Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay hates losing even as the team has done very little of it since he put the headset on prior to the 2017 season.
McVay has only had one losing season entering his 10th year as the Rams’ head coach. But it was after the 2022 season in which he really thought about taking a year away from football to pursue media opportunities that were being floated to him.
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The Rams were 5-12 in 2022 – one year after beating the Cincinnati Bengals to win Super Bowl LVI. He said in an interview on “60 Minutes,” which aired Sunday night, that he was in a “dark” place and had to come to grips with the fact that a few losses weren’t a reflection on himself.
He said his wife, Veronika Khomyn, hit him with a reality check.
“I was ready to run away from coaching and hide behind a convenient narrative of some media opportunities,” he explained. “I’ll never forget, I was explaining to my wife, Veronika, it was a daunting task ahead for the ’23 season and I remember telling her, ‘Maybe I’ll take a year off,’ and she said, ‘That never sounded like the kind of leader you wanted to be.’
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“I think it was the wake-up call that I needed. … I would have been quitting. That would have been the truth. I would have been quitting because I couldn’t handle the losses.”
The Rams bounced back from that ugly 2022 season and strung together consecutive 10-7 seasons before going 12-5 in 2025 and making it all the way to the NFC Championship. The team lost to the eventual Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks, but it was successful in its own right.
McVay is still on the sidelines and the Rams reloaded in hopes of getting back to the Super Bowl, adding Myles Garrett in a trade with the Cleveland Browns and pulling Aaron Donald out of retirement.
Los Angeles lost its Week 1 game against the San Francisco 49ers in Australia. But the Rams return home for a Monday night matchup in Week 2 against the New York Giants.
