Mike McDaniel had his eyes on the prize and wasn’t going to let anybody get in his way of finding love.
During the NFL’s inaugural Black Friday game between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Jets, Prime Video’s Al Michaels told a hilarious story of the Miami Dolphins head coach and how he met his wife. It happened during his time as running backs coach for the Sacramento Mountain Lions in the United Football League.
McDaniel noticed that one of his running backs was dancing with his future wife so he used his position on the team to get what he wanted.
“They blow out Omaha, they go to a nightclub to celebrate,” Michaels said. “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 this team next year.'”
Michaels said the player backed off and he proceeded to jump in and start dancing.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
Four years later in 2014, that girl from the club, Katie Hemstalk, became McDaniel’s wife.
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross never heard that story until Michaels told him ahead of Friday’s game.
“I told [Dolphins owner] Stephen Ross before the game, and he said ‘What? That’s the best story I’ve ever heard,'” Michaels said.
Mike and Katie McDaniel have been married since 2014, and had their first daughter together in 2020.
This story only adds to his growing legend as he is a former Yale walk-on receiver whose first taste of the NFL was as a ballboy for the Denver Broncos in the mid-1990s.
