Mike McDaniel: From Ball Boy to Balling
This past Sunday, the Denver Broncos lost 70-20 to the Miami Dolphins. The head coach for the Dolphins was their former ball boy.
Read that again.
Mike McDaniel was born and raised in Colorado, and was a big Broncos fan. In 2005, his first NFL job was as a coaching intern for his hometown Broncos.
Fast forward 17 years to January 2022, and Denver had a head coaching vacancy. At the time, McDaniel had made a name for himself as the star offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers. He was looking to be a head coach, and other teams were interested. But any hopes he had of coaching his favorite team were immediately destroyed.
The Broncos didn’t even give him an interview.
In Week 3, McDaniel led his Dolphins against those same Broncos – and no doubt McDaniel told his team what this game meant.
Because the Dolphins’ offense absolutely obliterated Denver:
- 726 yards (2nd-most all time)
- 10.2 yards per play
- 70 points (3rd-most all time, and most since 1966)
- 1st team in NFL history to score 70 AND record 700 yards of offense
For Mike McDaniel, this one was personal.
So remember – it’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish.
The bigger story, for me, is how Mike McDaniel overcame his alcohol addiction. NFL Countdown did a story on this with him and you can watch it below:
I hope this helped someone! Have the best weekend and finish strong!
– JB
Jacob Brown is a former NFL athlete turned transformational and motivational speaker with almost a decade of experience leading humans to overcome fear and fail forward in business, leadership and life.