Quirky Football Coach or Accidental Leadership Philosopher?

The Miami Dolphins’ head coach Mike McDaniel is a treasure. 

He has an interesting background in coaching. He played football at Yale, and then found himself attached to a group of rising young coaches who were all considered innovators. 

He's also a recovering alcoholic, which was covered in this ESPN feature. One indication of his personality: After getting to work late because of his past drinking problem, McDaniel pledged to himself that he would avoid wasting opportunities, which manifests in leaving for work before 3 a.m..

But mostly, McDaniel is a quirky guy who casually delivers funny and interesting observations on a regular basis. And that's why I found myself watching a video of McDaniel's press conference this Wednesday. In just over 20 minutes, he unleashed several gems. 

The first gem was in response to a reporter’s question about whether McDaniel anticipated a player would recover from an injury in time for Sunday's game. 

McDaniel: "Ooh! That's several days ahead of us.... Do you guys know what today is?"

Reporter: "Wednesday?"

McDaniel: "Which is….?"

[reporter answers off mic]

McDaniel: "There he is! It's the most important day of our life, because it's the only one that actually exists."

Later, a reporter asked McDaniel about his reactions when referees’ decisions don’t go his way. McDaniel’s response (about 10:30 into the video) is a masterclass in balanced leadership and decision-making. 

He said, “I never attach any emotion to [bad officiating decisions] because it already happened. [...] I have a hard time even factoring officiating into any sort of emotions that I have because you control [only] what you can control. I might as well get mad at thunder.” 

McDaniel goes on to describe why it is important for him not to allow frustrating moments to distract him during games: 

“I think the only way that you have a chance to maximize your daily output is if you allow [those incidents] to live rent free. [..] I try to minimize how long that is to the nth degree, just because emotions factor into decisions, and I feel like, personally, that's irresponsible of me as a decision-maker to have all these people—including you guys—be affected by decisions that I make. ‘Well, I was mad!’”

He concludes the response with a line that I’ve repeated to my kids every day this week:

"I try to avoid outs and say[ing], well, 'it's not fair.' If you operate in life trying to keep score of what's fair, you've already lost.”