Mike McDaniel may look like a Silicon Valley tech bro trying to pull you into a conversation about crypto, but before he hit it big in the NFL, he was a ball boy for his hometown Broncos. And, thanks to 9 News Denver, who just resurfaced a story that ran on McDaniel over 20 years ago, we now know what the Dolphins coach looked like in his youth. Here’s a teenage McDaniel, in all his early 2000s glory, doing millennials proud with a buzzcut and hoop earrings he must have borrowed from Slim Shady.
As a nine-year-old, McDaniel lost his hat while attending Broncos training camp at the University of Northern Colorado, searching high and low for the missing cap before bursting into tears. Broncos video operations assistant Gary McCune surprised him with a new one the next day, prompting McDaniel to introduce him to his mother, Donna. They later married with McCune helping McDaniel get his ball boy gig while attending Smoky Hill High School in nearby Aurora.
McDaniel returned to the Broncos after graduating Yale, serving as an intern under then-head coach Mike Shanahan. During that time, he developed a close bond with Shanahan’s son, Kyle, following him to Houston, Washington, Cleveland, Atlanta and finally, San Francisco.
McDaniel’s unlikely origin story feels like something out of a Hollywood script, but all anyone could talk about on Twitter was his resemblance to SNL star Pete Davidson.
This will be McDaniel’s first head coaching job after previously serving as 49ers offensive coordinator. The 38-year-old replaces Brian Flores, whose firing has been the subject of much controversy.
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