When he was 24, Brian McDermott set his sights on becoming a professional rugby player. He tried out with Bradford Northern (who later became the Bradford Bulls), but there was no money in the budget to sign him to a full-time contract, so McDermott took the coach’s offer, sticking around and continuing his training.

One day at the gym, while he was hitting his punching bag, McDermott received an offer to participate in a professional boxing match. The stipulations were simple. He would have three weeks to prepare for the fight. He wouldn’t know who his opponent was in advance. And most important, he was going to be paid 600 quid for it.

“And that’s what I did to pay the bills,” McDermott says. A professional boxing career might have been in his future, but maybe it was never meant to be. McDermott knocked out his opponent, but broke his hand in the process, halting any momentum for another fight. So, he returned to training for Bradford where he was eventually offered a contract.

Twenty five years later, McDermott is the head coach of the Toronto Wolfpack, and he’s no longer looking for a job just to pay the bills. Between 2011 and 2018, McDermott led Leeds Rhinos, a Super League giant, to eight trophies, including four Super League titles. Last season McDermott was let go in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, putting an end to one of the most successful coach-franchise partnerships in the sport.

The firing was disappointing, but McDermott also wasn’t rushing to the phone to field every single offer. “I wasn’t sure what my next move would be,” McDermott says. “I just knew it couldn’t be a usual job. I couldn’t turn around and go coaching somewhere for the sake of coaching.”

He needed a challenge, and perhaps no one understood what would be the best career move for McDermott more than his close friend Brian Noble, a former teammate and coach and the director of rugby for the Wolfpack. When Noble made his pitch, McDermott was intrigued, but still needed some questions answered.

The Wolfpack are based in Canada but compete in a European rugby league, making them the first transatlantic team in sports. They are also only in their third year of existence. “It’s a new concept,” Noble says. “And nobody truly knows what it’s like on this side of the pond until they come.” Trusting his friendship with Noble and after a reassuring meeting with team owner David Argyle, McDermott was sold on the vision.

The undefeated boxer turned world-class head coach was headed to Toronto to take over the most fascinating experiment in rugby.

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The youngest of 10 kids, McDermott grew up in Wakefield, England. At age 15, McDermott drew his own path and joined the Royal Marines. He was situated in Northern Ireland and later fought in Iraq during the first Gulf War. After five years, McDermott left and decided to pursue a career as a professional rugby player. He spent the majority of his career at Bradford, before retiring at the age of 32 and transitioning to coaching. One of his earliest jobs was as an assistant coach to Tony Smith at Leeds.

“I was too narrow-minded,” McDermott says. “I was too short-sighted. You talk to any bloke that leaves the military, we have a particular view of life and of the world. Had I gone into a usual job where I worked with other members of society, I probably would have turned myself around quicker. I didn’t. I went straight from the military to being a sportsman. By the time I retired (from rugby) at the age of 32, I was probably still at the same intellectual level I was when I was 18.”

There were things he resisted, like when the entire coaching staff decided to get cell phones, McDermott refused. If Smith wanted to touch base with his assistant coach, he would have to dial his landline in the nighttime. “Whenever there’s a new fad,” McDermott says. “I fall on the skeptical side.”

That was just one example of his stubbornness. McDermott had ideas for how players could improve and tactical strategies for the team, and they were in retrospect the right ones, but they weren’t delivered in a way that made the team buy in. Smith kept telling McDermott he needed to change and adapt, until it finally hit him one day on the drive home from training.

“It probably took me too long,” McDermott says, although he doesn’t necessarily think the qualities that made him a work in progress was a bad thing, even today. “Some of that forthright, opinionated fucker that I am also makes me a good coach as well. It makes me a coach with conviction.”

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