The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2011/11/earth-to-dolphins-lets-be-realistic-honest.html

Read through Armando's article. Listen to what the players are saying. We are not out of it. We have as much talent as anyone. We can play with anyone.

This is what you get from a rah-rah coach like Tony Sparano. You get a team full of players that believe that as long as they believe they have a chance to win they can win.  Well it doesn't always work. Oh they play hard on game day, I'll give them that, but the fact of the matter is they aren't working hard enough on non-game days. I don't think these guys work hard enough in practice. They don't have an edge. They don't play with a mean streak or with a chip on their shoulder that they have something to prove.

I blame that on Sparano. On his belief that any kind of success is success. Fist pumps for FG's is a good thing. Always be positive. Sometimes that works. That works well with guys that are already hard on themselves. With guys who don't need to be pushed, because they push themselves hard already. I don't think Miami has a lot of that on this team. They have a bunch of followers and precious few leaders and no one is stepping up.

Maybe that's being too hard on Sparano, but that's how I feel. That's how I've felt for 2 years now. He's a decent coach and he's got a great can do attitude, but sometimes you need a nastier attitude. You need someone who's gonna say "Playoffs!!!, don't talk to me about playoffs!!!".

So, you'd rather have a coach that is an asshole and sucks at motivating people to overachieve?

Couglin?

If you want to oversimplify it to the point of ridiculousness, then yes. History has shown those guys to be great coaches more than the reverse. I'd put Landry, Shula and Belichick in that category.

Tony Sparano's heart is and always was in the right place.  The problem is that nobody is buying into it anymore

I want a coach that falls into one of two category's.

1) FEAR--Belichick/Holmgren/Reid style where you know at any minute of any day you can be cut no matter who you are. These guys are tough to find off the street because they need years to build up currency and credibility to warrant that fear. A guy like Cowher would demand it but he might be the only one on the open market. Maybe a Billick though.

2) LOVE--The Mike Tomlin/Rex Ryan/Mike McCarthy way where the guys love the coach so much they are willing to run through a brick wall for him.


You have the Sean Payton way where he is such an outstanding playcaller that it overrides any other short comings he may have as a head coach. And other styles of head coaching can work in a given year or short-term, but I think in today's NFL the two I outlined above are the best two ways for a coach to rule. No in between or wishy-washy stuff.  It's not perfect and guys will have down years every now and then (ie Reid and Rex this year). But more times than not those are the way to go.

The "Rah-Rah" stuff works for college. Why guys like Joe Paterno (omitting the fact that he is a massive piece of scumbag fucking shit for 1 second) had been able to stay around. You come out and drop a few quotes in a Friday-afternoon pep-rally, chant some stupid fight song and run out of the tunnel with your team.

That doesn't work in the NFL. You can't be an "Ol Ball Coach" or "Dean of Linebacker U" or whatever other cute nickname at that level.

The Rah-Rah types make good assistants, but the head coach has to be able to strike a little fear in the players and get in their faces.  I really think Sparano has been going through the motions since the terrible start this year.  He's known since about game 5 that he is done after this year.

My problem with this argument is that it discounts the fact that the work factor has been removed.  Per the new CBA players can only be in pads x number of days, practice can only be so long.