Victory Speech: “Humble and Hungry Goes a Long Way”

“Humble and hungry” Bills need to model themselves after city of Buffalo

Sean McDermott is a strong believer

When Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott addressed the media before the team’s first training camp practice, he talked about the importance of starting back at the basics and building the team from the ground up.

“It’s really similar to what we’ve done. Every year is different, every team is different,” McDermott said. “But you’ve got to start at square one every year. You have to start over, and mindset-wise, you’ve got to be as humble and hungry. And over the years, I’ve found that a humble and hungry approach goes a long way, inside the building and outside the building, and really in life in general. That’s what I subscribe to and that’s what I expect from our team.”

Getting a strong message across to his players is important for McDermott, but staying fresh to a roster that’s enjoyed as much continuity as the Bills has can present challenges. So, the fifth-year coach spent time going over previous meeting notes to formulate a message that would resonate not just with the new players that are just joining the team, but for the veterans who have been with the team for several seasons now.

“I take notes,” McDermott said. “I go back to my notes on previous meetings and what I’ve shared with the team and try to figure out, this year, what’s relevant? And not just give them a canned – here’s the first meeting all over again – because I’d lose them pretty quickly, you know with some of the guys that have been here going on five years now. And also make it relevant to what’s going on with our situation, with the landscape of what’s going on in America and meet them where they are and where our team is, and what we need to do going forward.”

McDermott expressed the idea clearly “we’ve got to continue to improve and embrace that mindset, remain humble and hungry,” he continued, “this place is a humble city, humble town and that’s hungry and we need to embrace that.”

“One of the hardest things to do is to sustain success,” McDermott explained. “I’ve been around it; I’ve seen it. And you see it not just from the teams that I’ve been a part of – and I’ve learned from it – but other teams. That’s the way the NFL is built, for parity. One year they’re up, and the next year they’re down. So that’s been a message since a month after the season. You’ve got to have enough self-awareness to manage yourself. And if getting noticed was the goal, then maybe we accomplished that. But if it was winning – and goals that we set- we know we didn’t accomplish those. This is a new team, and I’ve said this countless times, but we’ve got to respect the process and remain humble and hungry. Because if you don’t, this league gets you and gets on you fast.”

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