Last season, Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott stirred up some controversy when he reportedly used an analogy involving the 9/11 terrorist attacks in a message to his team. And just over a year later, he nearly made the same mistake.
The Bills were eventually able to pull away from the New England Patriots in the second half of Sunday’s Week 16 game to move to 12-3 on the year. But throughout the first half, the Bills struggled immensely to do much on offense, going into the second half facing a 14-7 deficit.
When asked about his team’s first-half performance, McDermott nearly made an airplane or flying analogy before thinking better of it.
“Uh, let’s see. I was about to use an airplane or flying analogy but I’ll stay away from that,” said McDermott in a video shared on X by Alex Brasky of The Batavia Daily News.
Sean McDermott was asked to give his impressions of the #Bills first half performance against the Patriots. He was about to use an airplane analogy, but stopped himself short.
If you don’t learn from the past you’re doomed to repeat it #BillsMafia pic.twitter.com/yK05boUtHF
— alex brasky (@alexbrasky) December 23, 2024
This is of course not the best look for McDermott because it brings back memories of a story written last December by Tyler Dunne of GoLongTD.com that detailed how McDermott had used 9/11 terrorists to exemplify “the importance of communication” during a 2019 team meeting.
McDermott did not deny the report, but called it an “attack on his character” before later apologizing for the reference.
Maybe McDermott was thinking of a different airplane-related analogy this time around to describe the Bills in the first half against the Patriots. But even if that is the case, it probably would have been best for him to keep that thought in his head given his track record.
This topic being brought back to light as a distraction is perhaps coming at the worst time for the Bills, who are currently rolling with wins in nine of their last ten games. But at least McDermott didn’t go into more detail about his planned plane analogy this time around.
