Dad jokes and snow angels: What turned Bills’ Sean McDermott into a new kind of coach

Ahead of team meetings, the Buffalo Bills like to play some music while players and coaches enter the room and get settled. It helps establish the tone of the meeting to keep things lively.

The song choices are usually all over the map. But one stood out.

“I remember there was an Alicia Keys song playing,” fullback Reggie Gilliam recalled.

The song was the massively popular 2007 hit “No One.” As the music blared, Bills head coach Sean McDermott took center stage at the meeting — but not in the way players were used to.

“He started singing along to it,” Gilliam said. “Everybody was surprised. We were like, ‘How do you know Alicia Keys?!’

“He’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m hip. I know Alicia Keys.’ And that was like that moment where you’re just like, you know, today’s going to be a good day.”

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Micah Hyde has known McDermott since 2017 — the first year for both in Buffalo. After some time away this year, Hyde arrived in early December to the practice squad — after McDermott’s Alicia Keys day occurred, mind you.

“Oh wow,” a stunned Hyde said upon learning of McDermott’s singing chops. “I have never seen that. I would have loved if somebody was recording that.”

McDermott guffawed when unexpectedly prompted about his karaoke moment.

“Did I do that? I think I did do that,” he said.

McDermott also established a new tradition in 2024. On Fridays, he would start his team meeting by telling a dad joke.

The custom has caught fire, so much so that it’s become his brand within the building.

“Everybody in the room on a Friday morning in the team meeting is locked into whatever joke he’s going to say,” long snapper Reid Ferguson said. “Everybody is anxious to hear it, whether it’s going to be a good one or a corny, maybe not so good one.”

McDermott saved his best material for late in the year ahead of the game against the Jets in Week 17.

How do you get a farm girl to like you?

A tractor.

If you’re groaning, or rolling your eyes, imagine what the room was like.

“That one was one of his best ones. They’re usually pretty bad,” said cornerback Taron Johnson. “They’re always corny. Always.”

McDermott is quick to point out his sources.

His family bought him a tear-off calendar for 2024 with a dad joke per day. His son Gavin bought him a new dad joke monthly calendar for Christmas this year. The players have even bought in, so much so that wide receiver Mack Hollins bought McDermott a book of dad jokes for Christmas.

“It’s funny. It hits ’em all different… Regardless of how good it is, they always give me a hard time,” McDermott said. “These guys, I tell ’em, I said, ‘Listen, take the notes.’ They’ll thank me later.”

If you throw a few snow angels on national television after the Bills’ blowout win over the 49ers on top, you have a full-blown trend.

VICTORY SNOW ANGEL‼️#GoBills | #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/XjOIYfr6aC

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) December 2, 2024

McDermott insists his “goofy dad” ways have always been in there.

“I was a class clown when I was younger, believe it or not,” McDermott said.

In third grade, teachers would send a note home every Friday, updating his parents on his weekly progress. In sixth grade, for various reasons, including being a class clown, McDermott was held back a year in school.

But that sense of humor, although it wasn’t necessarily dormant during his first seven years as head coach, he wasn’t going out of his way to display it like he has this season. It would come out here or there, like when he winked after using the term “process” in a news conference his first two years, almost in a self-deprecating way. But to a grand degree, McDermott had been buttoned up until now.

Many have voiced a feeling, as unquantifiable as it is, that this year’s Bills team is different than the ones they have had over the last five years of playoff losses. And that very well may be true.

However, NFL teams often channel the energy of the head coach leading them. And if something is different about this year’s Bills team, it might be because something is different about Sean McDermott.

The coach who arrived in 2017 touted process, culture, a growth mindset, a desire to have supreme attention to every detail and a borderline robotic work ethic. In his early years in Buffalo, he ran what some described as a “military-ish” program.

That coach is still in there, carrying all those same beliefs, but perhaps not in the same form. Even in media settings, McDermott appears more relaxed and forthcoming than ever before.

Who knew the McDermotts have a pet alpaca? 😂#GoBills | #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/Q7XC1fskvT

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) December 2, 2024

Players have noticed, too. Could anyone have imagined the 2017 version of McDermott singing an Alicia Keys song during a team meeting?

“There’s no way. There’s no way,” Hyde said. “That was a totally different team, totally different coach. We were all totally different people back then.”

Although such a small moment, it resonates loudly about this version of McDermott and the Bills.

“It’s not a complete 180, maybe like a 110,” Ferguson said of McDermott’s development since 2017. Ferguson arrived in Buffalo even before McDermott did and has seen every version of the coach. “He definitely is a little looser in a good way.”

“He preaches growth,” defensive tackle Jordan Phillips said. “But if you ask anybody here, his growth has been more than anybody’s in the building.”

McDermott, who turned 50 in March, often refers to his age when describing his changing outlook. He also mentioned recent life experiences that have shifted his priorities.

“I’m not perfect, one. Two is, gosh, I hope I wasn’t bad before this,” McDermott said. “But three, and probably the most important thing, is it’s really for me, what I want to become — this is outside of football. The person that I want to become.”

McDermott is a particular man. He goes about his business in a similar manner each day and each week because the routine — or his own process — drives him to get better.

“I come from a family of hard chargers,” McDermott said. “Like, this is the goal? Go get the goal. This is what you want to do? Work your butt off to go get it. Doing it the right way, you know, from a moral compass standpoint and character standpoint.”

Back in college, McDermott said he and his football teammates at William & Mary would do winter conditioning workouts running around the track at 5 or 6 in the morning. Immediately after, he’d do another workout. He would take out his strength shoes — training footwear with what looks like a ping pong paddle on the toes forcing McDermott to run on his toes — and work on his explosiveness. At that point in life, he let his work ethic do the talking.

Back then, McDermott’s teammates would simply say “that’s just Sean.” But later in life, he self-scouted and found the ‘why’ behind his process-driven mentality and other personality quirks.

McDermott is an introvert. He hasn’t discussed it before, but it’s part of who he is and explains much of how he operates.

“I go to my kids’ games. For multiple reasons, I sit, you know, in the outfield,” McDermott said. “That’s partially because I don’t want to interfere with what’s going on. But it’s also because I, introverts overall, need some time just to be on their own and unplug. I know myself well enough.”

Oftentimes, introverted tendencies and the tools needed to be a head coach can butt heads.

“They really don’t go as much as an extroverted personality type would go. But from a leadership standpoint, I think what you’re called to do is stretch yourself,” McDermott said. “My definition of leadership is you tell me what the situation is and that’s the type of leader you’ve got to be. And so, some introverts are willing to go there and others aren’t. And to me, that’s what you’ve got to do, is you’ve got to stretch yourself.”

There has been a learning curve about balancing the job that he’s in and all that it needs with what he needs. And as he’s grown more comfortable and learned within the job, those windows into his personality have grown wider.

Another piece of McDermott’s process is that he doesn’t often put himself out there with his clothing or accessories. He veers toward functionality over fashion. He wears the same style of watch, the same type of clothes, and the same type of sneakers every day and every year.

But McDermott will occasionally wear a pair of Air Jordans around the building with an unexpected electric orange lining. They’ve drawn rave reviews from players in the building — maybe out of shock at seeing McDermott wearing something bold.

But even with those, there is an intentionality.

Those sneakers, which he couldn’t wear during a game this year, are what he had made for “My Cause, My Cleats” week across the NFL earlier this season. Just below the back end of the Nike swoosh sits a bright orange ribbon.

Courtesy: Buffalo Bills

McDermott is a private person and hasn’t often publicly shared the reason for that support. But it hits home hard, in a big way.

In March 2023, McDermott’s father was diagnosed with leukemia — a cancer of the early blood-forming cells.

McDermott got the call and was shell-shocked. Distraught. Time stood still. He dropped everything to find a flight, get to his parents’ suburban Philadelphia home and be with his family.

His father, Rich, along with his mother, Avis, are the people who instilled McDermott’s work ethic and mentality in him. To say he’s proud to be their son would be an understatement.

“When that happened, I’m like, whoa,” McDermott said. “It’s hard being here, because like my dad right now, every week it’s, you know, as is the life of a cancer patient, gets his labs done. [One week] Dad’s labs are good, [another week] dad’s labs are bad. And my mom is in a bad way because she needs knee replacements, and she waited too long. And this is not a pity story. It’s just reality. She can’t help my dad because she can barely walk. So it’s not a good situation.

And here I am. I’m not in California, but I’m also not close enough. My brother takes on a lot of the responsibility because he lives about an hour from them, but he’s got his family that he’s trying to raise. And I’m trying to do this job and raise my family.”

It’s had a profound impact on who he has become as the Bills’ head coach. While it hasn’t made the losses any easier as he hoped it might, it’s given him an enhanced outlook on what’s really important.

His family. His faith. Being a good person. And, of course, the one thing his father, despite going through what he’s going through, can’t seem to get enough of.

“All he cares about is the Bills,” McDermott said with a smile. “My dad, like a lot of cancer patients, gets his chemo five days a week and then takes a break. And he’s been literally in the chemo chair calling me, ‘Hey, how’s the team?’ So it’s put it in perspective for me.”

That philosophy has trickled into his coaching and management all the same.

“I think what also drives that is growing in life and trying to evolve as a person,” McDermott said. “What I’ve come to realize is that these players, they’re like all of us out there. They have a big meeting every week and maybe they get a little bit nervous for the meeting. Or maybe a lot nervous in some cases.

“And the best thing I can do for them is trying to offload that by giving them perspective, a big picture perspective, and also by saying, ‘Hey, listen, let’s prepare our tails off to play the best we can and then get your head in the right headspace. And then that’ll drive your level of play and our level of play. And then we’re just going to have to live with the result week to week.’ And that’s really, honestly, that’s the inside look at our team meetings.”

One longtime, highly successful coach has a theory about what has helped McDermott evolve professionally.

“You know why he’s loosened up? I’ll bet he feels like the players have taken ownership of the team, and then he can relax,” said former Michigan college basketball coach John Beilein. “When I knew I didn’t have to press every button and my team leaders were pressing the buttons? That’s why.”

A hands-off approach isn’t McDermott’s style, but his shift from being closer to a micro-manager early in his career to now leaning toward macro has gone a long way in Buffalo. Most players who have seen McDermott at several stages in his Bills tenure often bring up one central theme.

“He trusts his team,” Johnson said. “He still says what he needs to say, but also lets us figure it out on our own as well.”

“Having trust in us, knowing that we’re going to handle things the right way,” tight end Dawson Knox said. “And when he shows that trust in us, it allows us to play a little more free, a little more fast.”

“I think that that’s just where he’s at now,” Hyde said. “He’s like, ‘Look, like, I’m going to do everything I can to help this team win games and prepare.’ And from that, he’s like, ‘I’m not on the field.’ So just trusting the guys and trusting that the leaders are going to have this team ready to go. I just think that he’s developed over the years.”

In a sense, the program is now running itself.

Jordan Phillips had a unique way of looking at how McDermott has grown. Phillips arrived in Buffalo in 2018, McDermott’s second year on the job. Phillips admitted he and the coach “beefed” a lot back then. However, after leaving the Bills in 2020, and upon his return in 2022, he noticed the shift.

“The best thing I can say is, do you have kids? One kid, you’re trying to do everything right,” Phillips began. “You’re trying to make sure that their life is perfect. You’re trying to do everything you can for them. And the more kids you have, the more you start delegating to other people to help you with your kids.

“And that’s the same thing. This was his baby when he first came in, and he wanted it to be the exact same way, this, that and the other. And as your baby grows, you grow, and you realize that, ‘Hey, what I thought this was, it doesn’t have to be that. It can look this way, too.’ You still get the same job done.”

Part of that shift likely has to do with the changing environment of what the Bills have needed at specific stages. When McDermott first arrived, the franchise was mired in a 17-year playoff drought. The previous regime didn’t have a ton of accountability and lacked structure.

In the early years, structure and work ethic were McDermott’s strong suits.

“I think a lot of that fabric helped me get here. And I think that’s, also when I got here, what made the organization need it, you know? And then what happens is you build it over the years,” McDermott said. “Like right now, Josh Allen knows 100 percent of what [I] expect, and that comes over time… The amount of trust that I have in this team is off the charts. So I think it’s probably just, when it’s kind of two rivers flow, come together. I think that’s really where we’re at.”

But it all comes back to this season and how McDermott’s evolution has helped navigate the Bills to a 13-4 record, and as good of a chance as ever of finally winning a Super Bowl. On Sunday, the Bills will embark on their seventh playoff quest in eight years under his watch.

At this point, he says it’s well beyond his professional goals. That’s how it all started for him, but that might be where he’s grown the most.

McDermott remembers the strong feelings he had of ending the playoff drought in 2017. He watched that locker room rejoice and teared up. He knows how much success means to the fan base. He knows how much it will mean to his players who have been through the heartaches. And he knows how much it will mean to his father and his family with all they’re going through.

“It makes me emotional because I do want that for them, for the fans,” McDermott said. “The connection and the passion of these fans and what they want so badly. And yet, at the same time, you hear, ‘Buffalo, well, they’ve come up short in four Super Bowls.’ Well, let me just tell you this: getting to four Super Bowls will never be done again in a row.”

“I want so badly to win, so that people really, truly understand the people of Buffalo. To shed light on what really this place is.”

(Top photo of Sean McDermott: Sam Navarro / Imagn Images)