Miami Dolphins Fire Tony Sparano, But Why Now?

The best time to fire Sparano was at the end of last season. The sorry coach was too stupid to lobby for a 1st round QB and stuck with the woeful Henne. The writing was on the wall before the season began. At least if we had fired Sparano last year this could have been a rebuilding year instead of next year.

Maybe Ross did feel more pressure to fire now than later with other jobs opening up but I doubt any of the non coaching candidates are accepting jobs until after the season is over.

I think the best reason was to end the circus. It was inevitable and waiting just left Sparano to deal with the constant questioning.

They have 5 -6 weeks to get someone in place and whatever other changes are going to happen when the last day of the season happens like Ireland gone. You know if we get a proven head coach they are going to want someone in Irelands place they work well with….right?. The important thing is we need to get the new regime in as soon as possible so they can evaluate what their needs are, what we have that fits their plan and what they need to acquire draft etc. The sooner the better please for the love of god tell me you had a plan in place and just did not fire him. As my dad had always told me make a plan and work your plan, so lets see it Dolphins, work your plan.

But this is a results oriented business and he failed. BUT WHY DO WE STILL HAVE IRELAND!!!!!!

He is as much to blame for this crap as Sparano. Ireland brought us some good players but way too many bad calls.

Here are a few in no particular order

1. Having the first pick and not drafting a QB
2. Pat White( even if he was a success a 2nd round for 4-5 plays a game)
3. Odrick instead of a QB
4. Henne as the future of the team
5.Jake Grove
6. Justin Smiley
7. Green (CB)
8. Wilford (WR)
9. The safety I forgot his name they paid huge money
10. Not getting a QB to challenge Henne and when Moore was playing better than him not letting him compete for the job

I think Ross was worried that Miami might win out. They are playing much better football these days. In the unlikely, but possible, scenario where Miami actually beat the hated Bills, Jets, and Patriots the last three weeks to end up 7-9, Miami would have been in a really bad place. It would be so much harder to fire Sparano under those circumstances. He would have finished the season 7-2 over the last 9 games, with one of those losses the Thanksgiving Day loss, and would have secured a winning divisional record in a tough division. In that scenario, Miami would certainly be mentioned as a hot team with promise for next year… and would have made firing Sparano even more awkward than it already was. By doing it now, if they win out, it helps support the idea that Sparano was the problem. And if they don’t, it doesnt necessarily relieve him of being the scapegoat… you can still argue that the team simply was not ready at the start of the season. By firing him now, you avoid a stickier situation.

I genuinely liked Sparano. But he really has some questionable ideas when it comes to game calls and clock management… two things that are directly under the purview of the head coach. One example of what I mean is the Dallas game where we lost when we got the ball back with over 5 minutes to go and only a two point lead… and we tried to run the clock out. Everyone knew we would run on first down. Dallas stopped it. On second down we tried a roll-out… basically… throw it to someone if he is blatantly wide open, otherwise keep it and don’t go out of bounds. Then, third and long, throw incomplete. Dallas had so much time left they had to run the clock down themselves to secure the victory. This is why I feel Sparano had to go. Belichik would have come out of that same situation with a 4 minute touchdown drive, throwing the ball probably 70% of the time. He goes for the kill. You can also argue that Miami has not been well prepared going into seasons under Sparano. These things outweigh the fact that he has a tireless work ethic and does a great job with connecting with his players.

I don’t mind Ireland… I think he has done an OK job with assembling talent. I dont hold it against him that he didnt draft a QB in any of his first rounds…. the only really decent QB he passed on was Ryan, and was and still am fine with the choice of Long over Ryan, given the situation as it was (having to guarantee so much money to a #1 overall pick). But if keeping Ireland costs us Cowher, its a huge mistake.

1. That we won 4 games.
2. That this didn’t happen after week #7
3. That Ireland and Sparano were not holding hands helping each other pack boxes.

Now it is on the new coaching staff to turn this around? Again? Wow we are a broken record franchise! Keep Mike Nolan! Daboll out. and the rest of them. Another long late winter and spring until April….This is getting old!! Case Keenum #1 pick.

to think that Miami had to act now to compete with Kansas City and Jacksonville tells you how far down the line Miami is these days. The ownership is unproven in the NFL and the GM is still unproven. Sure Miami’s roster is a heck of a lot better than when this team was 1-15 but it still has yet to be shown to be a playoff roster. I can name 10 moves the Pats made that haven’t panned out, so doing so is goofy in analyzing the total roster made by the GM. Ireland has clearly built a better roster than there was 5 years ago (but how much was him and how much was Parcels will be debated until this team gets into the post season again). This next coaching move is probably going to have long range effects on showing if and how Ross can handle owning a sports team and if Miami can regain that “destination wanted” feel for free agents and coaching talent. Sparano failed as a coach because he could not build an offensive line and thus simply could not keep his QBs healthy.

Although it seemed to be a great decision to hire the tuna as HFO – who knew he was going to drag his buddies from Dallas along with him? IMHO Tony is a good guy and perhaps a great O line coach but it’s apparent after the second year (give him the first year because he was smart enough to get Pennington) – if that were his decision – any way – Tony was not and still is not ready for prime time HFC ing. The brain trust of the tuna regime made some good and some bad decisions but I do not believe the tuna gave a rats furry behind about rebuilding another team and left when the leaving was good.

Something I feel strongly about and have mentioned before – not that it matters now BUT it’s my belief the experienced coaches – coaches willing to ignore the rules….say a guy like Belicheck (sp) got their entire organization together at an undisclosed location and held a training camp during the lockout. Tony and others followed the rules and did not do so. That’s my opinion as to why teams like NE, GB and others came out of the lockout looking polished and teams like Miami came out looking very unpolished. It took Miami 7 games to start to look competitive – like they actually knew what they were doing. There is no proof of this but I believe there was some hanky panky going on during the lockout.

I would like to see Miami sue the tuna and get their money back. just a thought. Good luck Tony

because we know Cowher is not taking any job except for the Giants, and Coughlin, while getting old, is still better than Jeff Fischer and Jon Gruden. The Giants want to dump Coughlin and would probably accept low round draft picks for him.

God… People talking about Coughlin, Rob Ryan…. That would suck. The only known coach Id be excited for is Cowher, but that seems unlikely. Too bad…. I think he’s still got a lot of energy in him.