Sean McVay should have to answer for his spread-covering field goal, even if he had other intentions
Welcome to the Winner’s Circle, a weekly column for BetFTW senior writer Prince J. Grimes to give his thoughts on what’s trending in sports betting.
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay made himself a few enemies in the sports betting world Sunday after sending his kicker out to attempt a meaningless field goal at the end of their loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Rams were trailing by 10 with fours seconds left and no chance of completing a comeback. Yet, instead of milking the clock on second down, McVay added three points to his team’s score as time expired, covering a +7.5 spread in the process.
As you can imagine, 49ers bettors were livid about the result. What appeared to be money in the bank ended up a bad beat shrouded in the mystery of why. The decision to kick a field in that spot didn’t make much sense outside the context of the betting spread.
SEAN MCVAY FOR RAMS +7.5pic.twitter.com/2CdMCxE7E1
— Pickswise (@Pickswise) September 17, 2023
I don't believe for one single second that Sean McVay didn't know the point spread yesterday.
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) September 18, 2023
Sean McVay had to know the number…
— Todd Fuhrman (@ToddFuhrman) September 17, 2023
"Sean McVay knew what he was doing" #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/sAVkF6hryS
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) September 18, 2023
Questions naturally ventured into whether McVay was simply trying to cover the line. The problem is nobody actually knows because nobody asked him about it during his postgame press conference. Unless there’s some follow up in the days to follow, we may never know what his true intentions were. And that’s potentially a bigger problem than the decision itself.
Full disclosure, I picked the Rams to cover. So, I was on the side of people happy with the result. But even if that weren’t the case, I don’t inherently have a problem with McVay or any other coach playing to a cover. We say we want teams to play to the final whistle, and well, that’s what it looks like. But, if McVay was indeed trying to cover the spread, he should have to answer questions about why it was important, for obvious reasons. The stakes are simply too high. Especially coming out of an offseason where so many players were suspended for betting on football and other sports.
However, while upset Niners bettors may want to jump to the most extreme reasons for why McVay kicked the field goal, I can think of more than a few reasons that don’t involve him having action on the game. Betting lines and records are a more mainstream talking point these days, and we’d be foolish to think some players, coaches and even executives aren’t aware of them and use them as motivating factors.
Entering Sunday, McVay was 3-10 ATS against 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, including 0-7 since 2020. Maybe he simply wanted to break that streak and remove the edge, knowing their teams meet again in Week 18. Or maybe he saw an opportunity to pay back the support of Rams fans and bettors who had money riding on them. I never said they had to be good reasons for attempting a meaningless field goal. But they also don’t have to be the worst-case scenario of a coach violating rules.
The problem is we’re left to speculate on why he did it when the reason could range from ‘oh no’ to something not related to betting at all. The ensuing discussion on platforms like X is a lesson for media that we should be asking these questions so there’s no confusion at all.