Bills head coach Sean McDermott opened a press conference on Thursday by acknowledging that he used the 9/11 terrorists as an example of “the importance of communication and being on the same page with the team” during a 2019 team meeting and said he apologized for the reference during a subsequent meeting with the team.
McDermott said at his Friday press conference that he addressed those comments with the team again because there are players who were not on the roster in 2019 and he wanted everyone to hear from him about it. The revelation of McDermott’s comments came in a long article by Tyler Dunne on GoLongTD.com about McDermott’s tenure as the team’s coach.
A lot of the article is critical of McDermott with his perceived lack of accountability coming under particular fire. McDermott was asked about his response to the piece on Friday and said it has been a “disappointing” and “hurtful” 24 hours since the publication of what he called “an attack on my character.”
“I know who I am,” McDermott said. “I know how I try to do things. Am I without flaw? No, I’m not without flaw and I say that humbly. I believe we try and do things right here. It doesn’t mean that everything we do is right, people are going to have their own opinions. I believe we’ve won a lot of games here since we’ve arrived and I’m confident in that. I’m confident in this football team. People are going to have their opinions, I can’t control that.”
Word on Friday is that the article is not expected to have any impact on McDermott’s job security and McDermott said his focus is on moving ahead to a Sunday game with the Chiefs that is likely to weigh on any decisions regarding his continued employment in Buffalo.
