Who is the Sean McVay lookalike lurking on the Rams' sideline?

[theramswire.usatoday.com]


Who is the Sean McVay lookalike lurking on the Rams' sideline?

Cameron DaSilva
August 22, 2021 9:42 am PT
If you’ve watched the Rams’ first two preseason games against the Chargers and Raiders, you may have noticed a Sean McVay lookalike on the sideline. You’re not alone.

Fans on Twitter have pointed out the coach’s apparent stunt double a number of times, making jokes about how closely this mystery man resembles McVay. It doesn’t help that he always seems to be lurking behind McVay when the camera cuts to the head coach on the sideline.


The memes started last week when the Rams played the Chargers and McVay’s shadow was spotted multiple times by the camera and they continued on Saturday night against the Raiders.

Here’s one of the first shots of McVay and his lookalike from Rams-Chargers.

McVay snuck his little brother onto the sidelines again… pic.twitter.com/1kBW6dreoc

— Rams Brothers (@RamsBrothers) August 15, 2021

And another of the two next to each other.

I wonder if Sean McVay knows he has a brother who also works for the Rams pic.twitter.com/or87T2FdOa

— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) August 15, 2021

And the memes rolled back out on Twitter Saturday during Rams-Raiders, with Warren Sharp’s tweet getting a significant amount of attention.

this emotionless McVay body double shadowing his every move is terrifying pic.twitter.com/jhgte5W9yk

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) August 22, 2021

There’s this one, too, which garnered more than 100 likes.

ME, MYSELF & IRENE (2000) pic.twitter.com/5VctLygIjj

— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) August 22, 2021

So who is this McVay lookalike? The head coach revealed last week that it’s the Rams’ assistant strength and conditioning coach Zach Witherspoon.

When the Rams practiced against the Raiders last week, McVay appeared to get hit by Micah Kiser along the sideline. But when he was asked about the play afterwards, he clarified that it wasn’t him who was hit and probably just his stunt double.

“Did I? I don’t know. I didn’t take a hit. What do I have a black eye or something?” McVay joked. “No, I’m good. Everything’s good. It might’ve been Zach Witherspoon, it wasn’t me. It was my stunt double.”

Witherspoon is in his first year as the Rams’ assistant strength coach. He started in February, his first job in the NFL.

According to his LinkedIn page, he’s also worked on New Mexico State University’s staff, currently in a role as the Director of Exercise Prescription/Director of Olympic Sports. He started at New Mexico State as a strength and conditioning intern in 2014 after interning at Athletes’ Performance in Los Angeles.

Here’s a video of Witherspoon talking about his role with New Mexico State during the pandemic last year, working with the men’s basketball team as the strength coach.

Coaches who work on McVay’s staff don’t seem to have any trouble earning jobs as coordinators and head coaches, but Witherspoon is entering new territory as a Sean McVay lookalike. He’ll be an NFL head strength coach no later than 2023, if history is any indication of what being friends with McVay can do.