Denver Native (Carol)
07-26-2009, 07:33 AM
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12916116
New Broncos coach Josh McDaniels is only 33
But he's lived on a steady diet of football and pressure
CANTON, Ohio — Here in the land of rich Midwest soil and high school football majesty, Josh McDaniels was toughened to handle one of the greatest quarterback-coach spats in NFL history.
McDaniels could never have known this, of course, as he played quarterback in a demanding town for a legendary high school coach who happened to be his father. Playing for Dad meant proving every day to everybody else that a starting position was something earned, not inherited.
In starting his first head coaching job with the Denver Broncos, McDaniels' preference would have been to use his fertile background on more menial tasks, such as rebuilding the organization.
But to revisit McDaniels' youth, to see the millions of dollars poured into the local prep football programs in northern Ohio, to understand the grave pressure that accompanies upscale accommodations and the expectations from those who funded them, is to realize former Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler never had a chance.
It may not be easily detectable, but there is a tough skin covering the boyish looks of the Broncos' 33-year-old head coach, who this week leads the team into training camp. Rookies, quarterbacks and injured players report Monday.
"People out there will never understand the pressure Josh was under his whole high school career," said Jack Rose, who coached against McDaniels' McKinley High School at Massillon Washington High School. "The people of McKinley were tough to play for. I'm going to tell you right now, that Cutler guy never went through what Josh McDaniels went through in high school. He was really a good player, had a great winning record at McKinley, and people were always (complaining) about him.
"It toughened him. It made him stronger for what he's facing today. How he handled it back then, it's not surprising how he handled what's been going on out there now."
Tough? When Josh was in fifth grade, he and his brother Ben, in the second grade, didn't just ride the bus to school. They had a police car following. And once the McDaniels boys stepped inside the hallways, the police would secure the school behind them. Police felt they had to take such precautions after McDaniels' father, Thom, received a death-threat letter that made mention of kidnapping his boys. Later in his coaching career, the family would occasionally wake up to find menacing signs in the yard demanding that Thom be fired.
All this hostility for a coach who would go 197-63 in 23 years of high school coaching.
"I wasn't the most well-liked person in Canton," Josh McDaniels said. "I was a coach's son who played quarterback. It was tough at times."
The greatest misconception of the NFL offseason was the belief that McDaniels was untrained to handle Cutler's uncooperative behavior. Rarely, if ever, has a kid coach been more conditioned to handle such a monumental crisis that, despite some periodic bouts of contention, ended decisively with Cutler traded to the Chicago Bears.
"Of all the things people have taught me regarding life lessons or anything that would benefit me, I don't think anything helped me learn more about life than football," McDaniels said. "You go through so many different things: adversity, how to handle adversity, how to handle success, how to lead, how to be a teammate, how to communicate. . . . And I saw a tremendous amount of negativity too. In this town, if you don't win, it's terrible." Keeping busy, but no bed in office
Wearing shorts, a T-shirt and sandals, McDaniels never appeared more relaxed as he sat on his parents' living room sofa. Since he was hired to replace Mike Shanahan as Broncos coach Jan. 11, McDaniels had worked from dawn to well past dinner, six or seven days a week, for five months, to transform the organization into his own image.
He overhauled the coaching staff; implemented his shotgun-driven offense; switched the defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4 system; signed more than a dozen free agents; briefly delved into trade talks for Matt Cassel, his former quarterback with the New England Patriots; executed an even bigger trade involving Cutler; ran his new team through a series of offseason practices; and attempted to soothe the contract protest of Brandon Marshall by holding regular conversations with the receiver's agent.
Once the regular season starts, McDaniels says, he will get to his office about 5 or 5:30 in the morning and leave about 10 or 11 at night. Thursdays, he'll depart about 9 or 9:30.
"I'm not sleeping in the office," said McDaniels, who has two children with his wife, Laura. "I don't want to start that practice."
In late June, it was time to get away with his family and clear a mind that constantly is in gear. Although he's young and looks even younger, McDaniels has a presence that exudes authority. He is confident and serious-minded, although like practically everyone inside an athletic arena, he can bust the chops of his friends and associates.
"What I love about him, and what I don't necessarily love, is sometimes he can be so serious," said longtime friend Matt Cunningham. "It's hard to get him to let that down, to let loose. When we go on vacation, he'll let go a little bit, but he's the first one to bed, the first one up in the morning. He's never been a big partier or anything. But he does have a sense of humor. He is very fun-loving."
McDaniels had just returned from his annual family vacation in Florida and was spending a few days at his folks' house, which is up a class from the large A-frame house near downtown Canton where Thom and Christine raised their boys.
"I never had a car in high school, and I never had a car in college," Josh said. "I wasn't much of a run-around."
A new football, though, was something else. Every Christmas morning, the McDaniels boys knew they could count on a new ball with their name monogrammed on the side. The joy of the once-a-year present only magnified.
"I would run down in the middle of the night on Christmas morning, grab that, go right back up to bed," McDaniels said. "That's what I slept with until Laura came around."
Football, and more specifically McKinley High School football, was at the center and the tips of the McDaniels universe. When Thom was in the early stages of building the Bulldogs into a football powerhouse, young Josh was often standing nearby, holding the headset cord or a ball or a copy of the play chart. Ben would be there too, although he was more apt to be off to the side, playing with the blocking dummies.
"Some of our first memories are going to two-a- days (practices)," said Ben, who grew up to quarterback McKinley to back-to-back state titles. "That's really where it starts. Because two-a-days were so much fun for us as kids. If we weren't doing the right things at home, punishment was not getting to go to two-a-days. And that was a big deal."
Like most boys, the McDanielses would have their spirited games of football, basketball and baseball in the backyard.
One-on-one games to three became games to five, and then 10, especially if Josh was behind. Which wasn't often.
"I think in 27 years of coaching, he was the most intelligent point guard I ever had," said Mike Patton, who was McDaniels' ninth-grade basketball coach and eighth-grade social studies teacher. "When I had him in class, if he missed a question on the test, as a teacher you would look at the question to see if there was something wrong with it."
So competitive were the McDaniels boys, they took keeping score to a holy extreme.
"In church, during that point in the service where you would extend a sign of peace to the people around you?" Thom McDaniels said. "Here I am with my three kids, and we would compete to see who could shake the most hands. It was nuts."
Lord knows there are no wallflowers among the McDaniels clan.
"We would go four, five and six rows away from us," Ben said. "If you didn't get double-digit handshakes, you weren't trying hard enough."
New Broncos coach Josh McDaniels is only 33
But he's lived on a steady diet of football and pressure
CANTON, Ohio — Here in the land of rich Midwest soil and high school football majesty, Josh McDaniels was toughened to handle one of the greatest quarterback-coach spats in NFL history.
McDaniels could never have known this, of course, as he played quarterback in a demanding town for a legendary high school coach who happened to be his father. Playing for Dad meant proving every day to everybody else that a starting position was something earned, not inherited.
In starting his first head coaching job with the Denver Broncos, McDaniels' preference would have been to use his fertile background on more menial tasks, such as rebuilding the organization.
But to revisit McDaniels' youth, to see the millions of dollars poured into the local prep football programs in northern Ohio, to understand the grave pressure that accompanies upscale accommodations and the expectations from those who funded them, is to realize former Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler never had a chance.
It may not be easily detectable, but there is a tough skin covering the boyish looks of the Broncos' 33-year-old head coach, who this week leads the team into training camp. Rookies, quarterbacks and injured players report Monday.
"People out there will never understand the pressure Josh was under his whole high school career," said Jack Rose, who coached against McDaniels' McKinley High School at Massillon Washington High School. "The people of McKinley were tough to play for. I'm going to tell you right now, that Cutler guy never went through what Josh McDaniels went through in high school. He was really a good player, had a great winning record at McKinley, and people were always (complaining) about him.
"It toughened him. It made him stronger for what he's facing today. How he handled it back then, it's not surprising how he handled what's been going on out there now."
Tough? When Josh was in fifth grade, he and his brother Ben, in the second grade, didn't just ride the bus to school. They had a police car following. And once the McDaniels boys stepped inside the hallways, the police would secure the school behind them. Police felt they had to take such precautions after McDaniels' father, Thom, received a death-threat letter that made mention of kidnapping his boys. Later in his coaching career, the family would occasionally wake up to find menacing signs in the yard demanding that Thom be fired.
All this hostility for a coach who would go 197-63 in 23 years of high school coaching.
"I wasn't the most well-liked person in Canton," Josh McDaniels said. "I was a coach's son who played quarterback. It was tough at times."
The greatest misconception of the NFL offseason was the belief that McDaniels was untrained to handle Cutler's uncooperative behavior. Rarely, if ever, has a kid coach been more conditioned to handle such a monumental crisis that, despite some periodic bouts of contention, ended decisively with Cutler traded to the Chicago Bears.
"Of all the things people have taught me regarding life lessons or anything that would benefit me, I don't think anything helped me learn more about life than football," McDaniels said. "You go through so many different things: adversity, how to handle adversity, how to handle success, how to lead, how to be a teammate, how to communicate. . . . And I saw a tremendous amount of negativity too. In this town, if you don't win, it's terrible." Keeping busy, but no bed in office
Wearing shorts, a T-shirt and sandals, McDaniels never appeared more relaxed as he sat on his parents' living room sofa. Since he was hired to replace Mike Shanahan as Broncos coach Jan. 11, McDaniels had worked from dawn to well past dinner, six or seven days a week, for five months, to transform the organization into his own image.
He overhauled the coaching staff; implemented his shotgun-driven offense; switched the defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4 system; signed more than a dozen free agents; briefly delved into trade talks for Matt Cassel, his former quarterback with the New England Patriots; executed an even bigger trade involving Cutler; ran his new team through a series of offseason practices; and attempted to soothe the contract protest of Brandon Marshall by holding regular conversations with the receiver's agent.
Once the regular season starts, McDaniels says, he will get to his office about 5 or 5:30 in the morning and leave about 10 or 11 at night. Thursdays, he'll depart about 9 or 9:30.
"I'm not sleeping in the office," said McDaniels, who has two children with his wife, Laura. "I don't want to start that practice."
In late June, it was time to get away with his family and clear a mind that constantly is in gear. Although he's young and looks even younger, McDaniels has a presence that exudes authority. He is confident and serious-minded, although like practically everyone inside an athletic arena, he can bust the chops of his friends and associates.
"What I love about him, and what I don't necessarily love, is sometimes he can be so serious," said longtime friend Matt Cunningham. "It's hard to get him to let that down, to let loose. When we go on vacation, he'll let go a little bit, but he's the first one to bed, the first one up in the morning. He's never been a big partier or anything. But he does have a sense of humor. He is very fun-loving."
McDaniels had just returned from his annual family vacation in Florida and was spending a few days at his folks' house, which is up a class from the large A-frame house near downtown Canton where Thom and Christine raised their boys.
"I never had a car in high school, and I never had a car in college," Josh said. "I wasn't much of a run-around."
A new football, though, was something else. Every Christmas morning, the McDaniels boys knew they could count on a new ball with their name monogrammed on the side. The joy of the once-a-year present only magnified.
"I would run down in the middle of the night on Christmas morning, grab that, go right back up to bed," McDaniels said. "That's what I slept with until Laura came around."
Football, and more specifically McKinley High School football, was at the center and the tips of the McDaniels universe. When Thom was in the early stages of building the Bulldogs into a football powerhouse, young Josh was often standing nearby, holding the headset cord or a ball or a copy of the play chart. Ben would be there too, although he was more apt to be off to the side, playing with the blocking dummies.
"Some of our first memories are going to two-a- days (practices)," said Ben, who grew up to quarterback McKinley to back-to-back state titles. "That's really where it starts. Because two-a-days were so much fun for us as kids. If we weren't doing the right things at home, punishment was not getting to go to two-a-days. And that was a big deal."
Like most boys, the McDanielses would have their spirited games of football, basketball and baseball in the backyard.
One-on-one games to three became games to five, and then 10, especially if Josh was behind. Which wasn't often.
"I think in 27 years of coaching, he was the most intelligent point guard I ever had," said Mike Patton, who was McDaniels' ninth-grade basketball coach and eighth-grade social studies teacher. "When I had him in class, if he missed a question on the test, as a teacher you would look at the question to see if there was something wrong with it."
So competitive were the McDaniels boys, they took keeping score to a holy extreme.
"In church, during that point in the service where you would extend a sign of peace to the people around you?" Thom McDaniels said. "Here I am with my three kids, and we would compete to see who could shake the most hands. It was nuts."
Lord knows there are no wallflowers among the McDaniels clan.
"We would go four, five and six rows away from us," Ben said. "If you didn't get double-digit handshakes, you weren't trying hard enough."