Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel clarifies story about threatening to cut a player who was dancing with his future wife

The star of the NFL’s first-ever “Black Friday” game was Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel. The reason, however, had nothing to do with Miami’s 34-13 thumping of the Jets. 

During Amazon’s broadcast, play-by-play legend Al Michaels divulged considerable air time to Miami’s second-year head coach. After breaking down McDaniel’s unique wardrobe, Michaels shared a story about how McDaniel met his future wife after threatening to cut a player. 

The story dates to 2010 when McDaniel was the running backs coach for the United Football League’s Sacramento Mountain Lions. That season, the team went to a club to celebrate a win over Omaha. 

We’ll let Michaels take it from here. 

“One of the running backs that he coaches is dancing with a girl, and Mike says, ‘Listen, you’re not dancing with her anymore or you’re not playing with his team next year. So the guy says, ‘What can I do? 

“So then McDaniel starts dancing with her. That’s the beginning of the story. Four years later, they’re married. Katie, that’s how he met her.” 

This week, McDaniel added some context to the situation, calling it a, “Cool, lighthearted story that took a [ugly] turn,” per SI.com. 

“The skeleton of the story is correct, but there are a couple of important caveats,” McDaniel said.

Beginning with the threat to cut running back Steve Baylark, McDaniel said it was a joke.

“It was in jest,” McDaniel said. “My wife was talking about me stealing people’s girl. The dude had met her for 45 seconds. … It was a very unique scenario. It was a special place in our memories.

“I feel like I was painted out to be a D-bag,” McDaniel said. “It wasn’t like that at all. It was nice and easy. We were celebrating as a team. I think Steve Baylark was well aware when I made that joke in jest it was more important to me than it was to him. And I’m pretty sure I was right. I have a family now.”

Michaels’ story only adds to the legend of McDaniel, a former Yale walk-on receiver whose first taste of the NFL was as a ballboy for the Denver Broncos in the mid-1990s. 

The story of how McDaniel became a ballboy is pretty epic, too. McDaniel grew up not far from where the Broncos used to hold training camp. During a morning practice, he received an autograph from running back Robert Delpino. Players didn’t normally sign multiple times for the same fan, so McDaniel — wanting a second autograph from Delpino — took off his “loud” (his words) Charlotte Hornets cap so that Delpino wouldn’t recognize him. 

McDaniel’s plan worked … sort of. He got the autograph, but he lost his hat. That, however, turned into a life-altering moment in more ways than one. 

A member of the Broncos staff witnessed McDaniel, who was distraught over his lost hat. While the hat was never found, the staff member gave McDaniel a new Hornets cap. That staff member not only helped McDaniel become a ball boy, he ended up marrying his mother. 

The Broncos’ gig jump-started a unique journey for McDaniel, who is hoping this season to help Miami punch its first ticket to the Super Bowl since Dan Marino’s season season.