What stood out most were the chuckles. How often have you heard regular chuckling during a Miami Dolphins coach’s introductory news conference?
Mike McDaniel would be asked about some football topic like his coaching tree, and he’d thank the likes of NFL coaches Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay for making him a better coach. Then he’d drop an added thought.
“They didn’t make me a better father — I did that on my own,’’ he said.
Or he was asked about his “fun” personality in a larger football question about his coaching style and circled back to that.
“I didn’t know it was fun — that was fun to hear,” he said.
Chuckles came again. They were not loud. They did not break the laughter threshold. But there they were — quiet, affirming chuckles about someone who doesn’t sound like a so-serious football coach. Or act like one. Or look like one, either, his small frame behind thick-rimmed glasses.
“I wrote on the inside of my Little League helmet I would be in the NFL at some point,’’ he said. “I didn’t say I’d play in it.”
God, I hope this works.
Witty? Smart? Fun — with football?
In some ways, this is the opposite game most teams play in hiring coaches and the Dolphins are long-versed in. Out goes a wunderkind offensive mind like Adam Gase, so in comes a dictator defensive personality like Brian Flores. Out goes Flores’ humorless personality, so in comes a coach who hears reporters’ questions preceded by a welcome and …
“That’s my fifth ‘Welcome to Miami,’ and I’m feeling welcome,’’ he said. “I’m just waiting for you to bust out the lyrics of ‘Welcome to Miami.’ ‘’
Again, chuckles. Is he a head coach? Can he command a room? Is he ready, at 38, to be the face of an organization? Who is McDaniel on a field where 53 players and a couple dozen coaches have to be managed?
You’re not going to get those answers the first day. But this has to be a home-run hire for the Dolphins if he is to help steer them out of continued mediocrity and a franchise under legal fire from Flores. McDaniel sees no issue over owner Steve Ross being accused of offering $100,000 for Flores to lose games.
“No red flags,’’ the new coach said.
No reason why he would. He signed a life-changing contract in the neighborhood of $30 million. This was a milestone day for McDaniel, his first head-coaching job. His eyes teared up, as he mentioned those closest to him. There was his long-time friend in the front row, then his wife, Katie, with their 16-month-old daughter.
“We’ve come a long way,’’ he said to Katie. “We have a long way to go.”
Her eyes were misting now.
“Don’t do that to me,’’ he said. “I’m trying to do a press conference.”
For most of football, the dictator coach style of Bill Belichick has ruled the game. Now a Brat Pack of the likes of McVay, Shanahan and Matt LaFleur is trying their imprint. McDaniel is part of that. He went to Yale.
“I know Yale has sick athletes …” he said.
He grew up on 27th Avenue in Greeley, Colo.
“And we find ourselves on 27th Avenue here,’’ he says of the Dolphins’ facility.
If it takes intelligence to have humor, McDaniel also understands his role. He told of coaching Houston Texans receivers at 23 — meaning coaching Houston’s great Andre Johnson. That’s where he discovered, a “simple formula,’’ he said.
“You establish early that you can help them with their dream,’’ he said. “If you establish with them early on you have value to their goal, you can coach them.”
That’s true — for the most part. Players also react differently. Some react well to intellectual coaching. Some react to the cracked whip of a lion tamer. A position coach can do that one way. A head coach needs to have every tool in the box.
McDaniel comes to the Dolphins at an awkward moment. Flores was fired after two winning seasons. The Dolphins’ brain trust that was trying to dispatch quarterback Tua Tagovailoa four months ago now loudly says he’s their guy.
Ross, too, is centerpiece of an embarrassing lawsuit from the former coach whom he introduced with the same hope three years ago that he did McDaniel. Ross didn’t take questions Thursday. He did say McDaniel was here to be part of a Dolphins organization, “winning Super Bowls … [pause] …. first we have to win our conference and division games.”
No one chuckled there. That’s the flat truth. Everyone looks good on Day One. Joe Philbin looked sage. Gase looked new-age. Flores looked strong. McDaniel looked witty and intelligent enough to bring chuckles.
Let’s hope this way works.
