He was only 10 years old at the time, but watching the likes of John Elway and Steve Atwater on a daily basis ingrained into him the idea of making this his profession.
But one day, while trying to get a second autograph from a player, he lost his hat and the impact of losing it was evident to some of the coaches and players. Broncos video coordinator Gary McCune felt bad for McDaniel, so he brought a replacement to the camp and gave it to Mike a few days later.
When Donna picked up her son from practice that day, he told her that a coach had given him a new hat, which led her to question why a grown man was buying her son a gift. She eventually met with McCune, who explained his reasons behind the purchase, and after a few dates they ended up getting together and later marrying.
The influence of living in the house of an analyst rubbed off on McDaniel, who became obsessed with offensive line depth charts. When he went to Yale with ambitions of playing at college, he quickly realised that it wasn’t his calling and leaned into video analysis.
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