During a Week 15 game between the Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers back on December 15th, ESPN analyst Troy Aikman had some not-so-great words for the Dolphins and head coach Mike McDaniel.
With a little more than 13 minutes left, the Dolphins were down 28-3 and gave a half-hearted attempt at closing the gap.
After the Dolphins got it to 28-15, Aikman said, “I’m flabbergasted by what we’ve witnessed here in this fourth quarter with the Dolphins. And now they want to call timeouts. It just is about as ridiculous a fourth quarter as I’ve seen in a long time.”
Aikman wasn’t finished.
“This is just a bizarre last few series,” Aikman said a little later. “They don’t go hurry-up. Now they’re going hurry-up and calling timeouts. It’s just, it’s hard to understand exactly what the philosophy or what they’re trying to do.”
While he didn’t mention McDaniel by name, it’s clear where his comments were directed.
Miami Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel responds to Aikman criticism
News came out this week that the Dolphins have brought in Aikman to assist with their general manager search. They’ve been in need of a new, permanent G.M. since they fired Chris Grier earlier this season.
On Friday, McDaniel responded to Aikman’s previous comments during the Pittsburgh game.
“No, that stuff doesn’t hit me,” McDaniel said. “When I signed up for this job, this just in and when things work, people will applaud. When they don’t work, they’ll have critiques. And if I expect anything else, that’s a level of entitlement that doesn’t really hit me correctly. It’s kind of the nature of the biz.
“So you’re telling me he didn’t like us not scoring points and taking up too much time? Neither did I, that was not the intent. He’s doing his job, and when I signed up for this job it was inherent that results will dictate all narratives regardless of if things were good, bad or whatever. It doesn’t bother me in the least. As a matter of fact, I think it would be funny if it did.”
Mike McDaniel says he doesn’t worry about Aikman consulting with Miami Dolphins
McDaniel also got a chance to talk about whether or not he minds that Aikman was brought in to offer his insight to the organization. After all, he could be telling owner Stephen Ross things like, “yo, McDaniel gots to go.” He probably wouldn’t phrase it like that, but you get the point.
“I think Troy Aikman speaks for himself in terms of his relationships that he’s had within the National Football League and knows a lot of things,” McDaniel said. “Information is a positive to me and being able to resource that, I think we’re fortunate. I’m excited for that. As far as everything else, again, I’m not going to spend one second of this job prioritizing what my job is under some other, ‘Does this work for me?’ My priority is I’m the head coach and I’m going to take those responsibilities as they relate to everybody involved in the organization.
“I’m going take to those serious and focus on that. I’m not joking, lying, misleading. I don’t think about all those questions, ever. It’s a waste of my time and I don’t try to waste my time or other people’s.”
It’s anyone’s guess what will happen with the Dolphins, but it does seem like McDaniel cares less and less about his job security. At this point, he might be happy just to go elsewhere and run someone else’s offense.
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