Mike McDaniel has a habit of making others laugh with his press conferences through his witty humor and off-the-wall quotes. But the Miami Dolphins head coach nearly got NFL Network personality Rich Eisen in tears during a production meeting.
Rich Eisen Describes Emotional Story With Mike McDaniel
Speaking from a hotel Saturday on his Rich Eisen Show from Frankfurt, Germany, ahead of the highly anticipated Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs showdown, Eisen described a production meeting unlike any other.
It was one where he and others nearly lost their composure, all due to the second-year Dolphins head coach describing his relationship with his quarterback, which struck an emotional tone in the room.
MORE: Liberated Tua Tagovailoa Reveals How Toxic It Was Playing for Brian Flores
“Unbeknownst to anyone in that room, Mike McDaniel was just 20 minutes removed, when he said that, from wiping tears from his eyes and causing all of us in the room to get choked up also,” Eisen described.
Through Eisen’s words, McDaniel recounted his memories of being raised by a single mother to help articulate how special his quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is to him — where McDaniel finally feels like he’s giving love to a sibling he’s never had.
“I even wrote down what he said, that he had an unshakeable faith in Tua, and throwing love in his direction is something that an only child with no siblings can relate to,” Eisen said.
McDaniel’s experiences growing up have come to light during his rise as an NFL head coach. The head coach shared how his mother’s instilling of a strong belief in him as a child has now been placed by McDaniel on Tagovailoa’s shoulders.
“His own mother, in his upbringing, kept telling [McDaniel] how special he was and how a parent telling a child how special he or she is is beyond powerful,” Eisen said.
“And the belief that somebody [else] has in them, placed in them by somebody who throws their arms around them, is a power that [McDaniel] knows as a coach he can deliver to every one of his players and felt that way about Tua from the jump, and said that Tua needed that and that Tua has thrived amongst the love that he is feeling.”
McDaniel Described the Moment That Gave Him Belief in Tagovailoa
For Tagovailoa, that love came during a time in which the quarterback was dealing with health concerns, uncertainty as to whether or not he should continue playing amid his controversial concussions, and constant criticism heard from fans before McDaniel’s time in Miami.
Eisen asked McDaniel what he saw in Tagovailoa that, perhaps, no one else saw. Eisen, who has been with the NFL Network since its inception in November 2003, described McDaniel’s words as a “soliloquy.”
“He saw somebody throw 20 different out routes against significant coverage on film. And these are the types of throws that, he said, make your heart go like this, and he pounded his chest. And he saw somebody that kept on throwing accurate footballs into windows few players can,” Eisen said.
McDaniel continued to describe a fearless quarterback to Eisen and Co.
“He was someone that could put the ball in certain windows, and he was somebody who also had absolutely zero fear in doing it,” Eisen said.
Another NFL Personality Inspired by McDaniel: “You’re Gonna Make Me Cry in Here”
Eisen wasn’t the only one who felt impacted by McDaniel’s description of Tagovailoa.
Eisen said Stacey Dales told the Dolphins head coach, “You’re gonna make me cry in here.”
Before joining the network as a sideline reporter, Dales was a standout basketball player at Oklahoma and played in the WNBA. She admitted in the room that she’s never had a coach speak in the rhetoric McDaniel used in illustrating his love for Tagovailoa.
“I would’ve ran through a wall for him,” Dales told Eisen.
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