Sean McVay never stops. Just ask Matthew Stafford, who has been coached by McVay for the last four years and will be for at least one more.
No matter what the Rams coach is doing, he's always thinking about football - even if he's supposed to be unwinding on vacation. It's part of what makes him such a great coach and innovator, particularly when it comes to the offensive side of the ball.
Stafford was a guest on "New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce" recently and he shared some hilarious stories about all the places McVay draws up plays and watches football. It all started in Mexico when Stafford and McVay randomly ran into each other just before the Rams traded for the former Lions quarterback.
Knowing Stafford was an option for the Rams, McVay already had game film on his phone, so he pulled it up and was already asking his new quarterback about it.
"I remember he's got like my film up on his phone. He's like, 'Do you remember this?'" Stafford recalled. "Yeah, like, 'I'm trying to have a margarita and some chips, bro.'"
That was the start of their partnership as coach and quarterback, and it's only grown since then.
After they got back from Mexico, Stafford started going to McVay's house in the morning to get the lay of the Rams offense. McVay was drawing up plays on a whiteboard in his house "going crazy."
Stafford, fresh off a "bender in Mexico," was understandably having trouble grasping everything his maniac coach was talking about.
"I remember when I first got traded here, I was actually in Mexico, randomly ran into him. Whatever, it happened," he said. "I fly back and I'm going over to his house in the mornings and I'm like, he's teaching me the offense on his whiteboard in his house, going crazy.
"I'm like trying to write all this (expletive) down. I'm like, 'Oh my god, I'm never going to remember any of this. I just got off a bender in Mexico.'"
A few weeks after Stafford officially joined the Rams, McVay and his wife invited the Staffords up to Santa Barbara for a wine trip. Sounds nice and relaxing, right?
Well, it was only 30 minutes into the car ride before McVay broke out a piece of paper and was drawing up plays, talking about the big plans he had for the offense that year. He wasted no time getting things going for Stafford in L.A. and it must've worked because the Rams won the Super Bowl in his first season.
"So we're cruising up there, we're like 30 minutes into our ride up there, and my guy pulls out a piece of paper, and he's like, 'All right, so here's the drop-back set for the day,'" Stafford said.
"OK, I got it. I haven't even had any red wine yet, and we're already into this. But he's like, 'Here's this package I'm thinking about. We'll go no-huddle, jump the ball.' Sure enough, that's what we did a bunch, especially in 2021 and launched it all over the field and had a bunch of success."
McVay is a certified football junkie and always has been. There's no question he got a little bit burned out during the 2022 season when things went horribly sideways for the Rams, but he thankfully decided to stick around and continue coaching despite considering a career change into the broadcasting world.
Who knows how long he'll keep coaching for but as long as he's the one at the helm in Los Angeles, the Rams are going to be perennial contenders - and it's stories like the ones Stafford shared that show what makes him so special.