Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, currently navigating a challenging 3-7 season, has faced tougher battles in his life. On Sunday, as his team takes on the Washington Commanders, who also have a 3-7 record, McDaniel will have a poignant reminder of his personal journey when he sees a familiar face on the opposing sideline in Madrid.

“Dan Quinn holds a special place in my heart and my career,” McDaniel expressed on Wednesday about the Commanders’ head coach while in Madrid. “He was there with me at a crucial time when I decided to become sober. He supported me and gave me the opportunity to continue doing what I love. I am forever indebted to him for that.”

McDaniel went on to praise Quinn’s leadership, emphasizing, “He genuinely connects with every player he coaches. The Commanders are lucky to have a leader of his caliber,” McDaniel added, according to ESPN.

He expressed his gratitude to Quinn for an unexpected intervention back in 2016, during their time working together in Atlanta, which played a pivotal role in McDaniel’s journey to sobriety.

McDaniel said he is ‘forever indebted’ to Quinn for an impromptu intervention in 2016 when the former worked under the latter in Atlanta.

Along with then-Falcons assistants Kyle Shanahan and Raheem Morris, Quinn sat McDaniel down in January of 2016 and told the fledgling coach he was drinking too much.

Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, right, holds daughter, Ayla June, center, on the sidelines as his wife, Katie Hemstalk, left, stands nearby. McDaniel has been sober since January of 2016

Head coach Mike McDaniel of the Miami Dolphins and Dan Quinn of the Washington Commanders embrace after their preseason game at Hard Rock Stadium in 2024

McDaniel, a former Yale wide receiver who’d shown promise as an offensive assistant, took the message to heart and after speaking with his wife, decided he was done with alcohol.

Previously, in 2023, McDaniel opened up to ESPN’s NFL Countdown about his firing in Houston, the discovery of his empty bottles at the Cleveland Browns facility, as well as the smell of alcohol on his breath during meetings in Atlanta.

But it was his sit-down with Quinn as well as Shanahan and Quinn, now the head coaches in San Francisco and Atlanta, respectively, that ultimately made the difference for McDaniel.

‘It was that moment that I said, ‘I will never drink again,” McDaniel told HBO in 2023.

Nearly a decade later, McDaniel is still sober.

‘For all of us, when there’s an issue, sometimes you don’t want to let someone you’re with know,’ Quinn told reporters in Spain. 

Mike McDaniel was a Houston Texans assistant until 2008, when he was fired 

McDaniel is pictured in 2014 as a Brown assistant – two years before he would get sober

‘You’re counting on them, they’re counting on you. But leaning in is the biggest strength you can do. In that space, all you want to do is help and give support, and then the real work begins for the person in that spot.

‘That’s exactly what Mike did. He said this is what I’m working on and how I’m going to do it, and that’s when the real work begins.

‘Part of the reason I’m so proud of him is this is something that’s happening and this is how I’m going to deal with it, and I’m going to stay connected to that,’ Quinn continued. ‘It takes a lot of guts to do that, and that’s one of the reasons I’m real proud of him.’

McDaniel is now in his fourth season as the Dolphins’ head coach. He has a 31-30 record entering Sunday, but is rumored to be on the hot seat with his injury-plagued team managing just three wins in 10 games this season.