Ask Mike McDaniel where his head is, and you’ll get a philosophical answer.
Ask him where his feet are, and you’ll get the same.
“That’s a huge compass for me, or a guiding measurement — being where my feet are,” said McDaniel, Yale-educated offensive coordinator of the Chargers.
To him, that means living in the present. Not steeping in the anxiety of the past or future.
What catches everyone’s attention, though, is precisely what McDaniel has on his feet. He’s what is commonly referred to as a “sneakerhead,” someone who collects an array of athletic shoes that range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand.
The passion traces back to seventh grade, when he parlayed cash for good grades and a modest allowance into his first two collectible pairs: one from the Jason Kidd signature line, and a high-top Ken Griffey Jr. shoe.
“All achievements — straight A’s at the time — anything that could be rewarded was pooled to funds,” he said, reclining on a patio chair in the shade at Chargers headquarters.
“Growing up, I never knew of [fancy] shoes; we didn’t have any money,” he said. “My mom married and I had a stepdad, still didn’t have much money, but modest money. And that’s when I got into the shoes a little bit.”
Thirty years later, the NFL has taken notice. The Chargers social media team recently made an Instagram post devoted entirely to his sneakers, with close-up shots of his array of Nike Air Force sneakers in bright yellow, green, blue, white with gold trim, and animal print. Then there are his Puma Mostro Ecstasy shoes in “electric lime.”
“My collection of shoes has been directly connected to my biweekly checks,” said McDaniel, head coach of the Miami Dolphins from 2022-25. “Once I made enough money not to worry about it, that’s when the floodgates opened and I would just buy the shoes that I liked.”
He concedes that he “kind of went crazy for a little while” in snapping up shoes, owns hundreds of pairs, and it has become a bit of an issue at his Manhattan Beach home.
“Right now we’re having to consider some outsourced storage,” he said. “Because there’s a room in our house that’s all those roll-away shoe racks. I’m not OK with devoting a room. Each square foot in Manhattan Beach is expensive. I’m not paying to have a shoe room. That’s kind of where this perspective was built, with this move from Florida to California.”
The Chargers, meanwhile, are looking to create more of an offensive foothold in the league and take advantage of having an elite quarterback in Justin Herbert. That was one of the most compelling draws for McDaniel, the chance to work with a quarterback who can make every throw, and to coach with Jim Harbaugh, who has had success at every stop.
McDaniel said one of the most appealing aspects of joining the Chargers staff is that Harbaugh didn’t try to sell him on anything.
“He recognized he was excited about the prospect if and only if it was a marriage that was consensual, not a hostage situation. Just us organically talking about what we were both looking for. I think that was the biggest selling point, because I didn’t feel like he was overselling me.”
Since, Harbaugh has referred to McDaniel as “awesome with a capital A.”
“I’m really leaning on how Mike sees the game,” he told reporters. “It’s creative, it puts defenses in a conflict. Kind of like our players, a lot of excitement to learn everything that Mike knows.”
McDaniel is an expert communicator — and terrible at communicating with modern devices.
He seldom checks his phone and admits he’s not good at returning texts.
That’s a corollary of knowing where his feet are. He doesn’t know where his phone is. Or, more accurately, he spends precious little time staring at his screen.
“The average American spends seven hours a day of screen time,” he said. “If you’re on your deathbed at 70, that’s 20 years of your life spent on a screen, not where your feet are at.”
He doesn’t believe in total phone abstinence. He’ll look up information all the time. But he tries not to let his phone take over.
“It’s not about being a social outcast,” he said. “I don’t believe in excommunicating anything, but I’m, to a fault, aggressively not on-screen. I carry a phone, but I’m legendary for being the hardest person to get a hold of.”
The whole key for him is living in the moment.
“You do have to plan for the future,” he said. “But worrying about the future is the same as the past. Those are the only places where anxiety lives, unless you’re literally escaping a bear that’s trying to eat you.”
In that case, McDaniel has just the shoes to run.
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