Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images
Audio By Carbonatix
It appears that it doesn’t take much for Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel to get his swagger back. Or at least it feels that way after the Dolphins’ perplexing 30-13 thrashing of the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, which put an end to the team’s seven-game losing streak to their AFC East rivals.
Winning on the field is one thing. But hopping in your car — capri pants pulled up to your kneecaps — to troll the opponents’ fans at a legendary local watering hole? Folks, even at 3-7, it appears the Phins coach is back in his element.
It’s always been tough to figure out the Dolphins, but what transpired on the Hard Rock grass in Miami Gardens, and, later, on A1A in Fort Lauderdale a few miles north, will go down as one of the most unimaginable four hours of Phins Phandom.
First, the game. The Dolphins’ improbable blowout win marked the franchise’s first victory over Buffalo since [checks watch] Week 3 of the 2022 season. Tua Tagovailoa threw for 173 yards and two touchdowns, while De’Von Achane added a pair of rushing scores and finished with 225 scrimmage yards, including fourth-quarter touchdown runs of 59 and 35 yards. (Also on Tua’s stat sheet: two interceptions and two rushes for minus-one yard.)
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Miami’s defense also contributed three takeaways and three sacks in what was one of its most complete performances of the season. The win improved the home team’s record to 3-7 and dropped Buffalo to 6-3.
Good. Great. Fun. That happened! How? We literally have no idea. One of the NFL’s least-confident, most-banged-up rosters took the Super Bowl contender Bills out back and brought belt to buttocks for 60 straight minutes of good old-fashioned butt whupping.
But that’s the NFL, right? Any given Sunday.
But it was what happened after the game that’s winning social media (and, to be honest, confusing us the most). Did Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel – perpetually on the verge of losing his job, and downright anxiety-ridden in front of any microphone — pay a visit to the Elbo Room in Fort Lauderdale, a drinking establishment that has become a popular hangout spot for Bills fans when their team visits South Florida, after the game?
That’s what social media is saying. And if we’re being honest, it’s such an elite troll job that we’re trying to confirm it’s not an AI fever dream.
Per our social media eyes, it appears McDaniel, as the kids would say, “pulled up” to check on how eight-ounce plastic cups with well liquor were treating those same Bills fans who watched his team batter at Hard Rock earlier in the afternoon.
One post on X read: “#Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel allegedly drove by Elbo Room and TAUNTED #Bills fans outside their bar after Miami dominated Buffalo today.”
Tweeted Josh Martin, whose bio pegs him as “Experienced journalist, content creator and social media guy. Fantasy 🏈 Consultant”: “Just spoke with Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel outside of Elbo Room. I did congratulate him on the win, but I also let it be known my distaste for his football team. He CLEARLY came by to rub it in. Ultimately, we parted ways amicably.”
And finally, injured Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill chimed in with his two cents on one of the swaggiest images you’ll ever see from the coach destined to be unemployed in a few weeks, barring a miracle.
Did this actually happen? We sure hope so! And we have to imagine the Dolphins coach is asked about it during his next press conference, hopefully by Omar Kelly of the Miami Herald, who opined, “This is Mike McDaniel in his element.”
In summary: The Dolphins, the most swagger-deficient, left-for-dead team in the NFL, not only put a whupping on a Bills team they never beat, but the head coach then apparently took a detour on his way home to rev his engine in front of a bar where Bills fans were drowning their sorrows.
The NFL will never just be normal. Not even once.
And the Miami Dolphins are the best 3-7 team in NFL history with a cupcake schedule on the horizon, including this weekend’s trek to Spain to face the Washington Commanders.