How Sean McVay became the NFL’s newest prodigy

By Alden Gonzalez

http://www.espn.com/blog/los-angeles-rams/post/_/id/32766/how-sean-mcvay-became-the-nfls-newest-prodigy

LOS ANGELES — Jon Embree left his job coaching Washington Redskins tight ends to become head coach at Colorado in the second week of December in 2010. Four games remained in the Redskins’ season. Chris Cooley, by that point one of the game’s most productive tight ends, quickly became uneasy about what would follow. His new position coach would be Embree’s assistant, a 24-year-old named Sean McVay, and Cooley was skeptical.

It took one day to reverse that.

“This 24-year-old kid came in and knew everything about the offense, and everything about everything,” Cooley said. “I learned more about football than I had in my entire career in four weeks.”

In McVay, Cooley saw peerless intelligence and remarkable self-assurance. McVay didn’t just know the offense by heart, or direct his tight ends in great detail; he was able to explain why. Cooley began to see the game from a wider scope and quickly developed an admiration for McVay, even though he was four years younger and never played an NFL snap. In the 2011 opener, Cooley broke the franchise record for receptions by a tight end and gifted McVay the football. Today, Cooley credits McVay for the way he sees the game.

“His ability to understand the game from every aspect — fronts, coverages, line play, checks, from top to bottom — is uncanny,” Cooley, now a member of the Redskins’ radio broadcast team, said in a phone conversation on Saturday, the day after McVay was introduced as the Los Angeles Rams’ head coach. “To understand it in that way, and to speak it the way he speaks it, it’s just a love thing. You have to spend unlimited time doing it. And it has to be what you love. When you talk to him, when I talk to him, you just hear it in his voice. You see it.”

Growing up with the 49ers

The love began with his upbringing. McVay’s grandfather, John, was an executive for the San Francisco teams that won five Super Bowl titles in the 1980s and ’90s. McVay’s father, Tim — an accomplished safety for Lee Corso-led Indiana teams — immersed McVay into that environment as often as he could. As a toddler, McVay would watch 49ers practices and sometimes find himself within earshot of conversations between his grandfather and Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh. He idolized Joe Montana and Steve Young, then later got to know Jeff Garcia.

Tim will tell you Sean learned “a ton” from his grandfather, even though he was so young when John’s front-office career was winding down.

“He learned how to interact with people,” Tim said. “He learned how to treat people.”

Sean was born in Dayton, Ohio, and raised in Atlanta, where his dad now runs the local ABC affiliate. He began to learn how offenses worked as a read-option quarterback in high school. By that point, Tim began seeing Sean engage in high-level conversations with his coaches. He watched his son serve as a receiver and return specialist in Miami (Ohio), then begin his coaching career as a low-level assistant, and then, eight years later, become the youngest head coach in the NFL’s modern era at age 30.

Yes, Tim is surprised it all happened so quickly.

But …

“He’s absolutely capable of this,” Tim stressed. “It’s not too big for him. I can tell you.”

Getting started in the NFL

Sean got his first NFL job in 2008 under then-Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden. In 2009, McVay became an assistant on a team called the Florida Tuskers in the defunct United Football League, which had Jim Haslett as the head coach and Gruden’s younger brother, Jay, installed as the offensive coordinator. When he became the Redskins assistant tight ends coach in Washington, Mike Shanahan ran the team and his son, Kyle, ran the offense.

It was about that time when Sean began reading books on leadership, gravitating towards those centered on Walsh and legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. His favorite is called “The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership.” Walsh wrote it, and John McVay has his own chapter. The central question he searches for in his reading, McVay said, is: “How can you figure out ways to develop and build relationships that are authentic and genuine?”

Bears tight end Logan Paulsen, who spent 2010-15 in Washington, was amazed at how McVay remembered the names and backgrounds of every Redskins employee, from coaches to cooks to janitors. Standout Redskins tight end Jordan Reed wanted to keep working specifically with McVay even after he became the offensive coordinator in 2014. The following season, McVay began to call plays and Cooley marveled at the way he inflated the confidence of quarterback Kirk Cousins, a fourth-round pick who spent his first three seasons stuck behind Robert Griffin III.

“He has a way; this ease about him,” Paulsen said. “He talks football all the time, but he finds a way to speak to you.”

Making his mark

Under McVay’s watch in 2015, the Redskins scored the NFL’s 10th-most points and won the NFC East behind Cousins, the first-year starting quarterback who posted a 126.1 passer rating in the second half. Heading into the 2016 season, Cooley told everybody willing to listen that McVay would be an NFL head coach the following year. They all basically told Cooley he was crazy, but then the Redskins gained more yards than all but two teams and McVay began to be taken seriously as a head coaching candidate.

McVay blew teams away during the interview process, then signed a five-year contract with the Rams and said he’s “embracing the expectations, the situation, and the city of L.A.”

He inherits an offense that has been the NFL’s worst each of the past two seasons and will take on the play-calling duties. McVay’s greatest gift as a play-caller is his knack for consistently putting players in positions to succeed, which might best be characterized by his success on third down. The Redskins ranked third in the NFL in third-down percentage these past two seasons, while the Rams were dead last.

In that time, McVay did a masterful job of putting the Redskins in the favorable third-down situations that allowed them to convert at a high rate. The Redskins needed three or fewer yards on 32.2 percent of their third-down plays this season, fourth-highest in the NFL, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

The next Jon Gruden

Cooley likes to joke that when McVay’s alarm goes off before sunrise, he shoots his fist in the air with great enthusiasm.

“I don’t sleep much,” McVay admitted. “If you can tell, I’m a little wired, a little high strung.”

The Saturday before the Redskins’ regular-season finale against the Giants, Cooley walked into the facility at 5 a.m. thinking he would be alone. McVay was already in the film room. “Look at this!” he said, showing clips of plays run against the Browns and Falcons that had nothing to do with the upcoming game plan. Cooley said he’s “never met anyone who liked the game of football more than Sean McVay, and it’s not even close.”

His unbridled enthusiasm bears a striking resemblance.

McVay’s agent, Bob LaMonte, a pioneer when it comes to representing prospective coaches, first met McVay about four years ago and came away thinking: “This guy is the next Jon Gruden.

“The dynamic, the brain, everything about him,” said LaMonte, who has also represented Gruden for decades. “I had lunch with him and said, ‘This guy is electric.’ Jon Gruden was electric.”

It isn’t just that Jon Gruden gave McVay his first job. It’s that McVay took part in Gruden’s Fired Football Coaches Association in 2009 and learned so much about what it took to be a head coach. It’s that Gruden’s father, Jim Gruden Sr., was close friends with McVay’s grandfather and then recruited McVay’s father in college. It’s that Gruden, in McVay’s words, “truly taught me to look at the game from a 22-man perspective.”

Gruden helped advise the Rams as they went about searching for their new coach and raved about McVay. Though the Rams were interviewing McVay on Jan. 5, COO Kevin Demoff, who led the search, shot Gruden a text that read: “Holy crap, he is you.”

The voice, the cadence, the gestures, the intensity.

“One of the things that stands out about Jon is when you’re in a room with Jon, you always feel Jon,” McVay said. “He’s got a presence about himself. That’s something that I think is important. I’d like to be described that way.

Anyone watching KC/Pitt?

I will be in a bit.

..

JackPMiller wrote:

I saw a commercial that Mr. Warner will be on a show called Life in Pieces tomorrow or sometime this week.

—

It’s apparently a rerun.

—

Life In Pieces Drafts NFL Great Kurt Warner For Football-Themed Episode

Life In Pieces Drafts NFL Great Kurt Warner For Football-Themed Episode

The CBS sitcom Life In Pieces is taking advantage of the NFL’s Rams moving from St. Louis to Los Angeles by building an entire episode around a game, with Kurt Warner, one of the team’s most legendary players, signed on as a guest star.

In explaining how the Rams-centric story came about, series creator Justin Adler went back to a story point planted in the show’s first season before it was announced that the Rams would be moving back to the West Coast. “The parents (played by Dianne Wiest and James Brolin) were fans from when the Rams were still in Los Angeles,” Adler says. “Serendipitously after we established that [in the first season], the team has moved back to Los Angeles so it worked perfectly.” The series also stars Colin Hanks, Thomas Sadoski, Betsy Brandt, Zoe Lister-Jones, Angelique Cabral and Dan Bakkedahl.

From its beginning last fall, each episode of the California-set comedy (the actual city has never been established) consisted of four separate stories (the “pieces” in title) that often were not related. In the second year of the series, Adler and his writers are experimenting with the format, as can be seen in the Rams episode, which is filming this week at the L.A. Coliseum and set to air in early 2017. “We liked the idea of doing a singular event episode where all four stories took place at that event but they weren’t necessarily tied together,” Adler explains.

In one of the stories in the episode, Warner, who quarterbacked the Rams to the franchise’s only Super Bowl title in 2000, plays a version of himself as he crashes the Shorts’ tailgate party but quickly wears out his welcome with the family by being anything but a gracious guest. “Everyone knows that Kurt Warner is such a great guy,” says Adler, “and to let him have a sense of humor about his persona is going to be super funny and we’re so lucky that he’s doing the show.”

Life in Pieces, Season Premiere, Thursday, October 27, 9:30/8:30c, CBS.

5 Things You Should Know About LA Rams Coach Sean McVay

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/sports/5-Things-You-Should-Know-About-Sean-McVay-410758665.html

Wolfgang Puck, Bill Walsh and Fergie. Three famed figures that could not be more different from each other, and yet, they all have one thing in common: Los Angeles Rams new head coach Sean McVay.
L.A.’s first team to relocate back to the City of Angels sent shockwaves through the NFL on Thursday when they announced their new head coach would be a 30-year-old millennial with no experience.

McVay made history when he was announced to the media for a nearly hour-long press conference on Friday. Despite his youthful inexperience, the former Washington Redskins Offensive Coordinator showed poise, passion, and intensity along with maturity beyond his years.
If you’re like most of us in Southern California, you’ve never heard of McVay before Friday. Don’t feel bad, neither did Wolfgang Puck, which leads us to a story that starts at Spago in Beverly Hills as we tell you five things you should know about the Rams new head coach.

1. He Gets Starstruck Just Like Us
Rams Owner Stan Kroenke took McVay and several team officials out to dinner at Spago in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night. The informal interview was the second for McVay and the Rams’ front office, but first at a hot spot such as Spago.
Rams Hire Ex-Washington Assistant McVay as Head Coach
During the dinner meeting, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, (who owns the restaurant), continually approached the table to talk to Kroenke.
“Wolfgang kept asking, ‘Mr. Kroenke, have we found a coach?’ McVay told a select group of reporters after the press conference. “I wanted to say to him, ‘Hey man, I’m right here!”
Former Rams Player Tre Mason Arrested in Florida
Turns out, Mr. Puck was not the only celebrity to approach the table that night, McVay, who was visiting Los Angeles for the first time in his life this week, said he nearly lost his cool when celebrity couple Josh Duhamel and Fergie approached the table.

“Only in L.A.,” McVay said about meeting the Transformers actor and the Black Eyed Peas singer. “I’m sitting there and Josh Duhamel and Fergie walk up and wish Mr. Kroenke good luck.”
“Did they recognize you?” I asked him.
Rams’ Punter Johnny Hekker Sets NFL Record
“Absolutely not,” McVay said smiling. “They were probably thinking, ‘Who is this guy?'”
He’s the new head coach of the Rams, that’s who he is.

2. Youngest Head Coach in NFL History
As mentioned, McVay became the youngest coach in NFL history when the Rams made the announcement on Thursday. At 30-years-old, McVay surpasses the previous record held by former Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin who was 31 when he was hired by Al Davis in 2007.
McVay’s age was on display during the press conference when his parents and younger brother took their seats in the second row. His mother and father looked younger than the previous Rams coach, Jeff Fisher, and looked just as shocked as we did when they found out McVay was getting the job.
“It’s an incredible moment,” said his father Tim. “It came fast.”
“Your son is going to do a great job,” added Rams vice president Kevin Demoff.
While there are a few players on the Rams roster that are older than their head coach, most notably defensive end William Hayes, L.A. has the youngest roster in the NFL and the youngest starting quarterback in 22-year-old Jared Goff.
“I’m very excited,” said Goff who spent a few hours with McVay this week before the decision was announced. “I said to myself, ‘If they pick him, I’m going to be really excited.’ And they did. I liked it.”

3. He’s a Jon Gruden and Mike Shanahan Protégé
McVay was groomed by the Grudens to become an NFL head coach. His grandfather, John, was close friends with Jim Gruden Sr. as the two coached and worked together at the collegiate level. So it should come as no surprise that Jon Gruden hired McVay fresh out of college at the age of 24 to be a coaches assistant in Tampa Bay.
“The Gruden Family and the McVay gamily go way back,” McVay said during the press conference. “Jim Gruden St. actually recruited my dad (Tim) to the University of Indiana, so our family connections go way back. That opportunity to be a coaching assistant was one that I was fortunate enough to take advantage of. Coach Gruden gave me an opportunity to get on the staff and get right into this thing.”
After Gruden left Tampa Bay in 2008, McVay moved on to Jon’s brother, Jay Gruden. The younger Gruden was coaching the Florida Tuskers in the United Football League, and he hired McVay as the wide receivers coach.
After that, McVay got a job with Mike Shanahan as the tight ends coach with the Washington Redskins. Under the tutelage of Shanahan and his son, Kyle, McVay fine-tuned his offensive skills, eventually getting promoted to offensive coordinator when he was reunited with Jay Gruden in 2013.
“Sean has been a part of Mike and Kyle’s system,” said Rams’ general manager Les Snead. “In Washington, what he did was a blend of Jon and Jay Gruden with Mike and Kyle. So it’s an interesting evolution there.”

4. He Comes From a Football Family
McVay’s leatherhead legacy started with his grandfather John McVay who was the head coach of the New York Giants from 1976-1978.
After that, he spent 21 years with the San Francisco 49ers where he was the architect of the Niners dynasty in the 80s and 90s. Part of McVay’s first executive move after being named the Niner’s vice president was to hire Bill Walsh who led San Francisco to three Super Bowl Championships before they won two more under his successor, George Seifert.
The youngest McVay was born in 1986 and grew up around the 49ers organization.
“I can remember being around those guys,” he told Sports Illustrated about San Francisco legends Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Young. “I was around Jeff Garcia and Terrell Owens. They were always so great to me. At the time I was so young, you don’t realize what a unique and neat experience it was.”
5. He Comes From the ‘Cradle of Coaches’
McVay played his college ball at the University of Miami (Ohio), the same as his grandfather. The RedHawks football program is known as the “Cradle of Coaches” as they are responsible for developing some of the greatest leaders to ever grace the sidelines.
In addition to his grandfather, Miami (Ohio) is responsible for Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes, John Pont, Sean Payton, Jim Tressel, Ara Parseghian and John Harbaugh.
“As soon as I got into coaching out of college, I knew I wanted to be a head coach,” McVay said of his career arc.
“When you listen to Sean quote Bill Walsh and John Wooden, you get the sense this someone who understands how to have success,” added Demoff during the press conference.
The Rams are hoping that they have the right man for the job both now and in the future, and referenced other young coaching hires in the NFL who went on to win the Super Bowl. One of those was Walsh himself who famously said:
“Champions behave like champions before they are champions.”

Rams’ Sean McVay’s ‘star’ quality outweighs age concern

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20170113/rams-sean-mcvays-star-quality-outweighs-age-concern

THOUSAND OAKS >> Over his 31 years as head football coach of Marist School in Atlanta, Alan Chadwick rarely missed an opportunity to poke fun at his players when the situation called for it. If mental mistakes were made, no one was safe from his ribbing — not even a certain smooth-talking, triple-option quarterback from Marist’s 2003 state title team, who quickly became a favorite of coaches, teammates, school administrators, and before long, pretty much every coach in the football world.

“I would joke with him, ‘Well, you’ll never be a football coach,’” Chadwick remembers, laughing at the irony, all these years later.

On Friday, that quarterback, Sean McVay, stood in front of a podium at the Rams practice facility to accept a job that would make him, at 30, the youngest head coach in NFL history. As the rest of the sports world discussed his age, debating whether a coach so young could possibly succeed in the pressure cooker of the NFL, Chadwick beamed with pride, recalling all the signs from over a decade ago that his state title-winning quarterback might one day become the NFL’s most talked-about wunderkind coach.

Over the course of his stunning 14-year rise from high school quarterback to college receiver to NFL assistant to head coach, McVay has earned a reputation for detail, communication skills, energy, and passion. He has worked under the wing of Super Bowl-winning minds such as Jon Gruden, Mike Shanahan, and executive Bruce Allen. A spitting image of Gruden, voice and all, McVay radiates confidence and charisma in a strikingly similar way to the man who would become one of his most valued mentors.

After one interview with the Rams, McVay had already left such an impression. Upon leaving his interview, Rams COO Kevin Demoff remembers a silence settling briefly over the room. Demoff had made calls to Gruden and others who knew McVay. He’d listened to the often-effusive praise that followed him.

“The terms you heard were ‘brilliant,’ ‘star,’ ‘special.’” Demoff said. “When you asked people for the negatives, they just said he’s young.”

Demoff and general manager Les Snead wanted to believe his age wouldn’t matter. And as the Rams executives looked at each other, gauging the room, “we were almost afraid to be the first to say, ‘That’s the guy,’” Demoff said.

As a second interview was scheduled and a dinner at Spago in Beverly Hills, one by one, those who met him within the organization began to feel the same. Jared Goff offered his approval after one meeting. So did Marshall Faulk, who was present at the dinner. Soon, it became stunningly clear to those within the Rams front office how exactly McVay had moved so quickly through the football ranks.

“I’m sure no one, anywhere he’s been, would be surprised at how fast he’s risen,” Chadwick said.

The forging of that reputation began at Marist, where McVay made the unusual transition from defensive back to starting quarterback his junior season. Few could make such a change so seamlessly, Chadwick says, but McVay’s aptitude for football was extraordinary. He picked up Marist’s playbook with ease. Before long, he was making adjustments at the line of scrimmage. As a senior, he won a state player of the year award over Calvin Johnson. “A coach on the field,” McVay calls him.

Most of all, Chadwick found himself impressed with McVay’s leadership. After one season at Marist, McVay took his entire offensive line out to a Brazilian steakhouse for dinner as a thank you. In Marist’s state title victory, McVay played the entire second half with a broken foot, and afterward, according to Marist’s longtime sports information director, McVay urged reporters to “please not give me too much credit.”

“Our players would’ve followed him absolutely anywhere,” Chadwick said. Even Marist’s coaches had an “unbelievable reverence” for him.

Shane Montgomery could see that before he’d even met McVay. Then the offensive coordinator at Miami (Ohio), Montgomery visited Marist to see McVay in 2003, but found it difficult just to get past the school office. When the secretaries in the front office heard he was there to recruit McVay, they talked over each other, in order to pile on as much praise as possible.

“He just had a way of attracting people to him,” said Montgomery, who, during McVay’s sophomore year, became the head coach at Miami (Ohio).

McVay’s grandfather, John, was a Super Bowl-winning executive for the San Francisco 49ers, and so from childhood, McVay was indoctrinated with football. He broke down film. He read football books. During one recruiting visit with Montgomery, the coach remembers thinking, as they broke down film that McVay’s football intellect was “at a totally different level from other guys around him.”

It was of little surprise then, after his senior year in 2007, that McVay told Montgomery he planned to forgo a fifth-year to start his career in coaching. He’d already set up an interview at the NFL Scouting Combine with Gruden, who was a family friend. Montgomery told him he could be a “great one” someday.

”Just remember,” he joked, “someday you’re going to have to hire me.”

Weeks later, in Indianapolis, he and Gruden watched film together in Gruden’s hotel room. It was the only interview McVay would need.

It was as a 22-year-old coach’s assistant in Tampa Bay that he first met Demoff, who worked in the front office. Demoff could’ve never known the winding path that would bring McVay to Los Angeles. But even then, he remembered the young assistant leaving an impression on those around him.

“When you’re around football teams, the young guys who come in and help out, they don’t often stand out,” Demoff said. “But everyone kept talking about Sean’s maturity. Every step along the way, when people mentioned someone as rising star, and I thought, ‘I can see that.’”

Eight years later, Demoff could see it still, as McVay left the Rams front office lost for words. Concerns about his age had faded. After such a sterling first impression, they were sure that they’d found a coaching star, with plenty of rising left ahead.

Sean McVay promises Rams will be ‘built on character’

http://www.dailynews.com/sports/20170113/sean-mcvay-promises-rams-will-be-built-on-character

THOUSAND OAKS >> Perhaps now, Sean McVay can get a table at Spago on his own merits.

McVay dined at the famous Beverly Hills restaurant Tuesday night with Rams owner Stan Kroenke and team executives. Celebrity couple Fergie and actor Josh Duhamel stopped by the table to greet Kroenke, as did restaurant owner and chef Wolfgang Puck, who urged Kroenke to take action.

“He kept asking Mr. Kroenke, ‘Hey, have we found a coach?’” McVay said. “I wanted to say, ‘Hey, man, right here!’ He kept saying, ‘Have we found a coach yet?’ Mr. Kroenke didn’t know how to respond. Next time I’ll say, ‘I’m the coach.’”

Approximately 36 hours after that dinner, the Rams offered the job to McVay and he quickly accepted. McVay, who turns 31 this month, has become the youngest head coach in the modern era of the NFL.

If Friday’s introductory press conference is an indication, the job isn’t too big for McVay. He looked the part, with a sharp blue suit, gold tie and his initials monogrammed on his right shirt cuff. McVay, through his energy and even his speech pattern, seemed to channel his coaching mentor, Jon Gruden.

This is the Rams’ big hope, that McVay is young, energetic and sharp enough to connect with his players and revitalize a Rams team that hasn’t made the playoffs since McVay was a teenager.

“After that dinner,” Rams chief executive officer Kevin Demoff said, “we said, ‘There’s no reason to wait. We have our guy.’”

The Rams fired Jeff Fisher on Dec. 12 and, shortly thereafter, Demoff and Rams executives made a list of qualities they wanted in a new coach. They sought, Demoff said, a skilled communicator, an innovative tactician and an energetic presence, and they solicited opinions from outside the Rams’ facility, from former NFL coaches and executives such as Gruden, Bill Polian and Tony Dungy.

“We took those priorities and we started to ask about people,” Demoff said. “The name that kept popping up, over and over again, was Sean McVay.”

McVay spent the previous three seasons at Washington under head coach Jay Gruden, Jon’s brother, and Jon Gruden hired McVay for his first NFL job eight years ago, as a low-level assistant in Tampa Bay.

That’s where, in 2008, Demoff — who worked in Tampa Bay’s front office — first encountered McVay, then age 22. The two weren’t close, but Demoff never kept McVay’s name out of the back of his mind.

So when the Rams looked to fill their opening, they looked at the high-profile offensive coordinators — such as Atlanta’s Kyle Shanahan and New England’s Josh McDaniels — but when McVay had his first interview, a few days after the Rams’ Jan. 1 season finale, Demoff told McVay to delay his trip home.

“Stick around,” Demoff told McVay. “You’re not going anywhere. We’re going to get Jared here.”

Jared Goff, quarterback and centerpiece of the Rams’ future, sat for two hours in a meeting room with McVay. Demoff and other Rams staffers left the two of them to, hopefully, bond. It worked.

“It was really positive,” Goff said. “I came away from it very impressed and excited. I didn’t know, at the time, who they were going to decide on, but coming out of that meeting, I was like, ‘If they pick him, I’m going to be really excited.’ Ultimately they did, and when I heard the news (Thursday), I was very excited.”

Demoff said concerns about McVay’s age quickly were assuaged. He reached out to people who know McVay and used words such as brilliant, genius, star and special to describe him.

The similarities between McVay and Gruden became clear to the Rams, and the thought of a long-term partnership between Goff and McVay became too tantalizing to pass up.

This week, Demoff said, the questions about McVay’s age became irrelevant, and it became clear that the prospective coach and the team agreed on future plans for the team.

“I’d like to think that those are some of the characteristics I embody,” McVay said. “Teacher, leader, motivator, positive, energy and enthusiasm every single day. Ultimately, it’s about finding ways to be great communicators on all levels of the organization.”

In McVay, the Rams get a young student of the game. His grandfather, John, was a longtime successful executive in San Francisco. His father, Tim, played college football.

Moreover, McVay studies. He reads books about coaching, leadership and motivation, and said his parents tease him about not having a life outside of football. McVay joked Friday that he might try surfing, but far more likely, his Southern California days will be spent in a Ventura County film room.

“Before we can become a consistent winner,” McVay said, “we have to act like winners, and that starts with implementing a culture. We want to set a culture and maintain a culture.”

The other pieces of the Rams’ puzzle likely will come together quickly.

General manager Les Snead, whose job status had been in question, confirmed that he will return in 2017, and Snead also said that special teams coach John Fassel, who had been the Rams’ interim coach after Fisher’s, would return under McVay as special teams coach.

The Rams have agreed to terms with veteran coach Wade Phillips as their new defensive coordinator. McVay said he will call plays for the Rams, who have yet to decide on a new offensive coordinator.

All of that will come together quickly. The Rams, as a team with a new coach, are allowed to start their offseason program in April, a couple weeks earlier than other teams, so McVay wants some stability.

“I don’t sleep much,” McVay said. “If you can’t tell, I’m a little wired, a little high-strung.”

Billy_T wrote:

If the question is:

Is neoliberalism one of the worst forms of capitalism ever?

If we narrow the time frame down to the last 80 years or so, yes. It’s safe to say it’s the worst. But things were even worse during the first Gilded Age, and probably all the way up until FDR.

It’s odious, regardless. But I think capitalism is odious, in all its forms.

I think it would help this discussion if someone explained the key differences between keynsian and neoliberal economic policies.

YOu game?

wv wrote:

zn wrote:

wv wrote:

In that last vid — i liked this question — ‘the Universe is expanding into what?’

w
v

It doesn’t have to be expanding INTO something.

According to big bang theory, space and time are themselves effects of the bang. So an expanding universe just means space gets bigger, as opposed to there being absolutely nothing.

—

Well i understand the concept, but i dont like it.

I mean, the concept of ‘nothing’ does not resonate in my brain.

‘Nothingness.’ Maybe there is ‘something’ in that ‘nothingness’ and science just cant conceive of it yet.

w
v

The issue is the concept of “inside.” “Inside” is a spatial term. But that would put the space of the universe inside another, different space. The problem is that space is itself an effect of the big bang, and exists because of it. Space is a RESULT of the big bang. So there can’t be a spatial locality outside of space itself.

It amounts to this.

Our brains are hard-wired to grasp 3-dimensional physics. We know how far to jump, we know up v. down, and so on. It’s common sense to us.

We are not brain and nervous-system programmed to GET “nothing.”

Once you leave the ordinary programming of common sense experience, then, you have to just simply rely on pure abstract concepts. “Nothing” is a pure abstract concept.

So we just have to intellectually accept that space is space and what isn’t in that space is nothing, so that the space of the universe is just EXPANDING…it’s not expanding inside or into something. It’s just a simple opposition. On the one side, space and expansion. On the other side, nothing. There’s no inside or outside to nothing. It’s just nothing.