LeSean McCoy claims he knows why teams won’t hire Chiefs’ Eric Bieniemy as head coach

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Following the Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 15 game in the 2020 season, running back LeSean McCoy played just one snap through the regular season and playoffs.

McCoy was inactive for the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl LIV, and he explained on the “I Am Athlete Tonight” podcast that he had a falling out with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy during his lone season with the Chiefs.

“Me and the coordinator, we had our differences about different things,” McCoy said. “And I’m gonna say this: it’s the reason why every year they (Chiefs) keep hyping him up to get a coaching job, a head coach or offensive coordinator jobs somewhere else and he don’t get one because ... some players, right, he talks to them a certain way and some players would take it. I wouldn’t take it. “

Bieniemy has interviewed with more than a dozen NFL teams about head-coaching vacancies, yet he’s never been hired.

McCoy wasn’t surprised and said race had nothing to do with it.

“It’s not because he’s a Black coach. That’s not the reason. The reason why is because he, I’m not going into that,” McCoy said, before stopping and not revealing the reason.

But McCoy added: “That’s the reason why that every year he went have to get a job and then when the time comes, nobody hires him because they know what type of coach he really is.”

Here is the clip of McCoy talking about Bieniemy:

Chiefs coach Andy Reid was asked Thursday about McCoy’s comments.

“Sometimes it’s hard on a veteran player who maybe their performance level isn’t what it used to be and it’s hard to take sometimes. But he’s going to push you and try to maximize what you’ve got,” Reid said of Bieniemy at a news conference. “That’s one of his strengths. He’s no different than he is with you guys, he’s going to shoot you straight. Sometimes you want to hear it and sometimes you don’t.

“I’m a big LeSean fan. In my eyes he’s a future Hall of Fame running back, if you look statistically, he’s tremendous. But he wasn’t the youngest pup in the kennel here, he was on the backside, and sometimes that’s hard to take.”

Reid was asked if he has any qualms with Bieniemy’s coaching style and if that had possibly kept him from being a head coach.

“No, you’ve been here. You’ve seen it, how he does it,” Reid said. “You see the love that the players have for him. He’s got all these guys standing up for him and saying positive things. That’s what it is. He’s a heck of a football coach. I’m disappointed he hasn’t had a chance, but I’m optimistic that he’s going to have one in the future.”

Former Chiefs safety Ron Parker didn’t think that McCoy should have shared criticism of Bieniemy. “Buddy time was up man that’s it.. Don’t do dat!” Parker wrote on Twitter.