Deadspin Clarifies Hit Piece on ‘White Guy’ 49ers Coach to Reflect He Is Biracial: ‘We Regret the Error’
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An embarrassing oversight led Deadspin to correct a hit piece against San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel this week.
The outlet’s Sean Beckwith wrote an article published Saturday in which he campaigned for NFL teams with head coaching vacancies to hire minority candidates.
“Be careful what you tweet for, people of the online realm,” he wrote. “Mike McDaniel, the San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator who has gone viral for his ‘adorable’ news conferences featuring references to Mike Jones and engaging answers, is ticking off all the boxes to be the next trendy, young, white guy who takes a head coaching position before one of the many deserving Black candidates.”
There’s only one problem with Beckwith’s characterization of McDaniel as a “trendy, young, white guy” who might get a position over a “deserving Black candidate.”
McDaniel is biracial.
Beckwith added,
The current coaching trend is leaning toward “brilliant, young offensive minds,” white guys like Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Kliff Kingsbury, Zac Taylor, Matt LaFleur, Kevin Stefanski, Matt Rhule, Brandon Staley, and Nick Sirianni. Add in that McDaniel went to Yale, and it’s blood in the water for NFL teams looking for a coach.
He might be brilliant, he might be the next Josh McDaniels, but he’s not more qualified than any of the Black coaches who just got fired — including Brian Flores — or the longtime coordinators who can’t seem to get hired.
Beckwith attributed McDaniel’s ascent to a coordinator position with a premier NFL team to his personality and connections, and noted, “McDaniel is a perfect example of how qualified Black candidates get overlooked.”
Beckwith’s assumption of McDaniel’s race is all the more embarrassing when you read this profile of him from NBC Sports, which was published on March 2 of last year.
“McDaniel said he had an epiphany at an early age when he was visiting his grandmother on his father’s side of the game,” NBC reported at the time. “When he looked at the photos around the house, he realized he looked different than other members of his family.
McDaniel commented on the aforementioned epiphany during the interview.
“It is surreal when I think about it, but I remember one particular day, walking around and all of a sudden noticing that, ‘Hey, I’m the only fair-skinned person in all these picture frames,’” he said. “My grandmother on my dad’s side is Black. My dad’s Black.”
Deadspin has issued a clarification on Beckwith’s post:
Editors’ note: We learned after the publication of this article that 49ers OC Mike McDaniel, whom we describe as a “white guy,” is in fact biracial. The article’s original text remains below. We regret the error.
