Kyle Brandt says He is Past Mike McDaniels’ “Charming Personality; Questions if Tua is “Really Good”

Kyle Brandt of Good Morning Football was on the Bill Simmons Podcast and was asked about his five favorite NFL Coaching Storylines heading into the 2024 season. And #1 at the top of the list is Mike McDaniel and the Miami Dolphins.

To be fair, he did make maybe one good point in the 2:20-second rant about Miami needing to win a playoff game. But everything else he said was odd, such as how almost everything with the Dolphins is bad, comparing the Dolphins to empty calories you eat, and Instagram scrolling (which made no sense and was a weird analogy).

With Miami’s talent, they should get past the Wild Card round of the playoffs and win in January, so I can’t knock him for that. Everything else was a tad over the top and seemed to be an agenda he was pushing to discredit Mike McDaniel as he has in the past. Keep reading for more on that.

Brandt said, “We are past how charmed we are at your personality.” I mean, let’s break that one down right there. Who is this “Royal WE” he speaks of?  Who is he speaking on behalf of? The voices in his head? Oh, and he called Mike McDaniel “eccentric,” which may be a fair word to describe him, but using it the way Brandt did it in the context he did is unfair. It’s like he is holding it against him for being “eccentric.”

And what does Mike McDaniel’s personality have anything to do with how he is graded and judged as an NFL head coach?

Like every other NFL coach, McDaniel is judged the same based on wins and losses. Bringing up his personality has nothing to do with anything. It’s like bringing up that he is short and has no muscles, so he doesn’t “look” like a head coach.

Then Brandt said that Miami’s playoff loss to Kansas City “was one of the worst no-show playoff games in the 21st century.” Really, the 21st century? I mean, a little bit of hyperbole here, maybe? It was -4, with a wind chill of -27, and fans in the stadium lost fingers and toes by being at that game. Maybe add some context around that game.

Miami didn’t have Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips, Andrew Van Ginkel, Jerome Baker, Xavien Howard, or Connor Williams for the playoff game. And yes, I am sure meathead Kyle Brandt would shoot back with, “Every team has injuries. Deal with it. ” Yeah, but not that many injuries to that many key players.

Nobody will argue that it was Miami’s finest hour or a great playoff game, but let’s add a little context about who Miami had playing that day and factor that in before we proclaim it the “worst no-show loss of the 21st century.”

Then Kyle questions if “Tua Tagovailoa is Really Good” and takes a shot at Tyreek Hill, saying he only has one or two “prime years” left in his career.

The long and short of this is simple: if this was coming from almost anyone except Kyle Brandt, you could take it with a grain of salt and be like, “Okay, whatever.” But Brandt has this thing about the Dolphins. He never lets an opportunity go by without taking a shot at them, and some of the shots (like going after McDaniel’s personality) are unfair and seem below the belt.

And if you don’t think this is a thing, remember Brandt had to go on GMFB last year and apologize for his comments against the Dolphins and admit he attributed quotes to Mike McDaniel and Dolphins players that they never said. The video clip is below.

Brandt “claimed” that Dolphins players and coaches in September of last season went around saying they revolutionized offense in the NFL and that Tua was bragging about throwing a no-look pass. They were bragging about using pre-snap motion only to come out and attack the Dolphins for such a thing.

But as they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, because this just in: NO MIAMI DOLPHINS PLAYER OR COACH SAID ANY SUCH THING! 

What he did was subtle. Buffalo Bills Head Coach Sean McDermott said the week before Miami traveled to Buffalo to play the Bills that the Miami Dolphins offense was “almost revolutionary.”  Brandt took McDermott’s words and attributed them to the Dolphins’ coaches and players, only to attack the Dolphins.

That is what people thought; in reality, as he did admit, he was just upset the Dolphins were getting praise from his other co-hosts on GMFB, so he, I don’t know, made shit up for lack of better words, to pour cold water on the Dolphins’ success as he was tired about hearing how good they were playing at the time.

Does that sound like normal behavior for anyone, let alone one who co-hosts a national morning television show?

To be clear, I don’t care if a TV talking head doesn’t believe in the Miami Dolphins. Who would they haven’t won a playoff game in 24 years? But what Brandt does (and he knows he is doing it; he went to Princeton and isn’t a total idiot) is he is so over the top with the critique and the criticisms that he exposes himself as pushing an agenda.

Which is why nobody can take him seriously.

It’s why his ESPN podcast was canceled.

That’s part of the reason why GMFB had terrible ratings last season. It was the second lowest-rated show on the entire network and is lucky to crack 100,000 viewers. Their move this year to add a second GMFB show to syndication is a last-ditch effort to get the show in front of more eyeballs because the show they have done for years ran all real football fans off.

It will be determined if that plan of attack will pump some life into the dying show.

The show is pure comedy at this point. Kyle shouts silly opinions he admits to “owning” his co-hosts, and then once a week, stands up in front of a screen and yells and acts like a pro wrestler while clips of running backs breaking tackles play behind you.

Brandt has said a hundred times (and in the video above) that he doesn’t dislike the Dolphins or Mike McDaniel, but good luck finding a clip of him praising the Dolphins for anything…..ever. And if you do, that is the one for the other 99 times he has gone over the top in his criticism.

His dislike and Dolphins hatred run so deep that when his co-workers from Good Morning Football were giving Miami some Kudos after a good start to the season, he admitted it upset him so much he felt the need to criticize Miami the first chance he got. That’s that cuckoo for cocoa puffs right there, folks.

Last year, I wrote an article on the site titled “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: The Kyle Brandt Story.” And I will give Kyle credit: He took his 15 minutes of fame from being on MTV’s The Real World, turned that into being a failed Soap Opera actor, and then turned that to became a script writer for The Jim Rome Show. And somehow, he is an authority on talking about the NFL each day on the NFL’s own network.

But Kyle Brandt is everything wrong with Sports Journalism in 2024. It’s about being loud, not correct. It’s about the three-step process of getting attention.

  • Create a false narrative.
  • Come out against it
  • Spread misinformation to the masses

Kyle has this art form mastered.

Again, Kyle is allowed to dislike the Dolphins, pick against them, and not believe in Tua or Mike McDaniel. But don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining and say you are rooting for them when we know you aren’t as you are just waiting to go on some outlet and yell, “I TOLD YOU SO.”

 

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