Rams coach McVay says he almost left Rams because of insecurities

The next Super Bowl will be held in Los Angeles . And while it's still early days this season, the odds aren't half-bad that, for one team, the big game will be a home game. The rams are a, maybe the — premier NFL franchise: blue chip; gold standard. This preseason, we were invited inside their huddle, so to speak. We found an organization that wins with contradictions: prudence and gunslinging. Change and continuity. Brawn, yes, but also brain. And the rams are wound tightly on the team's tightly wound leader, Sean McVay. In the decade since the Rams made McVay the youngest head coach in NFL history, he's become a generational talent, pacing toward the best ever - Lombardi, Shula, Belichick – but that push comes at a price.

Jon Wertheim: You're a lot tor-- what-- what's-- what's tormenting you-- right now?

Sean McVay: The practice that we just had. That's why I'm in such a great mood.

That practice, a month before the NFL season, seemed typical to us, but Rams coach Sean McVay was dissatisfied in the extreme.

Sean McVay: Totally. Yeah. I feel rude right now with you, you deserve more attention than what I'm capable of giving right now and I feel bad about that.

No apologies necessary. This was an unvarnished look into a team — bad practices happen — and into the mind of a football genius, tortured as he is, especially when confronting lofty expectations. The Rams built a super-team studded with talent: quarterback Matthew Stafford — the NFL's reigning MVP — leads the offense. The Rams traded for Myles Garrett, the league's best defender, to anchor the other side. And Aaron Donald , perhaps the best defensive lineman ever, just came out of retirement to rejoin the team.

Sean McVay: We are wired to achieve. And-- and let's make no mistake about it. When we take the field, the expectations are to win.

Jon Wertheim: let's be honest, it's super-- we're-- super-- team wins Super Bowl or, "Oh, this roster couldn't get it done." You're okay with the range of outcome here?

Sean McVay: Oh yeah, because I don't buy into those external narratives. I'm more interested in who we become in the midst of the journey than what the final destination is.

This was not the talk a decade ago when the lowly Rams were leaving St. Louis and returning to their ancestral home of LA.

Les Snead: I'm taking on water as a GM. We hadn't had a winning season.

It was 2016, Les Snead, Rams general manager, needed a win. Snead's job was on the line, but backed by ownership, the Rams gambled big on an unproven commodity.

Les Snead: Tactically, when he's in flow. It's like you're tryin' to defend 12 instead of 11.

Jon Wertheim: Wait. You're-- you're saying the coach gives you an extra guy on the field.