Jeff Hafley had his second interview with the Miami Dolphins on Monday and, by the end of the day, he was the team’s head coach. But that deal with the Dolphins didn’t come without other teams doing their best to pull him away.
According to Hafley, other teams were calling him ahead of his meeting with the Dolphins and one franchise even tried to convince him to leave his hotel for an in-person meeting in the Miami area.
“A little overwhelming,” Hafley told reporters Thursday. “I had teams while I was in the hotel room trying to get me on the phone, owners trying to get me on the phone, Zooms trying to be set up. I had a team that was trying to have me leave the hotel possibly to interview in this state, but I sat in that hotel. I kept going over my notes, kept talking to [my wife] Gina, and then I went into the interview. I did, I had a plane that was waiting to take me somewhere else.”
It’s not too difficult to figure out which team was hoping to snag Hafley for an in-person meeting in South Florida. The Las Vegas Raiders’ ownership, which includes former NFL quarterback Tom Brady, set up camp in Miami for several coaching interviews this week. Hafley had a second interview with the Raiders scheduled for Wednesday that was cancelled when he accepted the Dolphins’ head coaching offer.
“I had six teams call me right after to try to set up a flight to go out there and most know those teams just by reading through it,” Hafley said. “I chose to come here first.”
In addition to the Dolphins and Raiders, Hafley also interviewed with the Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Tennessee Titans. He was scheduled to meet with the Titans in Nashville on Tuesday. According to NFL reporter Jordan Schultz, Hafley was “a likely finalist everywhere he’s interviewed.”
Prior to joining the Dolphins, Hafley spent two seasons as defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers.
This article originally appeared on Dolphins Wire: Raiders tried to get Jeff Hafley to leave his Miami hotel for interview
