‘Hard Knocks' goes deep into personal stories of McDaniel, security chief Brooks, Tyreek

The most captivating episode of “Hard Knocks: In Season with the Miami Dolphins” takes viewers into very personal hardships that three members of the organization had to endure away from the football field.

The episode, which debuted Tuesday night, tells the story of coach Mike McDaniel’s battle with alcoholism, security chief Drew Brooks losing his young son to cancer and receiver Tyreek Hill getting torn from practice last week as his house was ablaze.

While avid fans are aware of McDaniel’s past and were kept abreast of Hill’s tragedy, Brooks tells viewers he doubted that even half of his colleagues in the facility were aware of the family tragedy he faced.

Ironically, the episode was anchored by the most important game for the Dolphins to date, a 21-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills to decide the AFC East championship, yet there was no question football took a back seat to what the three men and their families had to face.

Start with McDaniel.

He keeps an index card on a wall in his office with 865 written on it — a reminder of how long he was exiled from the league early in his career because of partying too much. A light touch comes when wife Katie reminds Mike that she’d ordered a pizza — pepperoni — as Kyle Shanahan was calling to offer him a job in Washington, a classic one-door-closes-another-opens story.

Even after McDaniel later took a job with the Falcons, three members of the coaching staff had to sit him down to urge him to clean up his act.

“And I have to come tell my wife and tell her I really undercut all of her investment into me and was leaving our family vulnerable,” Mike says. “And I remember looking at her and that feeling, immediately, I was like, ‘I hate everything about this.’ ”

Katie says, “I can tell he was crushed,” but adds, “I knew that Mike would do the right thing.”

Mike says he’s grateful for Katie’s “unconditional love” and has vowed “I will never drink again.”

Then, the fire at Hill’s home is addressed.

Hill has not yet spoken with the local media since the fire. In the immediate aftermath, teammates including Tua Tagovailoa tried and failed to reach him.

“It's something as a team we’ve got to be able to come together and make sure that we can reach out to Tyreek and can be human beings with him and make sure that everything is squared away and we can do everything we possibly can to help our teammates,” fullback Alec Ingold says. “So that's the human element of this locker room.”

When Hill returns to the facility later in the week, teammates ask if things are squared away but it’s clear Hill could not sleep at the house.

“Smoke damage, fire damage,” Hill tells teammates. “The whole upstairs is burnt.”

Then Brooks, in perhaps his first interview since joining the organization, explains his job, which includes dragging McDaniel back off the field as the “get-back coach,” which every team has to keep the head coach from drawing penalties.

Footage reveals that the arm injury Brooks suffered was at the hands of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes during a play that spilled onto the sideline in Germany. They’ll be reunited Saturday in the wild-card round in Kansas City.

“His muscle is easy to see,” narrator Liev Schreiber says of the stocky Brooks. “But get to know him and you’ll understand his strength.”

Then it’s explained that in 2012, Brooks’ son, Dylan, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Within a year, he passed away.

“During the time this was going on, my escape was football,” Brooks says. “When you're dealing with something as stressful as cancer in general, let alone your own son, my escape was football and to get that escape kept me going, to be honest with you. So just to have three hours a week with the team, to get that escape got me through a lot of days and still does.”

Brooks concludes by urging others, “Tomorrow's not promised. You don't know. So don't waste that day. Don't ever waste the day.”

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: ‘Hard Knocks' explores hardships of three in Miami Dolphins organization