MacDonald's journey fueled by faith behind the why
Maria Taylor catches up with Mike MacDonald for a glimpse into special moments from his Super Bowl victory with the Seahawks and the faith he's carried in his journey to becoming a Super Bowl-winning head coach.
Video Transcript
This is where you rise.
This is where you shine.
Darnall to the end zone!
Touchdown!
History in the making.
His window's born again.
Shout out to Wosu, going the distance.
This is where you rise.
Go Seahawks.
We won a Super Bowl.
The greatest of all time.
History in the making.
Yeah, bringing it home again.
You've been waiting for this your whole life.
I saw the little smirk coming through at the end there and I, I know coaches are supposed to move on to the next season.
That's why we played the video, to bring you back to the moment.
Yeah.
Like seeing that, what feelings, emotions pop back up for you?
Oh, honestly, I realized this, I just realized had blue pen on my cheek.
So we were I guess we were into the, into the game a good bit to not realize all the other stuff.
But you're thinking of like the calls, what went into the, all the work that went into those moments, you know?
And think we're going through the process now of realizing that we have to go over all those hurdles again.
You know?
Everything wasn't just super easy last year.
Like these moments just didn't happen.
It's all the stuff that kind of went behind it to make it come to life, so that's, that's where your mind goes.
Yeah.
We always say, like the Lombardi Trophy is like at the top of the mountain, but there's a journey that you have to go through to get there.
So for- Sure you, we put a This is almost like y- your coaching journey.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
When you look at all these pictures, which one, first of all, stands out to you the most?
My eyes went to Michigan first.
Mm-hmm.
Why?
This is like a, this is like a ps- psychology ex-, you know, like exam almost.
Mm-hmm.
I, I think, I think that's really where I, I f- like found my coaching voice.
You had a idea or like a, a vision about how, "Hey, how would I, how would I run my," a unit that I was responsible for.
And so J- And Jim gave us like a lot of autonomy and a lot of rope to like do our own thing, and so it was, it was a little bit of an experiment.
We'd never done it before.
We'd never done anything like that.
And, it was so rewarding to like see the team, see like how tight that team was.
Mm-hmm.
And so that, that wa- right was really like a launching point and, and confidence of realizing like hey, like the way that we wanna build this thing is, is a cool way to do it and it works.
Yeah.
I've heard you say several times that coaching is a calling for you.
Yeah.
Where was the point when you realized that?
On this road.
Defin- well, it was before Georgia.
So that, that, that was when I believe I was a GA.
I feel like that was like the Kentucky game in 2000 like- .
11, you know?
Coach's memory.
With a 'Cause we never wore jackets, but before I was a GA at Georgia, when, when I decided to give like coaching like an honest go was when I was Cedar Shoals.
Mm-hmm.
And before then, you know, like, "Hey, it's okay to try to carve your own path," you know?
Like you got time, go for it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
There's one, video that I want to show you.
It's like the aftermath of a Super Bowl, and I felt like even when we met at the top of the stanchion, you were still letting it soak in. . Yeah.
We won a Super Bowl.
They didn't Some foul language in there somewhere.
Yeah, we cut it out, but- Gatorade bath is special.
That was awesome.
It's this face right here that I remember.
Yeah.
Like what do you remember looking up into the sky and thinking?
Well, shout out to Dave.
He's our PR guy, Dave Pearson.
Everything happened and then I was just there by myself, and so I didn't really know like do I look at You know, there's cameras everywhere.
Do you look in the cameras?
Which camera you look at?
Just having my own little Vince Vaughn Wedding Crashers moment.
And I was like, "Well shoot, don't look there.
Look up."
And then, then it was just fireworks and then it was just this moment where kinda time stood still, you know?
I felt like i was staring up there for forever, you know?
Just but, that was a, that was a really special moment.
That was awesome.
Didn't know what to do after that, you know?
But, it was a lot.
It was overwhelming.
It was cool.
B- I remember like my eyes going around to try to find like the guys, but like nobody was there, you know?
None of the guys, they were kind off celebrating, doing their own thing.
But, yeah, seeing the fireworks, that, that was a, that's kinda, that's etched in your, in your, in your brain and your heart forever.
That's cool.
Yeah.
I mean, those are the moments that basically y- you're grinding for to create a winning environment so your team can celebrate, and then you were the one able to celebrate there, even if it was just like a simple small moment in time.
Yeah.
But we also caught another really good moment- Okay of you together with Steph.
Yeah.
Jack's so small.
I'm so proud of you.
We did it.
We did.
We did it.
We did we?
We did it.
We did it.
That's an Office quote, by the way.
It's a Office quote.
That was literally gonna be my first question.
Yeah.
What movie is this?
No, that was from The Office.
Okay.
When you first saw Stephanie, first thing that comes to mind with that?
Oh, if that Well, that was where like my mind went.
When everything started to settle down, 'cause you never really, you never really let your mind go to what hap- like to the result of the game.
And so it, it's a lot to like take in when the games over of all the things that ha- happening.
We're going on stage.
Yeah.
Hey, like my family's around here somewhere.
So that, that's, that's kinda where, "Oh, shoot, okay, we won.
Great.
Like where's Steph?
Where's Jack?"
You know?
And so they told, they told us that they were by the, by the stage.
So went to go try to find them and, I just r- I, I, I remember, you know, when you watch all the Super Bowl, like the history of the Super Bowl, I remember Drew Brees and his son- Mm-hmm with the headphones and he's holding him up and his son's like majestically looking up into the sky, you know?
And there's confetti falling, and it's this magical moment.
And then I fi- finally see Jack, and he likes, he's crying.
He's mad.
So reality kinda hit us pretty quick, but, you know, it's, it's funny.
Like you, you're micced up in, in a lot of these moments, and those moments are the ones you don't realize that And you're like happy that they capture.
You know?
That there's a camera on you and they're- catching what you're saying, 'cause we'll have that for, for the rest of our lives, so that's cool.
I think you told Jack, correct me if I'm wrong, but you said one day you'll, you'll really appreciate this a- Yeah this day, right?
Yeah.
"You're gonna like this day."
Yeah.
When you hug him- Well, 'cause he was cry- he was crying.
Right.
And it was like, I was just like, "Hey buddy, like-" " I think this is a pretty I think one day you're gonna actually appreciate what's going on here," you know?
So He loved the confetti.
Like, he liked checking out all the, like the ropes and all the things, and the contraptions, but- What do you hope that he knows or understands about his father when he watches some of those moments back?
Man, I think, I think he's given, like Steph and I perspective on like what we're, what we're doing and why, you know?
Like you watch yourself on Hard Knocks, and you know, sometimes I'm saying, like swear where I'm like, "Ah, gotta watch my language," You know, "Jax gonna watch this one day," you know?
Or like how, just how we go about it and what we're about.
Like you're really playing a long game now.
And so it just adds perspective in, in, in what we're trying to do, you know?
Like they Like the whole vision of like It too, I mean, this is a great picture because I'm seeing like our community of Seattle of like being able to bring it together, and that's really what-- That's really the why behind everything and- you know.
So hopefully he sees that.
Yeah.
I look at Seattle too.
When you first got the job, you were the youngest coach in the league, and now y- you got to celebrate having a Lombardi Trophy.
Just tell me the difference, like the, the journey that you've been on in those two years- and th- the coach that you are now- Yeah in comparison to when you first showed up in this city.
Yeah.
There's a lot of faith involved 'cause there, there was a lotta fog.
There was a lotta fog, in our first year even.
I mean, there, there still is.
You know, there's uncertainty in what we're doing and how we do it, and how you build training camp, and who you acquire, and, you know, who you're gonna ha- You know, all the, all the, all the decisions you're making, you know, it's easy to second guess yourself.
But I think, like, I think the faith behind of like the why and what we're trying to build is really what like kept us through it, you know?
Like the relationships you have with family, and guys like John Schneider, and the other folks in our building.
Like that's been an incredibly rewarding process.
But, way more clarity now.
You know?
And, and seeing that like the way that we've done business has had success.
And part of the way that we've done it is we realize that we don't know all the answers, and we're trying to chase things.
And you realize that there's problems that need to be solved, and it, it takes a lot of people, you know, to help like solve those problems.
And that's re- Like, like that's, that's the rewarding process that we wanna, we wanna be able to replicate.
Something I love about you is you're like, "We learned that the way we do things can create some success."
And it's like you are standing a foot away from the Lombardi Trophy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's true.
Y- you know?
It's, I, that's a Like I, I don't see the trophy and saying, "Oh, that's, that's our trophy."
It's just, I, it just, it's I don't know.
It just, I, I don't Maybe it still hasn't like hit yet of like what it, what it means.
I just, I know that's hard to like comprehend, but- .
yeah.
It, it's just, it's really surreal.
It really is.
It still is.
But I think, I think we're also i- Like life comes at you fast, right?
Like the, the Super Bowl happens, the parade happens, and like we're off, you know?
We're at the combine.
And so it really puts things, kinda checks your reality of like what are we trying to-- What are we shooting for here?
Are we shooting for a way of life?
Are we shooting for a, a bigger vision of what we're trying to create?
Or are we trying to collect heart?
You know, you know.
Our 'Cause I think if you solely focus on that, you lose.
It's harder to achieve.
You know, you kinda have to let go of that.
You have to like trust that that's gon- that'll come, but easy to say now w- we did it
