Story at a glance
- The Miami Dolphins hired San Francisco 49ers’ offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel as the organization’s next head coach
- McDaniel is the first minority hire in the current head coaching cycle.
- McDaniel’s hiring follows a turbulent week for the Dolphins, where the team’s former head coach Brian Flores filed a suit against the organization.
The Miami Dolphins hired San Francisco 49ers’ offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel as the organization’s next head coach, making him the fourth minority coach currently at the helm of an NFL team.
San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel speaks during a news conference at NFL football training camp in Santa Clara, Calif., Thursday, July 29, 2021. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
The 38-year-old, who identifies as multi-racial, joins Washington Commanders’ Ron Rivera, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Mike Tomlin and the New York Jets’ Robert Saleh as the only minority head coaches in the 32-team league. McDaniel is the first minority hire in the current head coaching cycle.
McDaniel’s hiring follows a turbulent week for the Dolphins, where the team’s former head coach Brian Flores filed a suit against the organization. Flores, who is Black, is suing the Dolphins, two other teams and the league, alleging racist hiring practices and racial discrimination.
Flores also said that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered the then first-year head coach $100,000 for every loss as part of an alleged effort to obtain the first pick in the NFL draft. Ross has since issued a statement calling Flores’ claim “false, malicious and defamatory.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell issued a memo over the weekend, calling the lack of diversity among head coaches leaguewide “unacceptable,” amid the Flores controversy.
“We have made significant efforts to promote diversity and adopted numerous policies and programs which have produced positive change in many areas, however we must acknowledge that particularly with respect to head coaches the results have been unacceptable,” Goodell said.
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McDaniel has spent 15 seasons in the NFL after getting his start as an intern with the Denver Broncos in 2005. The Yale graduate then served three years as an offensive assistant for the Houston Texans and another three seasons as a receivers coach and offensive assistant for Washington. He then held stints with the Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons before heading to San Francisco in 2017.
The 49ers will receive two draft picks, as part of the Rooney Rule, for developing a minority assistant coach who then earned a head coaching position, ESPN reported. The Rooney Rule was introduced in 2003, initially requiring teams to interview at least one diverse candidate during a head coaching vacancy.
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