Mike McDaniel might be the most entertaining man in the NFL right now, and that means you might never know what he’s going to say next.
In this latest case, he took quite a shot — albeit a playful one — at a Dolphins legend and Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Before Sunday’s thrilling win over the Cowboys, the Miami head coach was captured by HBO’s “Hard Knocks” cameras hyping up the captains to his team while also talking some smack with Dan Marino, inarguably the franchise’s greatest player.
The ex-Dolphins quarterback, standing in his Hall of Fame jacket, shook hands with the current signal-caller Tua Tagovailoa, and prompted the 25-year-old to beat the Cowboys and to “Go get their ass.”
But as the team stood on the sidelines next to Marino, McDaniel, 40, admired three of his captains — Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and Xavien Howard — and jokingly said the current team was coming for the former man under center.
“Our captains are really f–king good players, holy s–t — look at these f–king studs,” McDaniel said. “We’ve even got Dan Marino. Yeah, Dan Marino, f–k your records, Dan. We’re coming for your records.”
It’ll be quite a chore to top Marino, 62, who has plenty of ink in the Dolphins’ record books, including most passing yards (5,084) and touchdowns (48) in a single season.
With two games left, it’ll almost be impossible for Tagovailoa to reach either mark, but he does have a chance at at least getting close to the passing yards mark with 4,214 this season — already the most for a non-Marino quarterback in franchise history.
Even if the Dolphins don’t break any of his major records this year, Marino did have some gifts for the quarterbacks for the holidays.
As seen in “Hard Knocks,” Marino visited the quarterbacks’ room and was gifted some wine while he handed out Isotoner gloves — which he famously marketed in the 1980s and ’90s — to the guys in the room.
Whether or not the gloves or his presence gave the Dolphins extra buzz, the team knocked off the Cowboys, 22-20, and clinched a spot in the playoffs.
Miami has a shot the Super Bowl in earnest now — something Marino never won in the NFL.
Read more
