The perfect script: Josh McDaniels returns to Canton as Las Vegas Raiders head coach

CANTON — Thursday wasn't the first time Josh McDaniels came to work with a million things on his mind.

In this case McDaniels was in his hello game as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders amidst a "surreal" (he kept using that word) homecoming.

There he was at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium for the Hall of Fame Game, thanking everyone for coming out even as his Raiders went up on Jacksonville, 20-0. Glowing over the north wall was his old friend, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the oak tree out the bedroom window of his football life. It was the same land where he was senior quarterback of the Canton McKinley Bulldogs when they won all those thrillers in 1994.

McDaniels' baby face is changed enough to remind you he's not a kid any more. At 46, he is more famous than plenty of head coaches as he draws the first breaths of his second wind as an NFL boss.

By Feb. 3, 2019, he was an expert at arranging 999,999 thoughts to the side and doing a job with one.

He was in Atlanta with the Patriots that Sunday. On the mile ride to Super Bowl 53, the New England bus rolled by a famed chicken place, a downtown Ferris wheel, the Georgia Aquarium and the CNN building.

It's easy for me to remember that night because there was ice cream in the press box, and a call came in just before kickoff.

"Congratulations, grandpa," my wife said, a few minutes after little Leo Doerschuk arrived back home at Aultman Hospital.

Super Bowls tend to run together for Thom McDaniels, because his son has been in so many of them. Thom distinctly recalls that he and a couple of his grandchildren, Josh's kids, took a ride on that Ferris wheel while in Atlanta for the big game.

The game itself was stuck in the air in the fourth quarter, tied at 3-3. The play callers, Sean McVay for the Rams, McDaniels for the Patriots, arm wrestled for the Lombardi trophy.

It was no time to bounce their plays off the cute back story. Namely, McVay knew all about the Canton McKinley-Massillon rivalry from his famous grandpa John, who played for Massillon in days of yore; Josh knew all about it because his dad, Thom, was McKinley's head coach when Josh played quarterback for the Bulldogs in the 100th and 101st McKinley-Massillon games.

It was time for McDaniels to feed the GOAT.

On consecutive plays, Tom Brady threw to his right, to Rob Gronkowski, went over the middle, to Julian Edelman, dropped a dink to running back Rex Burkhead, then fired deep left, to Gronk. Four snaps, 67 yards. Sony Michel's subsequent 2-yard TD run led to a confetti shower.

It was Bill Belichick's ninth Super Bowl as New England's head coach. McDaniels was with him for every one and is the only Belichick hire who can say so.

Weird. Super Bowls running together. Versus a practice game the family will never forget.

Josh estimated his personal entourage in the seats at Hall of Fame Stadium to be in "triple figures."

"Calling it 'the perfect storm' isn't the right phrase," Thom McDaniels said, "but …"

Lightning bolts from all over seemed to strike at midfield.

It was the debut for both head coaches, McDaniels and Jacksonville's Doug Pederson, who replace iconic Ohioans fired during the 2021 season, Jon Gruden and Urban Meyer.

Think back to 2000. Belichick debuted as head coach of the Patriots in the Hall of Fame Game. He won. Then he lost, a lot, including to a bad Browns team using Pederson at quarterback.

Belichick kept his job in 2001, when he hired McDaniels as a low-level assistant. Josh arrived at a good time. The Super Bowls arrived immediately.

Pederson made his claim to fame on Feb. 4, 2018, when he coached the Eagles to a 41-33 win. The opponent was New England. The matchup of play callers was Pederson vs. McDaniels.

Their meeting in Canton wasn't full of social time for McDaniels. His Raiders stayed at a hotel in Cleveland.It wasn't Josh's first stay in Cuyahoga County. He played college football there (John Carroll). His wife (Laura) grew up there.

In January of 2020, Freddie Kitchens and McDaniels interviewed for the Browns' opening. McDaniels and Jimmy Haslam sized each other up in an episode that might have been great stuff for Hard Knocks.

Based on our knowledge of the session, McDaniels shared his vision with candor. Haslam and his people listened respectfully. They did not hit it off.

The Browns leaked a story about McDaniels coming in third in final considerations, behind Kevin Stefanski and Robert Saleh.

Some of the candor was not appreciated.

Stefanski is well liked by Browns fans, but the honeymoon ended at about the time his team lost 45-7 at New England last November. The game played out as if Belichick, a tremendous ally of McDaniels, sat down with his protege and said, "Let's do a little something extra with that Cleveland game."

McDaniels spent his final two seasons as Belichick's offensive coordinator without Brady.

He is in a happier place at the moment than Stefanski, with everything fresh and new as he finally gets to test his matured vision of running a franchise, as opposed to enduring an offseason that gave root canal a bad name.

The Raiders traveled from Cleveland to Canton on Thursday afternoon. It was a bus ride home.

A police escort led the team through Akron, the town from which McDaniels took his last two rides home as a McKinley Bulldog.

On Nov. 19, 1994, in the Rubber Bowl, he faced Massillon in a playoff game described thusly by historian Charlie Bowersox:

"The 101st meeting was the 101st win for Coach Thom McDaniels. It was, without a doubt, the best game ever played in the series. From the press box, I watch the Rubber Bowl fill up. It was packed, 34,208 fans, some standing six deep, some still coming in at halftime. Some never got in."

McKinley trailed 20-19 in the fourth quarter before McDaniels threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Mark Thewes. McDaniels then caught a two-point conversion pass from Julius Lancaster on a trick play. The Bulldogs won 27-20, two weeks after falling 42-41 at Massillon in the 100th game.

The last ride back to Fawcett Stadium came a week later, after a loss in the state semifinals to Cleveland St. Ignatius in the Rubber Bowl.What happens in the Hall of Fame Game is hardly ever a story. It was way more fun to kick around the elements of McDaniels' "perfect storm." Such as …

He coached his first game with the Raiders on the same acres where he spent his boyhood. McKinley had an unforgettable 1994 season when he was a senior. Most of the games were decided on the Bulldogs' last possession, including wins over Louisville and Central Catholic, and the two Massillon games.

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In recent days, McDaniels shared with his Raiders the long version of the Marion Motley story. Short version: Motley played at McKinley, turned pro, equated to Jackie Robinson as a Black pioneer breaking race barriers, and had a Hall of Fame career with a Cleveland Browns dynasty.

On Wednesday, McDaniels was on a bus that rolled by a newly unveiled Motley statue and emptied out at McKinley High School. The Raiders marched through the halls where McDaniels was a student, came out at the stadium, took an elevator to the field, and from there strolled to the Hall of Fame.

Behind the scenes, McDaniels was a big supporter of the Motley statue, including with his wallet.

Road signs recently went up marking "McDaniels Way," near the Motley Statue.

Two ex-Raiders, Cliff Branch and Richard Seymour, are part of the Hall of Fame's Class of 2022, which will be enshrined Saturday.

"You couldn't have scripted it any better," Thom McDaniels said.

The Hall of Fame Game, relaxed as it was, wasn't a social visit. Josh didn't make it to the Jackson Township home of his parents, Chris and Thom.

The family is adjusting to Josh and Laura and their children relocating to Nevada. Their son Jack Thomas McDaniels is a football player going into his senior year of high school. While his dad was taking care of football business the last several days, Jack Thomas, who wants to play college football, made visits to John Carroll, Case Western Reserve, Baldwin-Wallace and Walsh.

"We were in the same time zone when they were living on the East Coast," Thom McDaniels said. "Now I'm up cutting grass at Elms (golf course) at 6 a.m., and it's 3 a.m. out there. Josh catches his mom at the beginning of his day.

"Almost never does a day go by when he doesn't talk to her or me."

Josh's interviews are a page out of Belichick. His mission in Canton, he said, was "to learn about the players and go home a better team."

It would have been fascinating to follow McDaniels as head coach of the Browns, with their unending quarterback issues. Now he has a quarterback, Derek Carr, who has been the Raiders' starter since 2014, but has a shaky career record of 57-70.

The man from Canton brings his measured message to the land of Al Davis, the late Hall of Fame Raiders czar whose mantra in life was, "Just win, baby."

Josh McDaniels would never say this, but Al would have smiled had he responded, "Nine Super Bowls, baby."

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Josh McDaniels makes Las Vegas Raiders coaching debut in Canton