49ers Offensive Coordinator Mike McDaniel is the Most Interesting Man in Football

If you are a football fan who is also on the internet (a likely combination if you're reading this right now), you may have noticed a few clips circulating of Mike McDaniel's press conferences today. McDaniel is the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers and has a fascinating way of explaining things in press conferences that has caught the eye of the football media.

He also does not at all look like an offensive coordinator for a football team.

I will admit he absolutely looks like a dude Kyle Shanahan would hire on the spot. Very much the same vibe. But McDaniel looks like he should be trying to sell you on the next big cryptocurrency or opening a brewery with his rich buddy from college, not helping lead an NFL offense to the playoffs. In that way he is a perfect fit for the Bay Area. He does not at all have the typical resume for a pro football coach, either, which makes him all the more fascinating.

McDaniel went to Yale and majored in history before immediately going to the NFL to coach football. Mike Shanahan first hired him in Denver in 2005. For the next 15 years, he went where the Shanahans went-- from Denver to Washington with Mike and then from Cleveland to Atlanta to San Francisco with Kyle. With one glaring exception! McDaniel was hired by the Sacramento Mountain Lions as a running back coach in 2009. He spent a year there before heading back to the Shanahans.

McDaniel's star is rising and you should probably get used to his name, but he is quite an intriguing character in the NFL universe.