I Thought The Season Was Over?

The Miami Dolphins took a “bottlenose” dive the last three weeks of the season and I think we can all agree that the finale last Sunday brought a reprieve of listening to the weekly “Dan Henning” rhetoric and the lack of national media coverage. The season ended in a debacle and we all said “whew, Thank God that’s over“.

We knew that going into the off-season would be a little crazy as we shuffled some coaches around, some players out of town, and even possibly a coaching change. None of us thought it would be like this.

So with only a short few days removed from the last game, the Dolphins still have their HC, Dan Henning has yet to get fired, and players are firing off.

And here I thought the season was over!

I honestly didn’t think that the Dolphins could become a league wide joke.  Sure the Cam Cameron campaign was rather funny and the “entire Ginn family” is still a running joke but at least we still have the Greg Camarillo overtime highlight.  Plus there was zero waiting to decide their fates at the end of the season.  But this off-season?  Well let’s just all be thankful that Al Davis is still alive and in control of the Raiders.

Yesterday Al Davis fired coach Tom Cable.  Cable only took the team to its first .500 record or better since their last Super Bowl appearance back in the early 2000’s.  He was 6-0 against division opponents and the Raiders were actually a team that mattered.  So naturally you fire the coach.  Crazy.  But at least they keep the Dolphins out of the woodshed.

What is going on in Miami is becoming a serious issue.  The owner is conducting a coaching search while he still holds on to the lame duck coach he has back in Davie.  There is no “For all intent and purpose” here, Tony Sparano is done in Miami.  The lack of faith from the owner only serves to make this even more of a joke by keeping him on a leash in case everyone else turns him down.

Ross had an opportunity to put his fingerprint, his stamp if you will, on the Dolphins organization.  This is his first off-season as full control owner and it was his chance to show the Dolphins fans who he was.  He could have come out Monday and said, “Tony is staying” and fans would have supported that, some more than others.  He could have done the opposite and fans would have supported that too.

It would have been viewed as needed change.

Instead, we get this.

We get to listen to the ‘Zen” master pot head Ricky Williams take parting shots at just about everyone.  We get to hear Brandon Marshall basically say that Chad Henne should have changed the routes and listened to him instead of the coaches.  We hear about Tyler Thigpen and Marshall becoming sideline buddies and WR Brian Hartline call out the offense for being so one dimensional and unwavering.

Something Dolphins fans have been saying, out loud, since day one of the season.  I even mentioned that to Ronnie Brown way back in week 2 when I interviewed him.  He defended it of course.

So here we are.  For the first time in Dolphins history, I really didn’t think this would ever happen, the Phins are holding on to a head coach while actively searching for another one.  There is no future to get jacked up about and even a 15th overall draft pick comes with the realization that the team will watch it’s biggest need, QB, fly off the board not once, not twice, but possibly five times before they get on the clock.  Leaving them to trade down and gain another 2nd rounder where they will draft another 2nd round QB who won’t amount to anything.

Ahhhh, the off-season.  It used to be fun, exciting, and exhilarating.  Now it’s just crazy and bordering on ridiculous.