Former Bills Captain Reveals Sean McDermott’s Hard Personality as Bills HC Changes Tune for Locker Room

Remember those old-school NFL films? The grainy footage of coaches barking through megaphones, players in stiff collars, and an almost militaristic rigidity? For a while in Buffalo, under Sean McDermott, that aesthetic felt less like nostalgia and more like Tuesday. Discipline was the bedrock, the non-negotiable currency. Dress codes were strict – hard-bottom shoes, ties, sport coats for travel. Flip-flops? Forget about it.

It was a foundation built on structure, a necessary scaffolding for a franchise emerging from decades of disrepair. Former Bills captain and cornerstone cornerback Tre’Davious White, now back in the fold after a season away, lived that early McDermott era. He saw the hard edges firsthand.

From dress codes to durability: White’s veteran blueprint

“You see the way we pull up to the planes now,” White chuckled on the Centered on Buffalo podcast, the contrast vivid in his voice. “You know, we used to had to have hard hard bottom shoes, with a sport coat, a tie, you know, no flipflop. Now we pull it up to the plane all comfortable and cozy. Like I love that.”

The shift isn’t just about footwear; it’s symbolic of an evolution. White recalled a moment that crystallized the old regime’s intensity. He’d dared to board sans the mandated hard soles. “I remember Richie like just giving me a crazy look… So, look, after about 10 minutes… Richie like, ‘Coach Mcder 27 don’t have hard bottom shoes.’”

The consequence wasn’t a fine or a benching, but something perhaps more potent in a leader-driven culture: “10 minutes later… coach McDermott just come to the back… he didn’t even say anything to me though, E. He just looked at me. He just gave me his look and like looked down at my shoes and looked back at me and went back to the front of the plane.” White paused, the memory clear. “That’s all I need to see.”

He understands the method behind the former rigidity: “We used to have to wear the collared shirts and meetings on the road and all that. And look, I get it. He was setting the foundation and once you get a team with a culture right, then yes, then you can start laying off them a little bit.”

The foundation, painstakingly laid through five AFC East titles and perennial contention, is now solid. McDermott, the architect, has subtly shifted the interior design towards comfort and trust, allowing veterans like White to breathe easier, literally and figuratively.

This newfound comfort isn’t about complacency; it’s about sustainable peak performance for a battle-tested warrior. White, the two-time All-Pro with 333 tackles and 18 INTs on his resume, knows his body better than ever after overcoming a torn ACL and a devastating Achilles tear. His routine is meticulously crafted for preservation.

The calculated ease of a veteran’s grind & McDermott’s plan

“Oh, it’s feeling good. E, uh, man, uh, they’ve been doing a great job of just, you know, a lot of work, but a lot of recovery, too,” he shared. Discipline means “going to bed, man. Getting getting a lot of rest.” Gone are the pre-dawn workouts that might drain his reserves. “I usually get up early and get the workout in before the practice. But now, as an older guy, I kind of kind of I’mma stay in the bed for that extra hour or two… I work out pretty much after the uh after the practice.”

It’s a strategic energy bank: “I think that with me pushing that workout back, I think that it gives me a lot of energy… Don’t be, you know, sort of worn out because I’m a guy that sweats a lot… So, I got to uh kind of kind of tail it back.”

This philosophy extends beyond sleep. Buffalo’s facility buzzes with efficiency tools: “We got many scooters, too. We got it all. Um, we got dirt bikes. They got the electric bikes now. So, we all about saving those legs, man.” Why? Because when McDermott blows the whistle, there’s no cruising:

“Coach McDermott, because once we hit that practice field, it’s all hands on deck. So, we try to save the legs as much as possible. For sure.” It’s a veteran’s savvy, maximizing output by minimizing unnecessary wear, a luxury earned through years of grinding hill sprints – a foundational ritual White still swears by for building that “bulletproof” lower body crucial for fourth-quarter stands.

This cultural softening manifested unexpectedly in the Bills‘ preseason opener against the Giants. With kicker Tyler Bass sidelined, McDermott didn’t just turn to newly signed Caden Davis. He sent out running back Ray Davis – the 5’8″, 220-pound fourth-rounder – to drill the extra point after a Dawson Knox TD.

Davis, the emergency kicker (and now, apparently, the emergency emergency kicker), nailed it, later adding a 24-yard field goal. Post-game, McDermott’s explanation was pragmatic yet hinted at that evolved trust: “It’s fun to see that. I think it’s energy producing… Ray takes a lot of pride in things… being a great teammate and in this case, kicking.” He framed it as contingency planning, a live-fire test: “What happens if it does happen? What are we going to do?… I don’t plan on doing it again. I think once is enough… But it was good for us to do it.”

It was a moment of levity and preparedness, a world away from the stern looks over shoe choices. It showcased a coach secure enough in his team’s established core to experiment, to embrace a little fun within the grind – the mark of a leader who knows his foundation is unshakeable, allowing the walls to breathe a little easier. The hard personality that built the house remains, but the decor and the rules for wearing shoes inside have undeniably changed.