LeSean “Shady” McCoy is the latest former NFL player who is petitioning for a coaching job at an HBCU.
McCoy, who played with the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, and Tampa Bay Bucs, openly campaigned to be the next head coach at Howard University, an HBCU in Washington, D.C., during a conversation with new Delaware State coach DeSean Jackson on the 25/10 podcast.
“Howard, listen,” McCoy started. “You have a lot of great history and tradition, and it would be an honor to accept the head coaching job at Howard University. I will make sure that them brothers (football players) will be good and disciplined and great young men.”
McCoy, who maybe was talking in jest, also indicated that the Bison would “win championships” and that the school didn’t have to pay him a lot of money for him to take the job.
Shady tryna coach at Howard?! Y’all rocking with it or nah? pic.twitter.com/iWJoJrjQZM
— HBCU PASS (@HbcuPass) January 17, 2025
Though McCoy’s statement might not have been serious, in his pitch to Howard, he undercut his own purported knowledge of the football program’s history and current head coach, Larry Scott.
Howard is in the midst of its best run of success in 30 years after Scott led the Bison to a share of the MEAC championship in 2023 and an outright conference title in 2024, the first for the school since 1993.
McCoy admitted he knew nothing about HBCUs until Deion Sanders became associated with Jackson State.
What exactly would McCoy offer at this point that is so much better than Scott, considering he doesn’t have documented coaching experience?
And why suggest that Howard football players aren’t disciplined or not “good young men” already? There isn’t much evidence that Scott hasn’t run a tight ship in D.C.
Those comments would lead many to believe that McCoy and many ex-NFL guys angling for jobs view HBCUs as some sort of charity case that needs saviors to prop up their own egos.
There is a sense of that on some scale, with conversations about Jackson and Michael Vick’s recent hires at Norfolk State wrapped in altruistic language instead of winning football games, which is the No. 1 goal for any coach.
It can be debated whether McCoy was serious or not, but a small sample size shows that ex-NFL players—Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Andre Johnson, and others—believe HBCUs are the most accessible and easiest way to get into coaching at the Division I level.
