Earlier today, news came out that Buffalo Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott had used a controversial topic to motivate his players during their training camp in 2019.
Here’s what the Bills Head Coach allegedly said, per @TyDunne on Twitter.
“At St. John Fisher College in Pittsford, N.Y., McDermott’s morning address began innocently enough. he told the entire team to come together. But then, sources on hand said he used a strange model: the terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. He cited the hijackers as a group of people who were able to get on the same page to orchestrate attacks to perfection.”
Here’s the instance that @TyDunne reported on that Bills’ HC Sean McDermott addressed this afternoon: pic.twitter.com/PeFDbPLRc7
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 7, 2023
It’s great that Coach McDermott is thinking about coming up with ways outside of the box to motivate his players. However, he didn’t think about how it would come off to the team or its fans.
As the flames of social media began to stoke, Buffalo’s head coach took the podium.
Sean McDermott just addressed the 9/11 meeting referenced by @TyDunne's article published today. He said he plans on addressing this with the team later today once they get out of meetings. Here's the first few minutes of his comments from moments ago @WKBW pic.twitter.com/lKBdGVd8GV
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) December 7, 2023
He claimed that his 2019 speech intended to “Emphasize the importance of communication.” McDermott later said that he regretted his statement and apologized to the team for not better communicating his point.
Regardless, this apology message is likely too little too late. It’s never a good idea to bring up the terrorists of Sept. 11 to try and motivate a team, let alone gather anything underlyingly positive from those deadly attacks.
Sean McDermott thrown himself under the bus for no reason
I’m sure McDermott already felt his seat warming up after he was forced to fire former Offensive Coordinator Ken Dorsey. Now, he’s truly feeling the heat. For the Head Coach of a New York-based football team to make any motivational comparison to Sept. 11 is truly idiotic.
All this nonsense will take away integral preparation for this week when they travel to Kansas City to play the Chiefs. It will certainly be a surprise if they’re able to defeat Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes, especially after such an unforced distraction.