McDermott brings an unparalleled work ethic to his latest challenge
It’s 1988 and 14-year-old Sean McDermott is spent. His shirt is soaked through with perspiration. His legs are throbbing as he has just wrapped up a 90-minute leg routine at Eskimos Gym in Allentown, Pennsylvania. As part of his wrestling training, McDermott’s father, Rich, drives him the hour each way from their home in Lansdale, Pa., as Sean’s wrestling career has already seen widespread success at the youth level. What comes at the conclusion of the 90-minute workout, however, is unexpected.
The teenage McDermott is handed a pair of 20 pound weights and is told to repeat the workout he just finished. The routine that includes a leg lifting routine, 45 minutes on the treadmill and a session on the stair master is grueling. It’s a direct challenge to his mental toughness, much like wrestling itself. A test of stamina, heart, will.
Without a second thought, the young McDermott takes the 40 pounds in dead weight he’ll be carrying around with him for the next hour and a half and repeats the routine.
It’s just a small example of the unwavering, steadfast and determined leader the Buffalo Bills now have as their head coach. An example provided by someone who knows him better than anyone else, his older brother and only sibling Tim McDermott.
As Tim sees it, his kid brother Sean has always been naturally wired to push the limits knowing more often than not it will yield successful results.
“I think if you look at the type of person that Sean is, the thing that stands out in my head the most is his determination,” Tim said. “He’s got a way of pushing beyond what most people can mentally or physically handle. Whether I saw that in football, in wrestling, in working out. At the point where most people would say I can’t, he had this amazing ability to push through a pain threshold that is incredibly high.”
Disciplined household
This story is from the Sept 17. 2017, Vol. 14, No. 6 edition of Bills Digest.
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This story is from the Sept 17. 2017, Vol. 14, No. 6 edition of Bills Digest.
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