MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The love between Mike McDaniel and Dan Quinn here Thursday was thicker than the humidity.
Miami Dolphins head coach McDaniel welcomed Washington Commanders head coach Quinn to town for a joint practice Thursday. And they sent each other brotastic Valentines during their respective pre-practice news conferences.
The Enduring Dan Quinn-Mike McDaniel Friendship
“I love Mike,” Quinn told a group of reporters.
“Can you tell Dan Quinn through the internet that I love him more?” McDaniel replied, speaking to a different group of reporters a few hundred yards away.
Quinn and McDaniel remain close despite spending just two seasons working together (2015-16), when Quinn was head coach of the Atlanta Falcons and McDaniel was an offensive assistant.
It was midway through that two-year partnership that Quinn helped change the trajectory of not just McDaniel’s career, but his entire life.
McDaniel, then in his early 30s, had long battled a drinking problem that had already cost him one NFL job a few years earlier. He knew he needed to get himself clean and knew to ask Quinn for help.
The Falcons helped connect McDaniel with a treatment facility that gave him the tools to get — and stay — sober. Without that course correction, it’s hard to envision McDaniel would have ever been an NFL head coach.
That’s not us saying that. McDaniel believes the same.
“It just so happened that it was under his leadership that I had a crossroads in my life,” McDaniel told reporters this week. “And to have somebody that supports you, that pushes you in the direction of ‘No, you can,’ that believes in you, and that decides on his own accord that you’re worth investing in and believing in — how big of a deal is that? It’s everything.
“It wouldn’t be honest to say I’d be here if it weren’t for him, along with a ton of other people, but I don’t know where my career would have gone if I didn’t have the fortune of being under his leadership.”
Quinn doubled down on his faith in McDaniel by not just welcoming him back with open arms after his time in rehab ended, but giving him added responsibility.
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“I think all of us need teammates,” Quinn said. “So that was nothing different than just trying to be a good teammate.
“Mike did the work, but all of us have had spots that we need people to support us. I was glad to step into that gap to help support him and his family when he needed it, and I know he would do the same in return.”
Talking to both coaches this week, the bond between Quinn and McDaniel is undeniable. Beyond a personal affinity, there’s great respect the men professionally.
Quinn has long been struck by McDaniel’s innovation and preparedness. McDaniel said that Quinn has had “a gigantic influence on my career.”
He added: “Two years can be a short time, or it can be a very, very impactful time. I was with Dan in Atlanta for two years, and from a head coaching perspective, he approached the job from a different angle that kind of fit what I think you guys see today from a lot of vantage points, the culture, the energy, setting the tonality on a daily basis.
“These are things that, you know, the guys that worked for Dan, it was something that you really held on to. And I know I’ve held on to it for all the years since.”