Showing 11 - 14 of 14 posts found matching: joe philbin

The more I see of Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Miami Dolphins on HBO, the more I'm left wondering, "why would any team voluntarily participate in that?" Athletes are humiliated, and coaches are exposed as clueless. Where's the up side?

The big moment in the second episode was the firing of Chad Johnson. Johnson was arrested last weekend on a charge of domestic battery against his wife of just over a month. The footage on last week's Hard Knocks hardly portrayed the pair as a loving couple. They barely looked at each other and came across as as two individual desperate for more time in front of the cameras. I guess this is another lesson in being careful what you wish for.

My problem with the situation wasn't that the Dolphins released Johnson, but how they did it. Johnson entered Head Coach Joe Philbin's office well aware of what he had done. Rather than let Johnson know that he was being cut, Philbin let the poor, desperate man dangle for a few minutes before weakly dismissing him with more of his milquetoast "I'm not trying to be a dictator" bullshit. I suspect that Philbin was trying to come across as sympathetic or considerate, but managed only to act uncomfortably embarrassed as he fidgeted in his overstuffed seat. Way to lead, Joe. I'm sure both men were glad there were cameras present to capture the moment for posterity.

In all fairness, I have to say that my growing distaste for Philbin has not been helped any by the series editors. In both of the episodes so far, the lead-in has edited a series of events to put Philbin's actions and comments out of context. Last week, we opened with Philbin failing to give a player a chance, unaware that uniquely incompetent General Manager Jeff Ireland had already rigged the game behind the scenes. This week, we heard Philbin's side of a telephone conversation that sounded like it was belittling his wife's relationship with Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid's wife, instead of commiserating about both Philbin and Reid having recently lost children. Maybe the man puts his foot in his mouth naturally, but NFL Films isn't doing him any favors.

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I watched the debut of HBO's Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Miami Dolphins last night. You know there's something wrong with your team when watching training camp is more entertaining than watching actual games.

What did we learn about our new coach in the first episode? Not a whole heck of a lot. Head Coach Joe Philbin comes across like a competent middle manager, which is a considerable change of pace from his macho (and oft mustachioed) predecessors. I'm not nuts about his "we're a family" speech to the player's families or his "this isn't a dictatorship/I'm open to discussion" approach to laying down the law, which I typically perceive as a dictator masquerading as a man of the people. It's even worse when Philbin invokes the name of perennial loser George Costanza when naming his starting quarterback for the first preseason game. Not good signs.

Naturally the program focused heavily on the three quarterbacks fighting for a starting position and camera-hog Chad Johnson. Very rarely did we get any glimpse of returning Dolphins stars Jake Long, Cameron Wake, Davone Bess, or even Reggie Bush. I guess that there is less drama watching returning established players, but I'd certainly feel better about the team if I could see some of the players that have proven themselves worth rooting for.

All in all, there's no point in getting bent out of shape yet. There's still plenty of time (and episodes) for that.

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I'm not the only one pissed off that the Dolphins have added 2012 to their string of inexplicably terrible off-seasons. There were protests outside of Dolphins headquarters yesterday after the Dolphins released Yeremiah Bell for "cap space." The protesters carried "Fireland" placards to suggest what they think of General Manager Jeff Ireland. (Personally, I assume the "F" stands for "fuck.") The Dolphins had plenty of room under the salary cap to recruit an injured, 36-year-old Peyton Manning, but not enough room to keep a healthy, 34-year-old Bell? Is it a coincidence that Bell is the only consistently competent player in the Dolphins' secondary? Ye gods, what is Jeff Ireland doing?

To make matters worse, the Dolphins are privately saying that they have no interest in Tim Tebow, or as we call him around here, "Touchdown Jesus." I suspect that this means that new coach Joe Philbin thinks that Tebow sucks, which means that Philbin and I are starting out on the wrong foot. Right now, Philbin has on his roster a quarterback not good enough to play for the worst team in the NFL in 2010, and a quarterback not good enough to play for anyone in 2011.

Surely, Tebow, who managed to motivate his left-for-dead-in-week-5 team into a playoff victory, has to be worse than those two quarterbacks, right, Joe Philbin? You sure would hate to have to build a team around a quarterback like Tebow, especially since you already have such a fine team now, right, Joe Philbin? We shouldn't point out that your former protege Matt Flynn pointedly chose to compete for a job in Seattle rather than start for you, should we, Joe Philbin?

Bah. The 2012 Dolphins are already starting to smell like dead fish.

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No, I did not forget about yesterday's post. I was just too depressed to write. Two thousand-twelve is shaping up to be the latest in a long series of disasters for the Miami Dolphins.

First, the Dolphins say goodbye to former first-round pick Chad Henne. Henne had been the starting quarterback for the last three years. But new team coach Joe Philbin decided that he could do better. In all fairness to Philbin, he probably can.

Second, the most-celebrated-free-agent-ever, Peyton Manning, tells the Dolphins that there is no way he would play for the team. This is despite the fact that Peyton already owns a house in Miami, and the Dolphins typically have ideal football weather for a non-domed stadium. It probably didn't help that the Dolphins management traded away the only deep-threat receiver on the roster while they were in the process of trying to woo Peyton. If you aren't sabotaging your own plans, you aren't a member of Dolphins management.

Third, Matt Flynn signed with the Seahawks. Flynn is the back-up quarterback who stepped into Philbin's system in Green Bay and proved that starter Aaron Rogers isn't the source of the Packer's powerful offence. In their infinite wisdom, the Dolphins' management figured that since Flynn's former quarterback coach Philbin was now the Dolphins' head coach, signing Flynn would be a slam dunk. So they simply refused to offer Flynn the contract he was asking for. If anyone ever asks you how to sign a free agent, be aware that the answer is not "don't give him what he wants."

Now the Dolphins are stuck with journeyman Matt Moore as the only quarterback on the roster. Surely, the team is hoping either to land whichever quarterback is dislodged by the winner in the Peyton Manning sweepstakes (either Alex Smith or Tim Tebow) or to find Texas A&M's Ryan Tannehill available to be selected 8th in April's draft. Given their track record, I expect them to screw those options up as well.

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To be continued...

 

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