As confetti rained onto the field at the conclusion of Super Bowl LVI on Feb. 13, it was the culmination of years of hard work and a lifetime love of football for Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay.
McVay, 36, coached his squad to a last-minute 23-20 championship victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in, becoming the youngest head coach in NFL history to win a title. The Rams head coach has a local connection to Evansville: His mother Cindy and uncle Bob Fuchs are Evansville natives and Reitz Memorial High School graduates.
Fuchs, also the owner of Link Graphics in Evansville, says McVay lives and breathes football and has had a sharp mind for the sport from a young age.
“He was kicking my ass in Madden at 10 years old,” says Fuchs.
McVay has football in his blood. His father Tim played at Indiana University in the late 1970s. His grandfather John McVay was the head coach of the New York Giants in the 1970s and served as vice president and director of operations for five Super Bowl-winning San Francisco 49er teams in the 1980s and ‘90s.
Locally, McVay’s maternal grandmother was Kay Fuchs, the former director of Evansville’s Department of Metropolitan Development who passed away in June 2021.
In 2017, the Rams hired McVay as their head coach after 10 seasons as first an assistant coach and then offensive coordinator in the National and United Football Leagues. At 30 years old, his hiring by the Rams made McVay the youngest head coach in NFL history. His five-year run at the helm of the Rams has been one of the most successful starts to any coaching career, with McVay collecting NFL Coach of the Year honors in his rookie season and now a Super Bowl title.
“I wouldn’t say he grew up wanting to be a head coach, but the stars aligned for him, and he was able to seize on the opportunity,” says Fuchs. “He’s had a great upbringing, and when you work hard and trust in your family, good things happen.”
Last weekend, Fuchs, his wife Sharon, and about 25 members of the McVay family looked on from their endzone seats at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, as McVay and the Rams captured their second Super Bowl title in franchise history and the first since the team moved back to Los Angeles from St. Louis, Missouri, in 2016.
But this wasn’t the first Super Bowl that Fuchs has attended. At the end of the 2018 season, he watched as the Rams failed to claim the Lombardi Trophy in a 13-3 loss to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots at Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta, Georgia.
The experience — and outcome — was much different for the extended McVay family this time. The day before the Super Bowl, the family headed to downtown Los Angeles to visit some of the NFL popup shops and grab a bit to eat.
“Everything was different this time around,” Fuchs says. “Atlanta is such a different city and experience compared to L.A.”
After the Lombardi trophy was presented, the real party started for the home team victors. Fuchs says the after party with players and coaches was held inside two private hangars at Los Angeles International Airport and lasted until about 4 o’clock the following morning.
“I enjoyed being with family and friends and watching Sean succeed,” he says. “We had a great time. It was fun.”
Photo provided by Bob Fuchs.
