Reunited in Miami, Surtain and Madison hope to help lead Dolphins ‘back to prominence’
Two days before Super Bowl Sunday, Sam Madison was at Disney World with his 11-year-old son. Little did he know his coaching career was about to take a turn with a plot befitting a Disney film.
The former Dolphins All-Pro cornerback was already in talks with new coach Mike McDaniel for a position on his staff but when he returned to Miami, he got a call from good friend Patrick Surtain, whom he starred alongside in Miami’s secondary for several years during the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The two met together the night of Feb. 16, hours after reports Madison was joining the team as cornerbacks coach excited nostalgic fans. Surtain told Madison he was also interviewing to join McDaniel’s staff.
Two days later, reports surfaced Surtain was set to return to the Dolphins as a defensive assistant. On Wednesday afternoon, the duo was officially introduced as Dolphins coaches, speaking side-by-side on the team’s practice field.
“Dream come true. You never thought that something like this would come to fruition,” said Madison, who thanked coach Andy Reid for allowing him to return to Miami despite having one more year on his contract as Kansas City Chiefs cornerbacks coach.
As their post-Dolphins playing careers brought them to different cities and at one point back to Miami as high school coaches — Madison at St. Thomas Aquinas and Surtain at Plantation American Heritage — the pair always kept in touch.
“We’re always going to be linked together,” Surtain said. “It’s crazy, he was drafted in ‘97 with the 44th pick, I was drafted in ‘98 with the 44th pick. It’s some correlation there. Even when I went to Kansas City, he went to the Giants, we remained friends. I followed his career when he moved up in the game and would tell him how happy I was for him. And he’d do the same thing when I was at Heritage. It’s a special relationship that’s been around for 20-some-odd years.
“It started at the Little League level here in South Florida and now we’re at the highest level with the Miami Dolphins. At the crib, so it’s special.”
Surtain said he “kind of had an idea” McDaniel wanted to bring some “homegrown players” to a new staff that also includes wide receivers coach Wes Welker, who spent his first three seasons in the NFL with the Dolphins. Surtain said he had a “great situation” at American Heritage, where he won three state titles, but when general manager Chris Grier called to say the team had an opening on the defensive staff, it took him all of “two seconds” to mull over the opportunity.
“Any time you can get to the highest level of your profession and have it at home, it made a lot of sense to me and my family,” Surtain said.
Surtain would often travel to games for his son Patrick Surtain II, who just completed his rookie season with the Denver Broncos, but he would still “keep an eye on the home team.” When in Miami, he’d often attend games at Hard Rock Stadium.
“I was yelling at Club LIV because I was at most of the games, so I don’t know know if they heard me,” Surtain joked.
During Surtain and Madison’s time as teammates, from 1998 to 2004, the cornerback tandem combined to make six All-Pro teams and seven Pro Bowls. In their first year as Dolphins coaches, they’ll have a pair of cornerbacks also regarded as one of the NFL’s best duos in Xavien Howard and Byron Jones.
Madison, who spent the last three seasons coaching the Chiefs’ cornerbacks, remembers when Jones signed with the Dolphins in 2020 and paired with Howard, prompting fan reaction comparing the two to him and Surtain. Madison said he welcomed the comparisons then and even more so now.
“They’re going to be expected to do some really good things on the backend,” Madison said, “because of the way this team is built and we’re going to need it. ... That’s the way it was with us, and that’s the way it’s going to be with them.”
The last time the Dolphins won a playoff game, Madison and Surtain were right in the middle of the action of a 23-17 overtime win over the Indianapolis Colts in the 2000 season. With that institutional knowledge of the team — and an understanding of a passionate fanbase — comes an extra motivation to pour back into the franchise that did so much for them during their playing days.
“It’s going to be fun to get it back to prominence,” Surtain said. “That’s what we’re looking forward to. ... This organization is starving to get back to prominence and hopefully we can do that.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 8:01 PM.
