NFL insider explains how Sean McVay retirement rumors could forecast future of league

Sean McVay captured the first Super Bowl of his career thus far on Sunday, but many are wondering if it could be his last. Leading up to Super Bowl 56, rumors ran rampant regarding how long the Rams coach wants to be on the sidelines.

After Los Angeles captured the Lombardi Trophy, CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora wondered how the retirement rumors surrounding McVay can forecast the future of the NFL.

“I just don’t see in this day and age, with the money (for head coaches) the way it is and with how it’s been built up over the last 10 years … you’re not going to see coaches coach that long,” said one league source who is deeply connected to a multitude of NFL head and assistant coaches, wrote La Canfora. “Certainly, not as long as they have in the past. It’s wearing on them, the lifestyle and the grind can swallow you up, and if you are lucky enough to have won a Super Bowl, you are really ahead of the deal.”

It’d be unprecedented, but Sean McVay could always return to coaching in the future. Younger than some of his players, the star coach could take up broadcasting for a couple seasons before getting after another Super Bowl.

Nevertheless, the ideas are being planted. Whether they grow into a shocking action or not remains to be seen.

More on Sean McVay, NFL future

According to a report from the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, if McVay – who said last week that he didn’t want to spend his whole life as an NFL coach because he wanted to start a family – chooses to walk away from coaching, ESPN will pursue him to join the network’s Monday Night Football broadcast team.

Marchand reports that McVay “would likely be able to command a salary of more than $10 million per year,” and added that he could potentially have additional broadcasting opportunities with networks such as Fox and Amazon. If McVay did in fact receive a broadcasting salary of $10 million-plus per year, he’d be making more than his current coaching pay of $8.5 million.

As Marchand points out, this wouldn’t be the first time that McVay has been pursued by ESPN, as the network reportedly had conversations with the Rams’ head man in 2020 about joining Monday Night Football. He also mentions that McVay could try out a broadcasting career and still potentially return to the NFL at some point.

“McVay could see how he likes broadcasting and be perfectly positioned to pick his next coaching job, lining up the financials and the ability to proceed to his liking,” Marchand wrote.

Despite the report of McVay considering stepping down from coaching, the Rams’ head coach said after his team’s Super Bowl win on Sunday that he didn’t want to go anywhere.

“No, no,” McVay said on the NFL Network. “I’m so happy for this team right now. I’m so happy to be associated with it. We’re going to enjoy tonight. I’m not going to remember any of it.”