On the surface, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel wouldn’t seem to have much in common with former Patriots coach Bill Belichick. They have one big similarity, however.
Both will call out their best players in front of the team, without hesitation.
Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill explained during an appearance on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast that McDaniel called Hill out after Hill was manhandled by Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed in this year’s playoff loss.
“The play against Sneed,” Hill said, via FinsXtra on X. “The Chiefs, everybody see this play against the Chiefs. When the mutherfucker slammed me to the floor? He called me out. He like, “‘Reek, bro, you’re supposed to be the fucking best player in the fucking league and you got this guy putting hands all over you like that. We pay you all this money for what?’ And for me, I love shit like that. I’m gonna take that shit to heart and I’m gonna get better from it. That’ll never happen again to me in my life, man. You feel me? If a mutherfucker cannot hold me accountable, I feel like I’m not gonna be able to get better, you know what I’m saying? Like, obviously, the coaches can bypass that, you know what I’m saying, and just be like, ‘Ah, he’ll get better from it.’ But if he’s not saying nothing, like the other guys in the locker room, they’re gonna look at it as, ‘Oh, if Reek can do it, I can do it.’ And that’s not getting the team better.”
Since the play happened during the first half of the game, McDaniel presumably let Hill hear it during halftime.
For Belichick, it’s the kind of thing that would be featured in the first meeting of 2024, too. It’s a perfect tone setter to let everyone on the team know there are no sacred cows, and that everyone is eligible to get ripped publicly and loudly.
