The Bills fired coach Sean McDermott two days after an overtime loss to the Broncos in the divisional round of the playoffs. That’s not stopping McDermott from rooting for his former team — or from believing that they can get farther in the first year after his exit than McDermott took them in nine seasons on the job.
“With what they’ve done, the moves that Brandon Beane has made, and the activity they’ve had on the roster, just so over the last, you know, ‘X’ amount of months has, I think, been very important,” McDermott told Rich Eisen on Friday. “And so I think, if you’re betting on the Super Bowl contender, they’re certainly one of them. I don’t see why, you know, why you wouldn’t bet on them? Because the games, at the end of the day, have to be played, right? It’s one thing on paper, but it’s another thing to play the gams.”
Eisen asked whether this means McDermott envisions a Rams-Bills Super Bowl, which would be a rematch of their Week 5 Monday night showdown.
“It’;; be Bills-Rams,” McDermott said. “It’d be a great Super Bowl. Those Rams. Listen, people ask me all the time, ‘Hey, do you still root for your old team?’ And I said, ‘Why wouldn’t I?’ Right? Of course I do. I mean, the impact that you want to have as a head coach on a team and a community, that’s one thing. But, man oh man, the impact that that team, that building, and that community had on me and my family, we’ll remember that for the rest of our lives, Rich, and that’s part of sports, right? The wins and the losses are important, but it’s, like, the impact you leave, or that is left on people and the fan base and them on you, and that’s the real part of sports.”
In the NFL, the real part of the game is that plenty of coaches are shown the door, after every season. McDermott was one of 10 who left, voluntarily or otherwise, after the 2025 season. And he’s clearly hoping that, after the 2026 season, he’ll have a chance to fill one of the inevitable vacancies to come.
Which means that his freedom to root for the Bills and only the Bills may be short-lived. Come 2027, McDermott could be coaching another team in the AFC — and possibly another team in the AFC East, if there’s eventually an opening with the Jets.
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