Getty Former Bills running back LeSean McCoy checks the scoreboard a preseason game at Bank of America Stadium on August 16, 2019.
Former Buffalo Bills star LeSean McCoy appeared on “Up & Adams” with Kay Adams on Thursday, April 20 to discuss the team’s status heading into the offseason and which moves they still need to make. However, when Adams asked the two-time Super Bowl champion if Buffalo needs “a top dog running back,” as Bills legend Jim Kelly expressed last month, McCoy went off.
Kelly told News 10 NBC Rochester on March 30, “Josh (Allen) can’t do everything by himself, and I hope they find a way to get a star running back. I always thought (Devin) Singletary was pretty good — I just didn’t think we used him enough… I hope they get that running game going to take some of the pressure off Josh.”
While the Bills haven’t had a running back hit 1,000 rushing yards in a season since McCoy in 2017, the six-time Pro Bowler believes Kelly is off the mark with his assessment and took a personal shot at the former quarterback who led the Bills to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances in 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993.
Do the Bills need to add a star RB?
@CutonDime25 has some words for Jim Kelly. 👀
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“First of all, Jim always talks,” McCoy tells Adams. “He just wants to talk about the team ya know? Nobody talks about how he every up short every year. EVERY YEAR. Every year. Nobody talk about that. Four times short!”
McCoy uses air quotes to describe Kelly as this “great quarterback,” but when it comes to the Super Bowl? “He lost, lost, lost… still losing.”
Is There Beef Between Jim Kelly & LeSean McCoy?
GettyJim Kelly, former QB of the Buffalo Bills arrives on the gold carpet for the 2015 NFL Draft at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.
McCoy’s strong reaction had many viewers on Twitter wondering if there was beef between the two former NFL stars. While McCoy and the 63-year-old Hall of Famer obviously never played against each other in the NFL, Kelly, a perennial ambassador of Bills Mafia, made comments about the two-time All-Pro running back about six years that caught headlines.
In September 2017, McCoy was one of a dozen Bills players to kneel during the national anthem, per ESPN. As the music played, McCoy also did some stretches, which Kelly sounded off on during an appearance on 97 Rock in Buffalo.
“I like LeSean McCoy, don’t get me wrong, but I totally, 100% I disagree with what he did,” Kelly said. “You want to kneel? Fine. But when you go and do what he did yesterday, that sort of bummed me out. And I lost a lot of respect for him. … You want to kneel? That’s your prerogative. I would never do that. I will always stand, thank the good Lord for everything I got. But when you disrespect the way he did and just go by his everyday duty in the national anthem being sung? Uh-uh. I won’t go for that.”
McCoy, however, said he had no issues with Kelly. “He said some things to the media that he probably could have said to me. But his opinion, it really doesn’t matter to me. I like Jim Kelly,” McCoy said. “He texts me and I just told him, ‘Hey, you’re human.’ People have their own opinions. What you said, you don’t have to apologize for it. I don’t think you’re wrong. That’s how he felt. I understand. You’re human and I told him exactly, ‘My respect for you, it hasn’t changed. It’s still very high.’ He’s a hell of a player and I respected him when I met him, and even the relationship I have so far. So it didn’t affect me at all.”
LeSean McCoy stretches during the national anthem. Video courtesy @JennaCottrell @WKBW @13WHAM #Bills
The running back said his anger stemmed from former President Trump, who said during a rally in Alabama, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now.'”
McCoy explained, “I was extremely hurt, to be honest. Because at first, everybody has their own opinions, like I talked about. People believe in different things; they stand up for what they want to stand up for, that’s their right. And some of the words that the President used, it just rubbed me the wrong way. I was upset and I was frustrated. That’s the way I wanted to express myself at the game. I took a knee. I started stretching. I was angry. I was hurt, just like I said after the game. Somebody like our president, being our leader of this country, where millions and millions and millions of people look at America and see the type of words and things he’s saying about us. I mean, it just got to me. It really did.”
LeSean McCoy Says the Bills Should Add WR DeAndre Hopkins
LeSean Mccoy is all in on DeAndre Hopkins going to the Bills.
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While speaking to Adams, McCoy defended Bills running back James Cook against Kelly’s comments, who stands to be RB1 after Devin Singletary signed with the Houston Texans in free agency. “I think he’s going to be a phenomenal player,” McCoy said. “He’s still young.”
However, McCoy agrees that Allen does need “one more piece,” but it should be in the form of wide receiver, in particular, Cardinals star DeAndre Hopkins. “Oh my god. D-Hop. (Stefon) Diggs. Come on now, with that defense?”
As for Allen, “You have all the weight on your shoulders… and when they take Diggs away, and (Dawson) Knox was in and out with injuries, so its’ like ‘Where do I go?’ Gabe Davis was solid but he’s up and down – not consistent. You bring in D-Hop, man, the defense has to pick. Who do we take? There’s no excuse then.”