Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel purchased every team employee a game ball after his first career win

Miami’s 20-7 victory over the New England Patriots on Sept. 11, 2022, marked Mike McDaniel’s first win as a head coach in the National Football League.

McDaniel, 39, has worked towards this opportunity for most of his life. In fact, he wrote “I will make it!” inside of his youth football helmet. Miami’s first-year coach played wide receiver at Yale and began his NFL career as a coaching intern on the 2005 Denver Broncos.

General manager Chris Grier gave McDaniel the game ball after the win against New England. Moments later, McDaniel announced that he was getting everyone a game ball.

“This one, this is one we can remember,” McDaniel said in the locker room while covered in Gatorade. “This is the one we can all remember as the start of it. I’m so proud, we can feel it during the game. Things weren’t necessarily going the way we wanted them to, but we didn’t crack.”

While the Dolphins are preparing for a Week 9 battle with the Cleveland Browns, it seems like those game balls are starting to appear around the office. Travis Wingfield, host of the Drive Time Podcast, which is part of the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, shared a photo of the ball on Twitter.

The Dolphins are headed in the right direction with a record of 6-3 just one week before the bye. McDaniel is not only pushing the team in the right direction, but he wants to take the entire organization with them.