Letters to Sports: Sean McVay will return, but should he?

Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay watches his players during an NFL football game.

Jan. 14, 2023 7:30 AM PT

In my opinion, Sean McVay, who has decided to return as coach of the Rams, rather than being touted as such an elite coach, should be seen as closer to the bottom of the coaching pile.

After losing one Super Bowl, he and ownership decided to buy their way to another. He took a good young QB (Jared Goff, whom he nearly ruined) and threw him on what looked like a trash heap in Detroit, and went out to buy the best team money could.

So they won a Super Bowl. So what? What do they have now? A bunch of aging vets, no picks from now until forever, and a coach who doesn’t seem to have a clue how to sign and develop young players.

Look at Doug Pederson in Jacksonville, and what he has done with a bunch of unknowns. A whole lot better than the pathetic Rams.

Goff is flourishing in Detroit. Let McVay go on his merry way, leaving the Rams in ruins.

Anne Beaty
Los Angeles

So Sean McVay has come to his senses. Bad news: Fans can look forward to another “bottom feeder” season. Good news: more Chunky Soup commercials!

Richard Whorton
Studio City

So, Sean McVay has decided to pursue his “beautiful torment” and continue as Rams coach. I’m sure Rams fans are delighted with his decision, which is sure to also inspire the team. He’s good in my book, as long as he keeps his future priorities straight with the realization that in the supermarket of life, sports is in the toy department.

Marty Zweben
Palos Verdes Estates

Kudos to Sean McVay for staying as the coach of the Rams after such a down season. A lot of people would have bailed and taken the easy analyst money so congrats, Sean, for “playing it back” for us Rams fans.

Ken Blake
Brea

Too bad the Rams came up short against Seattle. It would have been nice to see Jared Goff and the Lions make the playoffs.

Dave Thoma
Ventura

Why is McVay always praised as being one of the greatest coaches? Sure, he won a Super Bowl, but so did Don McCafferty. The Rams’ battle cry this year was “Run it back.” They did, to 2016.

Ruben Hernandez
El Monte

Cotton Bowl repeat

How smart is it to bet on sports? If you took TCU against someone willing to give you 57 points, you lost.

Bruce Janger
Santa Monica

Like any casual fan, I enjoyed watching the total domination by the Georgia football team in its national championship triumph over Texas Christian University. The turnoff? Postgame cigars all around. Countless teenage boys this week went hunting for smokes, because they saw the glamorous University of Georgia football players enjoying their postgame cigars. Many of those will get hooked on tobacco, and sometime down the road will perish as a direct result. Whose idea was it to roll out the stogies? Whatever happened to sports heroes as role models?

Tad Daley
Los Angeles

Blame it on Grinch

Lincoln Riley’s loyalty to Alex Grinch, while admirable, is indefensible. Giving Grinch passes for the Utah regular-season loss and the Pac-12 title-game disaster, the Cotton Bowl debacle in Dallas should have been his Waterloo. Inexplicably failing to stop Tulane’s mediocre quarterback on two long fourth downs on the final drive, turning Michael Pratt into Vince Young, was simply unforgivable.

Mark S. Roth
Los Angeles

The NCAA has ruined the college game for many of us. Now we have Cal’s best wide receiver transferring to UCLA .

There shouldn’t be any intra-conference transferring and in other cases you should have to sit out a season, unless the head coach leaves.

The joy is gone.

Fred Wallin
Westlake Village

Blue in the face

I was wrong. I really thought the same management team that took the money from cable TV and essentially blacked out their fans for years would figure they are already on the hook for another $22.5 million and still desperately need pitching. They’d figure fans will forgive if Trevor Bauer produces, right? Turns out they don’t have courage to do either.

Jeff Heister
Chatsworth

Love him or hate him, which comes with the job of sports columnist, Dylan Hernandez is pretty fearless on the pages of The Times.

Calling Stan Kasten shameless and Mark Walter a coward will certainly not get him special access to the Dodgers, and he regularly calls it like he sees it.

Keep it up, sir.

Mike McNiff
Costa Mesa

Getting pushed around

Is it the NFL or the NRL (National Rugby League)? The NFL should disallow letting players push a running back/quarterback across the line to gain. The offensive line should be responsible for moving the defensive line back enough so the running back/quarterback can move forward to make a first down not 900 pounds of players pushing them.

Russell Morgan
Carson

Where’s the golf coverage?

Nearly 10% of our population plays and watches golf. NBC, CBS, TNT, ESPN, Fox and Golf Channel air it. The Times usually “devotes” one or two inches to it, hidden in it’s miscellaneous The Day in Sports. Pro tournaments are played nearly every week and yet, unless it is a so-called major, you have no commentary, no leaderboard, and only a quick mention of a couple of players who are in the lead. Golf fans are basically being ignored.

Sandy Wilk
Encino

Warrior’s farewell

Charles White was a warrior, worth the price of admission, one tough character, Mr. Student Body right/left, Heisman role model, and enshrined forever at the peristyle end. My favorite USC football player. R.I.P.

David Marshall
Santa Monica

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