Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel may or may not have been hanging around a Bills bar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after his team defeated Buffalo, 30-13, on Sunday, November 9.
McDaniel, 42, gave an evasive answer when asked about the photo that has gone viral of what appears to be the Dolphins coach in his car outside Elbo Room, a bar commonly frequented by Bills fans.
“The good old days, the throwbacks of yore, where you could trust the Internet and the images,” McDaniel said in a press conference on Monday, November 10. “Cause it is pretty detailed and I do live in that area, but I mean, A.I., right?”
When a reporter pointed out he didn’t outright deny that the photo was real, McDaniel shrugged and added, “I live in that area. A.I. is real. That’s what I got for you.”
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The image originally went viral on Sunday evening when a user named Josh Martin shared it via X. In the photo, Martin is standing in the foreground wearing a blue Bills t-shirt and a backwards cap. A person who appears to be McDaniel is in a car behind him, wearing sunglasses with his arm hanging out the window.
“Just spoke with Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel outside of Elbo Room,” Martin captioned the post. “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.”
Martin followed it up with a video on Monday to try and dispel any speculation that the image was fake.
“For those who think it’s A.I. (which is an alarming amount of people). Here’s a video my buddy took. It’s been circling the internet too,” he wrote. “Again, I posted this because it was laugh-out-loud funny. We all need to laugh more these days. Be good. Do good. God Bless, and Go Bills.”
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The Dolphins’ win snapped a seven-game losing streak that bumped them up to 3-7 on the season. McDaniel addressed the media after the game where he pushed back on the narrative that the team had nothing to play for.
“I think it’s pretty obvious from the play they didn’t believe that their season was over,” he said. “That’s difficult to do when everyone’s talking to you about the season being over.”
The win also came just over a week after McDaniel seemed to melt down on the sideline while his team was losing to the Baltimore Ravens. During the game, the crowd booed McDaniel as he tore his headset off and began lashing out at his team.
“You want to fix stuff, and yeah, it sucks. That sucks,” he told reporters after the game. “All of that does. But I think it’s a pretty consistent formula of fans enjoy winning and so our expectation is that we have to do the work and do the right things for fans to enjoy the experience and unfortunately, we didn’t do that tonight, so we got to get back to work to give them something to cheer about.”
From here, the Dolphins head to Madrid, where they will play the Washington Commanders on Sunday, November 16. Kickoff is set for 9:30 a.m. ET.
