Former Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin new Packers HC
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins media and fans got a bit of a laugh on Sunday night when it was announced that the teams former head coach Joe Philbin would be the interim head coach of the Packers.
On Sunday the Miami Dolphins spent their day escaping a last minute charge by the Buffalo Bills to improve to .500 on the season but in Green Bay following a loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the Packers were firing head coach Mike McCarthy and handing over the coaching job to Joe Philbin.
According to Sun-Sentinel beat writer Omar Kelly, the announcement brought a round of laughter by the local media who covered Philbin’s years with the Dolphins.
Upon hearing the news that Joe Philbin is now the interim coach of the Packers the Dolphins' media contingent breaking out in laughter. (I'm not exaggerating). https://t.co/SEhFOlyvR1
— Omar Kelly (@OmarKelly) December 3, 2018
Yes, laughter. The jokes were flowing from media members recalling Philbin saying he was “queasy” during a late game situation. To fans recounting his time on HBO’s Hard Knocks picking up gum wrappers and telling players to tie their shoes. But Philbin wasn’t all that bad.
Universally players respected Joe Philbin while in Miami. That waned considerably in his final season but Philbin was above all else a very good person with deep family beliefs. That may not translate to winning football games but jokes aside it’s nice to see him at least still being thought of in terms of leading the Packers for the rest of this season.
Philbin left Miami in 2015 after being fired following the teams fourth game of the season with a 1-3 record to start that year. He was replaced by Dan Cambell. Known more for his game management and ill-advised uses of timeouts, Philbin never could find a mix that worked.
Philbin also was roped into a power struggle between Dawn Aponte and Jeff Ireland that left the team rattled adding to that was his inability to find an offensive coordinator that could move the team forward. Now he is tasked as the caretaker for the Packers.
Philbin has almost no chance of retaining the title once the season is over regardless of what happens in the last four weeks of the season. The Packers season is over for all intent and purposes so he is now simply going to keep things moving towards what will be one of the hottest coaching vacancies when the season concludes.