When Mike McDaniel got hired to become the Miami Dolphins head coach before the 2022 season, he was considered a diversity hire for the NFL.
Even with his light skin complexion, McDaniel was still labeled a minority candidate. The reason is because of having a biracial background stemming from his parents.
Details on Mike McDaniel’s Parents
McDaniel is the son of Donna and Mike Sr., who birthed him in Aurora, Col.
The Dolphins’ head coach’s mother was Caucasian, while his father was African-American. That’s how McDaniel received his racial makeup.
Unfortunately for McDaniel, tragedy came early for him at a young age involving one parental figure. His father died in a car crash when McDaniel was only four.
Donna McDaniel carried the parent load as a single mother raising just him. But one outlet McDaniel had was Northern Colorado University, best known as the former site of the Denver Broncos training camp.
Did McDaniel’s Mom Remarry?
Living near the Broncos turned out to be the best thing for McDaniel and his mother.
McDaniel would regularly attend the franchise’s training camp, which ran from 1982 to 2002. He even helped share a story via 9 News Denver about how he met a future connection through the Broncos.
McDaniel was once driven to tears after losing his hat after a camp practice. He had hoped to get the autograph of Robert Delpino, who played for Denver. A Broncos videographer named Gary McCune noticed the sight of a sobbing McDaniel, then went ahead and bought him a new hat the following day at the nearby Greeley Mall.
McCune ended up becoming a part of McDaniel’s family tree. The future Dolphins head coach introduced McCune to his mother, and the two ultimately became a couple.
Now, after marrying Donna, McCune is McDaniel’s stepdad. McDaniel’s encounter with McCune also led to this new job for him — ballboy for the Broncos.
He roamed the sidelines while Mike Shanahan was head coach, where he frequently ran into Kyle Shanahan, the future San Francisco 49ers head coach and a past coaching boss of McDaniel’s.
And McDaniel was around the Broncos during a time when John Elway, Shannon Sharpe, Steve Atwater, and later, a young Terrell Davis were all on the field.
McCune and McDaniel’s mom, meanwhile, met in 1993 through the current Dolphins head coach and have been together since. McDaniel was in junior high when his mom remarried.
Donna worked numerous jobs to help support her son financially. She even bought him a red Mustang when he turned 16, per a January 2024 article by ESPN spotlighting the pivotal adult figures in McDaniel’s life. She eventually helped raise a future Ivy League walk-on football player at Yale.
Now, the world knows McDaniel as a family man once raised by his widowed mother and the coaching leader of the Dolphins.