Marv Levy Sends Special Message to Sean McDermott

Sean McDermott

Getty Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott looks over the field during their matchup with the Denver Broncos.

After the Buffalo Bills captured their first AFC East division title in 25 years on Saturday, the winningest coach in franchise history took the time from celebrating to send the current Bills coach a special message.

In an interview with Ashley Rowe from 7 Eyewitness News in Buffalo, 95-year-old Levy said that he sent a congratulatory email to McDermott Saturday night and told him how happy he was for him and the team.

“I just told him, honestly, that I was thrilled and I’m sure he was too about the Bills winning it. And I congratulated him so much,” Levy told Rowe in the interview. “I told him I know there’s still a long road to travel and I know he’d attack it the way it’s meant to be.”

Buffalo’s 48-19 victory over the Denver Broncos was a historic one. It moved the Bills to 11-3 with two regular-season games left and delivered the Bills, and their fans, something they’ve been yearning for a quarter of a century. But even with such an important victory, McDermott said that the team would celebrate the win for 24 hours and then move right on to the next one.

“This is a step, we needed to win the East, we’ve done that and a lot of hard work went into that,” McDermott said during a post-game video conference call. “Now we’re going to enjoy it and then we’ll reset and prepare for what’s next.”

That type of mindset, win a game and then prepare for the next one, was the exact message that Levy sent to McDermott.

“I told him, doggonit, that’s it, get back to work,” Levy told Rowe.

The Bills will get back to work on Monday, with a matchup against the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football. With their loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, the Patriots were eliminated from playoff contention.

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An Organization Type of Win

Levy dropped a few different quotes during his interview with Rowe and one was about what it takes to win a title like Buffalo’s after so many years. Levy said it was an organization type of win.

“Something I’ve always said, it isn’t just a great quarterback, it isn’t just a great coach, it isn’t just great players. It’s a total organization that wins,” Levy said in his interview with Rowe.

That’s how the Bills have gotten to this point too. McDermott first came in 2017 and went through the first draft with former general manager Doug Whaley. But ever since then, McDermott has built up the Bills roster alongside current general manager Brandon Beane. They’ve basically built the roster from scratch with Jerry Hughes being the longest-tenured Bill on the roster.

With each year that has gone by, the Bills have made new additions to the roster. Trading up in the 2018 NFL Draft to pick Josh Allen was the big move, the one that brought them one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Then, this past offseason, Beane orchestrated a major trade with the Minnesota Vikings to bring in wide receiver Stefon Diggs. Since then, the Bills have turned into a powerhouse of the NFL and have continued to climb the power rankings this season


Won. Not Done.

The Bills will get a home playoff game for the first time in a long time and although their first goal, an AFC East title, is accomplished, they aren’t done yet.

Throughout their post-game interviews on Saturday, multiple players mentioned that winning the AFC East title was just the first step. Now they have to close out the regular season before chasing their real goal, a Super Bowl championship.

“That’s (winning an AFC East title) not our main goal,” Allen said in his post-game video conference call. “We set out to do this in order to give us a chance to do what we really want to do and that is to win Super Bowl championships.”

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