LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean McVay will spend his 40th birthday on Saturday in the exact same way he spent the vast majority of his 30s.
He'll be preparing the Los Angeles Rams to play their hearts out.
“What’s a good birthday? When I’m working on my birthday, and if I’m working next week,” McVay said. “That would be a hell of a birthday. That’s the only present I want.”
This year, he'll be working to get the Rams ready for the NFC championship game on Sunday. If Los Angeles (14-5) beats the Seattle Seahawks (16-3), McVay will open his next decade by preparing to coach in his third Super Bowl — something no one has done at his age.
McVay has been the “youngest” and the “first” to a jaw-dropping number of accomplishments since he took over the Rams as a 30-year-old prodigy. He became the apogee of cerebral, offense-minded coaching while transforming a long-struggling franchise into a winner, and his stature in his profession's hierarchy hasn't really changed in nine years.
As he reaches 40, McVay is still working long hours, innovating constantly and striving to master every facet of this complex game. But after he publicly considered walking away from coaching several years ago, the father of two young sons also says he has developed a more nuanced perspective about what football really means — and what coaching truly is.
“I’ve had a lot of growing up to do since nine years ago when we first got here,” McVay said. “Over the last couple of years, and I think through some of the adverse times where you’re really forced to do that reflection, is where the appreciation and joy and the journey come from. It’s not exclusive to just the trophies. Those are all fleeting. The other things last a lot longer, and I think it keeps your cup full when that’s really where your intrinsic motivation comes from.
"Because if it’s just about the other stuff, I think that’s too shallow.”
McVay has already summitted nearly every coaching mountaintop, and he was almost always the first to reach each peak.
He became an offensive coordinator at 27 in Washington. He was the youngest head coach in the Super Bowl era when the Rams hired him in 2017, and he immediately led them to their first playoff berth in 13 years.
At 33, McVay became the youngest head coach to reach the Super Bowl.
At 36, he became the youngest coach to win the Super Bowl.
At 39 last week in Chicago, McVay claimed his 10th playoff victory — the most by any coach under 40, and the same number as Bill Walsh and George Seifert managed in their entire careers.
With Mike Tomlin's departure from Pittsburgh and Sean McDermott's firing by Buffalo this month, McVay is now the second longest-tenured coach in the entire NFL, behind only Kansas City's Andy Reid.
While his year-to-year results have been outstanding — eight winning seasons, seven playoff berths, four NFC West titles and those two Super Bowl runs — McVay says he takes more pride in his evolution as a leader than in his steady success on the field.
“What I think about the most is the appreciation for when I haven’t been at my best, but the unconditional support that I felt,” McVay said. “That means a whole hell of a lot to me. (There were) moments I’ve been open about where I wasn’t the leader, I wasn’t the man or the coach that I wanted to be on a consistent basis. I’m not by any stretch saying that I’ve got it all figured out. But I’m better than what I once was, and it’s only because I’m around people, and I have family and friends and people in this building, that make you want to do better.”
McVay needed that maturity to thrive during a tumultuous 2025.
He started last January coaching the Rams through two playoff games amid the chaos caused by the Southern California wildfires near their training complex. He began the new season by tearing his plantar fascia on the sideline in Week 2 while running to speak to an official.
The Rams rolled to an 11-3 start before a late slump knocked them out of the No. 1 seed in the NFC. But after two gritty playoff wins, McVay's team could become only the sixth in NFL history to win three straight postseason games in road stadiums.
Amid all of this work excitement, McVay and his wife, Veronika, then expanded their family last month with the birth of Christian McVay, their second son in just over two years. The erstwhile workaholic loves parenthood, both for its new viewpoint on life and for the way it bonds him with friends and colleagues.
“It’s been fun to watch him become a father of two,” said quarterback Matthew Stafford, who has four kids of his own. “I was FaceTiming my girls in the meeting room (Friday) morning, and he’s asking (youngest daughter) Tyler if her tooth is still loose. It’s a really cool, unique relationship, and one that I don’t take for granted.”
Even with a new noisemaker in his house, McVay has become a convert to the importance of sleep, getting at least seven hours every night after spending years in the performative sleep droughts so often flaunted by football coaches.
It's only the latest signal that McVay is growing and maturing. He’s no longer younger than any of his players, and he isn't the youngest head coach in the NFL after he spent a whopping seven seasons holding that title.
But as anyone can see on the Rams' sideline each week, McVay remains a ferocious competitor and a football obsessive who's grateful to be working instead of blowing out candles.
“I'm not a big birthday guy,” McVay said with a broad grin. “And if you guys say, ‘Happy 40th,’ I'll slap the (expletive) out of you."
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Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay talks to reporters following an overtime victory over the Chicago Bears NFL football divisional playoff game Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay runs drills during practice at the team's training facility Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Los Angeles, ahead of the NFL football NFC Championship game against the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay speaks during a news conference at the team's training facility Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, in Los Angeles, ahead of the NFL football NFC Championship game against the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
Iran fired missiles and drones at targets across the Gulf including oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and a ship off the coast of the Emirates, while Israeli and the United States struck targets across the Islamic Republic. Saudi Arabia and other states said they intercepted multiple drone attacks.
Six members of the Iranian women’s soccer team will remain in Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday, while one of the squad members who was previously granted asylum changed her mind and planned to return to Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts there were no reports of Iran planting explosives in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil is shipped. The U.S. said it took out more than a dozen minelaying Iranian vessels Tuesday to help prevent any attempt to close the waterway.
Iran's vow not to allow any oil through the strategic strait has led to market volatility and fears of shortages, especially in Asia, which is dependent on oil shipped from the region.
Israel struck a building in the center of the Lebanese capital Beirut as part of its campaign against Hezbollah. The Lebanese group has been carrying out attacks against Israel in support of Iran.
Here is the latest:
A projectile hit a cargo ship Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz, setting the vessel ablaze after the United States targeted Iranian minelaying vessels that could target the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military, said the vessel had been hit just north of Oman in the strait.
It said the crew was evacuating the ship.
Iran did not immediately claim the attack though it has been targeting ships in and around the strait, disrupting a waterway that sees a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded pass through it.
The UKMTO earlier reported on another attack targeting a vessel off Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates.
Qatar issued a warning to the public Wednesday morning of a possible Iranian attack.
An Associated Press journalist in Qatar heard explosions as air defenses intercepted incoming fire over Doha, the country’s capital.
Qatar says it won’t serve as a mediator for Iran as it remains under attack from Tehran.
Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, made the statement to the Qatari-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera in an interview aired Wednesday.
He noted both Qatar and Oman had been attacked even though they worked to “build bridges between Iran and the West.”
“We will not be able to fulfill that role under attack, and that’s something the Iranians need to understand,” al-Khulaifi said. "The regional countries are not an enemy of Iran, and the Iranians are not understanding that idea.”
Russia said its consulate in the Iranian city of Isfahan was damaged in airstrikes targeting the central Iranian city.
The state-run Tass news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying there were “no casualties or serious injuries” in the strike Sunday, which targeted the nearby governor’s office in the city.
“Windows were shattered in the office building and residential apartments, and several employees were thrown back by the blast wave. Fortunately, there were no casualties or serious injuries,” Zakharova said.
Videos circulating online and broadcast by local news channels from an apparent strike site in the densely populated Aicha Bakkar area of central Beirut show two floors of a multistory building engulfed in flames.
The strike came without warning. There were no immediate reports concerning who was targeted or the number and extent of casualties.
The structure that was hit is several buildings away from Dar al-Fatwa, the country’s highest Sunni Muslim religious authority.
The strike was in an area far from Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings earlier in the renewed conflict with Hezbollah.
Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said early Wednesday it destroyed five drones heading toward the kingdom’s vast Shaybah oil field in the Empty Quarter desert. It added that it intercepted and destroyed two drones in the Eastern Province.
Kuwait said it downed eight drones over the tiny, oil-rich nation.
Two more members of the Iranian women’s soccer team were granted asylum in Australia before their teammates departed the country, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday, but one of the women changed her mind and plant to return to Iran.
Six women from the Iranian squad will remain in Australia on humanitarian visas after accepting offers of asylum shortly before their scheduled return home, Burke said. The names and photographs of the team members initially granted asylum have been widely published, including by Burke, and it was not immediately clear which of the women reversed her decision.
The rest of the team’s departure from Sydney, Australia, happened late Tuesday during fraught and outraged protests at the delegation’s hotel and the airport. Iranian Australians sought to prevent the women from leaving the country, citing fears for their safety in Iran.
A projectile hit a container ship early Wednesday morning off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Strait of Hormuz, the British military said.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center issued the warning, saying the attack happened off Ras al-Khaimah, the UAE’s northernmost emirate on the strait.
The center said the “extent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.”
Ships have effectively halted movement through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes.
A boy runs inside cement pipe turned into a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strike in Michmoret, Israel, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Protesters wave Iranian flags and hold a portrait of the late Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to support his selection as the new Iran's Supreme Leader in Baghdad, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
A displaced woman holds a child as another stands beside her between rows of tents at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, which has been turned into a shelter for people displaced by Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
