The Miami Dolphins may not be very good this year, but that doesn't mean they won't be strategic. In a game where every detail counts, sometimes even the smallest things matter.
Miami loves having its fans in attendance for training camp. Most NFL teams do and keep it free for them. The problem? Fans have cell phones; cell phones are used to take videos, and almost every fan has a social media account.
On Thursday, Jeff Hafley spoke about the use of videos and how it can undermine some of what they are trying to do.
Miami Dolphins HC Jeff Hafley admits fan -posted videos are giving his opponents intel ahead of games
Dolphins fans are notorious for posting practice videos. In many cases, it's a simple bomb down the sideline for a touchdown, but there are also plays that are a bit more important. In Miami, the media is not allowed to film or release video on any platform without the team's o.k., but fans are not under that restriction.
Hafley was asked about fan videos and whether or not they give anything away. The head coach said that his own assistant coach, Kevin Patullo, made him take a much deeper look at how it could create a potential problem.
"He told me that before we (the Packers) played them (the Eagles) in Brazil, he had half my pressures on tape from training camp, from people who videotaped it and put it online," Hafley said. "I remember I had a pressure that we never run, so there's no way he could have known about it, and they knew it was coming."
Hafley said that Patullo said they had seen the formation on the internet in a fan's video. The coach acknowledged that there is nothing they can really do, but that also isn't the case.
Decisions could come later, such as banning all cell phones from training camp or reducing the number of practices open to fans. Some teams, like the Raiders, will not hold any open practices for fans.
Hafley may not be able to do anything about it, but the Dolphins can, and it would be an absolute shame if this were to be removed from the fan experience. Honestly, how could they stop it?
We live in an era of high tech, and people want to capture what they see. Many fans don't post images or videos on social media, but many others do. Even if fans were told they couldn't use recording devices, plenty of them would test the rules or find a way around them. Consider that even today, the cinematic world still deals with pirated copies of first-run theatrical movies.
What is likely to change is Hafley's approach. At some point, Dolphins fans may get a much watered-down version of practices with light walk-throughs that are generic.
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