Mike McDaniel has had many notable moments during his news conferences since becoming head coach of the Dolphins in 2022, but perhaps his most important came during the 2023 offseason.
At Dolphins training camp in July, the second-year coach was asked about the "adversity is opportunity" slogan that he has frequently mentioned during his time with the team.
The 40-year-old gave an honest answer as to why that doctrine is so important to him.
“The obsessiveness that I have with it (is) probably when I became sober,” he said, per The Palm Beach Post.
That marked the first time as a head coach McDaniel spoke about his sobriety and battle with alcoholism.
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McDaniel had been open about his story in the past. When the Falcons were playing in Super Bowl 51 against the Patriots, he spoke to Tom Pelissero — then with USA TODAY — about his battle and detailed how members of the Atlanta coaching staff, including Dan Quinn, got him the help he needed to get sober.
He also explained as a part of that story that he showed up to work on Saturdays "smelling like booze." And when he was in Cleveland, head coach Mike Pettine found empty bottles of cheap vodka under his desk.
Indeed, McDaniel has been an open book about his addiction, and his vulnerability has served as an inspiration to his players, colleagues, contemporaries and fans. Here's what he has said about his journey to sobriety over the years.
Mike McDaniel's battle with alcoholism
Looking back, McDaniel realizes that his first brush with addiction came during the early stages of his career with the Texans.
McDaniel worked as part of Gary Kubiak's staff in Houston from 2006 through 2008. He explained that Kubiak was "very regimented" and that he would call McDaniel — then an offensive assistant — every morning on his office phone at 6 a.m.
"There was two occasions where that just kept ringing," McDaniel said in a recent ESPN interview. "And I'd show up in a panic 45 minutes later because I was sleeping at the time."
The reason that McDaniel had overslept? He was out partying the night before.
While he didn't think much of it, Kubiak did. That led the long-time Texans coach to fire McDaniel in 2008 after three seasons with the club.
"By his words, he thought that I had to learn a life lesson," McDaniel said of his dismissal. "In my mind. I was late twice."
McDaniel retrospectively understood what Kubiak's goal was in letting him go.
What he was telling me was you do whatever it takes to get things done. Your priorities are a little mixed up and you're going out too much. And I think you need to get that figured out.
But at just 25 years old, McDaniel was not yet ready to give up alcohol.
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"I wasn't at the stage of my life to kind of like admit to that," he explained. "It was already hard enough to lose a dream job. And I just hated that feeling. I was embarrassed."
So, what did McDaniel do? He changed up his routine. He started getting up before the sun rose to get to work. He was out of the NFL for 865 days but used that time to rebuild his career with the now-defunct Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League (UFL).
That allowed McDaniel to eventually break back into the league as an offensive assistant in Washington. And he eventually coached with Kyle Shanahan in Cleveland and Atlanta, too.
But still, during that six-year period, McDaniel detailed that he was drinking "every night."
I just thought it was just to have fun," he said. "And then you start questioning, 'OK, well, you know, why is this coming up again?' Why am I drinking alcohol in the office on a Wednesday night? Which is what was happening in Atlanta in 2015.
It made me look in the mirror. I was this close to losing a job that I had changed my life format for. But this time that I was risking my career, unlike in Houston, I had to tell my now wife, 'You moved across the country and our livelihood's in balance.'
So, at that point, McDaniel knew that he had to make a change to achieve his ultimate goal and keep his life on track. As mentioned, the Falcons helped him to do that and provided him with the resources he needed to get sober.
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When did Mike McDaniel become sober?
In 2016, McDaniel checked into a rehabilitation center and spent three years there while being treated for alcohol abuse.
There, McDaniel found peace. He also discovered what he believes was the underlying reason for his addiction.
"It was a whole deep dive into myself, and [I realized] that I was using alcohol to like just check out," McDaniel said. "So I didn't have to deal with the problems."
What were those problems? As McDaniel explained, he was comparing himself to his other young contemporaries and routinely found himself coming up short of their goals.
"I was chasing Kyle Shanahan when I was 23 and he was 26," he said. "Then we get to Washington. Now, the chase is a marathon because I have Sean McVay and Matt LaFleur. Your sole purpose is to try to be as good as there is at something and then you have people that are like you that are doing better at it, as they progressed, and I maybe went here and then came back, those problems seem to be failures to me.
"I was worried about the wrong stuff and trying to chase things that didn't matter."
And so, McDaniel recalibrated his life. He remained sober and saw major changes in his life.
“All of a sudden my product as a human being, as a husband, as a coach, was a completely better product and something that I think those lessons really, in that time in my life, sealed the deal for me," he said in July, per the Palm Beach Post.
That has allowed McDaniel to rise up the NFL's coaching ranks, first with the 49ers and then with the Dolphins. Now, he has established himself as one of the NFL's best and brightest head coaches.
But leading "The Greatest Show on Surf" wouldn't have been possible without McDaniel's dedication to his sobriety.
