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New Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel Talks About What He Identifies As At Introductory Press Conference

SGKing

Miami Dolphins new head coach Mike McDaniel adjusts his glasses as he answers questions from journalists at an introductory press conference, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, in Miami Gardens, Fla. The Miami Dolphins announced on Feb. 6 that they had hired San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator McDaniel as their new head coach. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Mike McDaniel is biracial, something that he doesn’t think about all too often.

The New Dolphins head coach according to the NFL, a minority. That matters because the NFL has specific rules about minority coaches, including that the 49ers will receive two third-round draft picks for helping to develop a minority assistant coach to the point where another team hired him to be its head coach.

But McDaniel looks white to most who see him. And there’s been some trolling on social media about whether McDaniel is “really” a minority.

For McDaniel himself, he wishes people would just identify him as human.

“It’s been very odd, to tell you the truth, this idea of ‘identifying’ as something,” McDaniel said when asked about it today. “I think people identify me as something, but I identity as a human being and my dad is Black. So whatever you want to call it, I know there’s a lot of people with a shared experience. It’s weird that it comes up because I’ve just tried to be a good person. And I think my background opens my eyes a little bit. I don’t have any real experience with racism because I think you identify me as something close to — I don’t know. I know my mom experienced it when she married my dad. I know my dad experienced it, that’s in my family. But I guess that makes me a human being that can identify with other people’s problems.”

It’s an awkward question and McDaniel would clearly prefer to be talking about football.

Mike McDaniel seems like an awesome human.

Seems pretty funny too.

Best of luck coach!

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