Shortly after the New England Patriots made the surprising decision to draft Chattanooga offensive lineman Cole Strange in the first round, a video emerged showing Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay and general manager Les Snead reacting to the pick. The two men, it appeared, were quite surprised by the pick.
“UT-Chattanooga to the first round,” Snead said about the selection.
“How about that,” added McVay. “And we wasted our time watching him thinking he’d be at 104 maybe.”
The reaction caused some controversy, with some seeing McVay’s remarks in particular as a slight towards the Patriots and the 29th overall pick in the draft. However, the Rams’ head coach has since spoken about the issue, claiming that his statements have been misinterpreted.
“I wish that it wouldn’t have gotten misunderstood. It was more of a reflection of, I was actually giving Les a hard time because when we started watching him, I think we both were in agreement, there’s no way he’d be there [at 104] because we like the player so much,” he said.
“If there’s anybody that has more respect for Coach Belichick and what he’s done than I do, I’d like to see them because I have tremendous respect for this profession and the players that play at this level and I would never want it to get misunderstood for Cole Strange or the Patriots organization that anything but respect for the player. That was my reaction and any misunderstanding was my fault for the way I probably communicated that.”
According to Snead, McVay has spoken with both Strange and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick since the video emerged.