Raheem Mostert Admits Mike McDaniel Failed Because He Wanted to Be Everybody's Pal and Players Want a Coach Who's 'Going to Lay the Hammer Down'
Rich Storry. Getty Images.I suppose I should feel a little guilty about continuing to beat up on Mike McDaniel. After all, he's no longer in my team's division. He's probably found the perfect niche for him, calling the offense for the Chargers. Maybe I should just leave well enough alone.
But no. When I'm right about something, and for a very long time:
…I'm going to indulge myself in a well-earned victory lap. Especially when the thing I've been right about is something as consequential as human nature.
I'm bringing up McDaniel right now because there is a lesson to be learned from his demise in Miami. One that I was trying to tell you all along. From the moment he became a media darling for his casual, Gen Z, tech bro demeanor, I said it couldn't last. That men don't respond to that "I'm a Cool Coach" style for long. Maybe software engineers do, though I doubt it. But not warriors.
The human brain hasn't undergone a rewiring. Men still want a strong leader. It was true when glaciers were covering the Earth, the cold produced huge mammals that could only be hunted in coordinated attacks with fierce men in charge of the hunting party. It stayed in our brains when Gilgamesh and later Sargon were leading armies in the same part of the world where combat operations are going on right now. And the one common trait all these fighting men share is they want to be led by someone tough and ruthless enough to get the job done. In Alexander's words, "An army of donkeys led by a lion will defeat an army of lions led by a donkey."
All of which was confirmed by one of McDaniel's most trusted soldiers:
Source - Raheem Mostert played for Mike McDaniel for five seasons when McDaniel was an assistant coach in San Francisco, and then Mostert played for McDaniel for three seasons when McDaniel was the head coach in Miami. Few players have spent as much time with McDaniel as Mostert has. And Mostert says McDaniel’s downfall as a head coach was in trying too hard to be a players’ coach.
Mostert told Colin Cowherd … McDaniel never figured out how to run a football team.
“He’s a great coach,” Mostert said. “If guys are talking, he’ll listen and give them some advice, but … I kind of feel bad for the players. When you have a coach that is so player friendly, it doesn’t really mix all that well. Look at the coaches in history, not just in the NFL, of all of these different sports franchises, they have coaches that implement toughness, resilience and that’s something that he kind of missed the mark on in being a head coach.”
Mostert referred to McDaniel as “nonchalant,” “laid back” and “a players’ coach” and said players respond better to a head coach whose attitude is, “We’re getting the job done, and it’s my way or the highway.” …
“As a player, I need somebody tough that’s going to lay the hammer down when it needs to be down and tell other players to get in line,” Mostert said. “When you don’t have that, that impact can definitely be detrimental.”
Exactly what I was saying when he was being lauded by the national football punditry as the new face of the NFL. The guy who is going to reinvent the wheel because he can relate to the first generation of players who grew up with an iPhone in their hands. I called him a fad. I said this "nonchalant, laid back" approach would catch up to him in time. And it took even less time than I predicted. Don't take it from me; take if from the player who's worked under him more than anybody.
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None of this means to coach you have to be a total degenerate asshole. No one's telling you to be the overseer of some Soviet Gulag, getting forced labor out of your work details. You can be friendly. You just can't be their friend. In the long run, people don't respond to that management style.
Mike Vrabel is a prime example of how to balance the two. He rules with an iron fist in a velvet glove:
He's proof you can be loved and feared.
Mike McDaniel isn't the guy whose going to inspire fear in anyone. And the next time someone comes along with the same approach, and the whole league seems to be falling in love with him, remember what I've been telling you all along and don't fall for it again.