MADRID — Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel stated he’s “ceaselessly indebted” to Dan Quinn as a result of the Washington Commanders coach helped steer him towards sobriety.
Sunday’s sport between the Dolphins and Commanders will mark the primary time McDaniel and Quinn will meet as head coaches, almost 10 years after Quinn pulled a spiraling McDaniel apart and confronted him about his ingesting.
“Dan Quinn holds a particular place in my coronary heart and my profession,” McDaniel stated Wednesday. “I feel he was there at floor zero after I grew to become sober and supported me and gave me the chance to proceed what I like to do. So for that, I will be ceaselessly indebted to him.
“I feel it speaks to the kind of chief he’s — I do know he actually touches each participant he coaches from a real, genuine standpoint. I feel the Commanders are very lucky to have him.”
On Jan. 4, 2016, then-Atlanta Falcons coaches Quinn, Kyle Shanahan and Raheem Morris all sat McDaniel down and instructed him they believed he was ingesting too typically — an evaluation McDaniel stated he agrees with.
The conversations got here after he was fired from his job as an offensive assistant with the Houston Texans, partially due to his ingesting and the way it was impacting his efficiency. He spent 865 days out of the NFL earlier than Shanahan introduced him onto his offensive workers with Washington in 2011.
McDaniel stated he needed to relay the coaches’ message to his spouse, Katie, whose look of disappointment drove him to vary his life.
“It was that second that I stated, ‘I’ll by no means drink once more,'” McDaniel instructed HBO’s “Exhausting Knocks” in 2023.
McDaniel has been sober since that day, he stated.
Talking from Madrid on Wednesday, Quinn stated he’s happy with the work McDaniel has performed on himself.
“For all of us, when there’s a problem, generally you do not need to let somebody you are with know,” Quinn stated. “You are relying on them, they’re relying on you. However leaning in is the largest power you are able to do. In that house, all you need to do is assist and provides help, after which the actual work begins for the individual in that spot.
“That is precisely what Mike did. He stated that is what I am engaged on and the way I will do it, and that is when the actual work begins. A part of the rationale I am so happy with him is that is one thing that is occurring and that is how I will take care of it, and I will keep linked to that. … It takes a number of guts to try this, and that is one of many causes I am actual happy with him.”
ESPN’s John Keim contributed to this story.