Cheesehead
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- Mar 19, 2019
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GREEN BAY – Life was a lot different for Sean McVay a decade ago.
Before he was the highly acclaimed head coach of the Los Angeles Rams, McVay cut his teeth as a tight ends coach on Mike Shanahan's staff in Washington in the early-2010s.
McVay was a single guy in his mid-20s without a lot of connections in the D.C. area other than the young couple who lived across the street, then-Washington quarterbacks coach Matt LaFleur and his wife, BreAnne.
When McVay wasn't grinding film or game-planning, he often could be found hanging out with the LaFleurs and their infant son, Luke.
"That was before I met my fiancée so I'd third wheel it with them a lot," said McVay on Tuesday. "They kind of took me under their wing."
McVay laughs about those memories now, as he readies to bring his Rams into Lambeau Field on Saturday to square off against LaFleur and the Packers in an NFC Divisional playoff game, the first time the two friends will be pitted against one another as NFL head coaches.
LaFleur and McVay became fast friends in Washington and have remained close ever since. When LA made McVay the youngest head coach in NFL history in 2017, one of his first moves was tabbing LaFleur as his offensive coordinator.
LaFleur could tell McVay had a bright future from the first time he interviewed with Mike and Kyle Shanahan for an entry-level job as an assistant tight ends coach in 2010.
"My office kind of butted up to the offensive staff room, and I could kind of hear them through the wall and just the excitement and enthusiasm and energy he had in his voice," LaFleur said.
"And then you get to sit down with him and, I mean, everybody knows about his memory and everything that's associated with that, but just his ability to connect with people, I think that's special."
That doesn't mean the two didn't clash at times during game-planning meetings in LA. If LaFleur disagreed with a call McVay made, he let his head coach hear about it.
But that's why McVay hired him in the first place – because LaFleur wasn't going to just nod and go along with whatever he said. He was going to challenge him.
In the end, the two helped the Rams go from worst to first in scoring offense and improve their win total from 4-12 to 11-5.
"Every day was a battle. That's what's fun about this, though," said LaFleur with a smile. "You can challenge each other, and that's how you grow. You know the intentions of the other person. It's just like family. You don't hold anything back when you have complete trust in who you're talking to that you're just trying to work as hard as you can in the best interest of the team or trying to do things the best way possible."