The temperature had already surpassed 90 degrees on Thursday morning in Woodland Hills when two familiar faces from the Los Angeles sports universe appeared along the Rams’ sideline. 

Steve Kerr and Frank Vogel weren’t there to give the Rams pointers on their jumpers or diagram a new out-of-bounds play. They actually came to watch the Super Bowl favorites practice against the Saints under the watchful eye of the youngest head coach to win a championship in NFL history. 

The longtime Warriors head coach and his newly hired associate head coach were surprise guests of Sean McVay and the Rams, watching from the sidelines as the teams practiced against each other during a roughly 90-minute session at the Rams’ facility. 

“Steve’s a guy that I’ve been friends with for a while, and I love everything about how he leads, how he enjoys it, how he stays connected with his players,” McVay said of Kerr. “He and Frank Vogel are out here today, and I’ll look forward to connecting with those guys after this.”

And standing there on the sidelines was coaching royalty with 11 combined championships between them. 

Kerr has won nine NBA championships — five as a player and four coaching Golden State — while Vogel guided the Lakers to the 2020 NBA title. McVay, meanwhile, became the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl in 2022 and built the Rams into one of the NFL’s model organizations.

For Kerr and Vogel, Thursday’s trip also carried strong Southern California ties. Kerr grew up in the Pacific Palisades and graduated from Palisades High School in 1983. His childhood home, where his family had lived since 1969, was destroyed in the devastating Palisades Fire in January 2025, though his 90-year-old mother was safely evacuated. 

Vogel has maintained an offseason home in Manhattan Beach, a residence he purchased after becoming the head coach of the Lakers in 2019. He returned to the NBA coaching ranks last season as an assistant with the Mavericks and recently joined the Warriors as Kerr’s associate head coach with Vogel expected to play a significant role in shaping Golden State’s defense. 

Thursday offered the two basketball minds a front-row seat to McVay’s operation, and at the center of it is reigning NFL MVP Matthew Stafford. 

Stafford looked sharp against the Saints on Thursday, connecting repeatedly with Davante Adams. 

“You don’t take for granted how important that rapport is,” McVay said of the Stafford-Adams connection. “No matter how great you are, you’ve got two great players. You’ve got to be able to get those reps, and repetition is the mother of learning. They’ve got a great feel [for each other]. I think today was a really good day for those guys being able to connect against tight, sticky coverage.”

Meanwhile, Rams stars Puka Nacua and Myles Garrett did not participate in the joint practice and continued to do individual work on the side. Tight end Davis Allen and offensive lineman Keagan Trost also did not participate because of injuries. Several Saints players exited during the sweltering practice, but the Rams escaped without any new injuries.

After practice, Kerr and Vogel met privately with McVay, turning an otherwise routine August joint practice into a fascinating collision of coaching philosophies. Three championship coaches. Three different paths. Two sports. And presumably enough ideas bouncing around that room to fill several whiteboards.

“It’s really cool to be able to share,” McVay said of his discussions with Kerr and Vogel over the years. “We’ve gotten connected through mutual friends. And everything that he’s about and the way that he feels like he’s in it with his players and just the caliber of the human being that he is, I’ve learned a lot from Steve.”

What exactly did they discuss? Defensive concepts? Building culture? Managing superstar personalities? Keeping championship windows open without allowing success to make an organization comfortable?

Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that meeting.

But that mystery is what made the scene compelling. Great coaches steal from great coaches, even when the ball is shaped differently.

The Rams and Saints will meet Saturday at 1 p.m. at SoFi Stadium for their second preseason game. The Rams’ starters are not expected to play.

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