Bills head coach Sean McDermott has faced mounting criticism following a report Thursday which revealed that he used the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to try and motivate his players during a 2019 training camp meeting, according to Go Long, a Substack publication run by Tyler Dunne.
The anecdote was included in a scathing three-part, 20,000-word series detailing the Bills’ issues under McDermott — who has been the organization’s coach since 2017 — from his leadership qualities and motivation tactics to his relationship with quarterback Josh Allen and acceptance of responsibility.
McDermott, Dunne wrote, allegedly “cited the hijackers as a group of people who were all able to get on the same page to orchestrate attacks to perfection.”
Then, McDermott asked players about tactics the terrorists might’ve used and the obstacles they faced.
“I don’t know why he’s that awkward but his social skills are lacking,” an anonymous veteran told Dunne. “Maybe he’s just wound-up thinking about ball. You’ve got to talk to the team every day. That’s one where maybe he heard it on a podcast. Next episode! That’s not the one to lead with.
“He was trying to bring the team together. It was a horrible, horrible reference. He missed the mark.”
Another veteran added that the message was “f–ked up,” while another coach said McDermott’s intentions weren’t bad but he’s “just so clueless.”
McDermott apologized to players after joining them on the field at St. John Fisher College — their training camp site — that day, according to Dunne.
McDermott said in a press conference Thursday afternoon that he apologized to the team four years after using the reference in the meeting and planned to address his current group, but he declined to address other parts of Dunne’s story — adding that he wanted to focus on the insensitive reference that he described as “very, very important to me.”
“My intent in the meeting that day was to discuss the importance of communication and being on the same page with the team,” McDermott told reporters. “I regretted mentioning 9/11 in my message that day and I immediately apologized to the team. Not only was 9/11 a horrific event in our country’s history, but a day that I lost a good family friend.”
The report was published days before the Bills face the Chiefs in Week 14 with a 6-6 record and on the brink of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
Last week, six days before Dunne’s report, The Athletic cited four sources that said the Bills didn’t plan to make an offseason coaching change.
General manager Brandon Bean and owner Terry Pegula hadn’t released a statement on McDermott’s 2019 meeting as of Thursday afternoon.