn a good deal while breaking down each game to remain plugged into the league and apprised of schematic trends.
Opportunity will soon follow, and whether charged with conducting a from-the-ground-up reclamation project or elevating a club that needs one final push, McDermott expects to be ready, enlightened and energized to resume his unfinished business.
“I’m fully aware that we didn’t — with all the success we had — we didn’t reach the ultimate goal that we had of winning a world championship, and that’s on the to-do list for Sean McDermott,” he said. “You just keep knocking. That’s the key. You keep knocking, you keep working at it, and eventually, that door is going to come open, and it’s going to come open in a big way. And I say that humbly, because it takes a lot to get there.
“And it’s never really one area, and that’s what I found, even researching year to year,” McDermott added. “It’s never really one area when you lose, and it’s never really one area only when you win. There’s a lot of factors that go into it, but that also, to me, is the joy in the journey of the quest to become great, to be the best in the world at something.”
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