No-frills Sparano will take a bare-knuckles approach

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No-frills Sparano will take a bare-knuckles approach

By Dave George
Palm Beach Post Columnist

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

PALM BEACH — Got to watch out for those anonymous offensive linemen. They're smart, and often come equipped with a sneaky sense of humor that only teammates get to appreciate.

Take Tony Sparano, former center at the University of New Haven. He's low-keying it these days as the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins, but on Tuesday he couldn't avoid an early-morning media session at the NFL owners' meetings, or the spicy, dance-themed Jason Taylor questions that reporters brought to the table along with the bacon and eggs.

"There's a lot worse things that our players right now can be doing out there," Sparano said in reference to J.T.'s customized off-season conditioning program as a contestant on Dancing With the Stars.

"Jason's out there and competing and he's doing well. I just keep telling him, ëAs many wins as you can chalk up, that's a good problem. We'll take as many small victories as we can.' Every week he sticks around, we win one more."

After that, of course, it was right back to draft strategy and free agency and the urgent need to upgrade what remains of last year's 1-15 Dolphins, but that little flash of personality and spontaneity in Sparano's comments confirmed what little we already know about him.

He's a regular guy. A Bill Parcells guy. A guy who shows up in a fancy oceanfront dining room at The Breakers hotel in the stylish and casual resort wear of the day, but with a plain white T-shirt underneath.

Cam Cameron was more polished in front of a crowd as a rookie head coach in the NFL, but pretty rough when it came to converting all that stage presence into Sunday-afternoon success.

Sparano has a chance to reverse that equation. With the conversational habit of saying "I seen this" or "I seen that," he talks tough without even trying.

He'll get directly into the faces of his players, too, in the weight room and in the film room, while Parcells stares down the bulk of the mini-cams outside. It's a plan that could work, dividing duties in a way completely opposite of Nick Saban's consolidation of power in Miami.

And if Sparano - who called plays for Big Tuna at Dallas - is viewed as little more than a facilitator of Parcells' master plans, he can live with that at first. Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin head a long list of former Parcells assistants who have done fairly well for themselves in this league.

"I want Bill on the practice field when he can," Sparano said. "I want his eyes. This guy has done it. I don't have that kind of ego. That's not me."

Sparano doesn't mean that he lacks the ego to be a head coach, but rather that he lacks the level of insecurity to worry about being overshadowed.

That's important, since Dan Henning, Miami's new offensive coordinator, is an old Parcells pal from their days coaching together on the 1970 Florida State staff. Henning, too, has been an NFL head coach, in Atlanta and San Diego, and he won a couple of Super Bowl rings as offensive coordinator for Joe Gibbs at Washington.

Sparano wore no rings to his Breakers appearance, befitting the new regime's bare-knuckles approach. He spoke of finding "the right 53 players," committed to the cause of rescuing this franchise's reputation, rather than "the best 53 players," who may be as self-involved as they are talented.

"I'd like to think there are a few guys on the team who are guaranteed starters," said Sparano, "but if there's one thing I want all my players to hear, it is that there will be competition at every position. Every player is going to have to show me he can do it, and if it's veteran players, they're going to have to show me they can still do it."

Sparano said he expects Ronnie Brown to be healthy by training camp, and expects Ricky Williams, pumping iron back at Davie even as we speak, to push him hard. Miami's young offensive line could develop into something as stout as others he has built, Sparano said, and the coaching staff already has been tinkering with John Beck's throwing motion to help him avoid getting passes batted down. Oh, and extensive film review supports the belief that Ted Ginn Jr. is running better routes and turning into a reliable pro.

On the biggest question, Sparano gave an answer that demonstrated how much he defers to his own bosses, Parcells and General Manager Jeff Ireland, on the actual stocking of the roster.

"There's no one position that's more important than another going into this draft," Sparano said. "It will depend on what's out there."

The Dolphins draft first, their reward for being so thoroughly rotten. They already know what's out there, and they have dibs on whoever looks best. Parcells and the rest of the personnel team will make their final wishes known at the proper time, to the head coach and to all others concerned.

"There isn't a day that goes by where I don't walk into Bill's office or we don't have a phone contact," Sparano said. "I love listening to him, getting his thoughts on different things. It's part of what's made me right now."

And what would that be? A no-nonsense taskmaster in the mold of Big Tuna. A foreman who will take the draft picks and free agents whom Parcells and Ireland provide, knock the shine off them and drive them through a summer of steamy accountability.

Show me, Sparano will tell the new conglomeration of strangers who we'll come to know as the Dolphins.

Show me is the same thing Parcells will tell his hand-picked head coach, every time Tony walks into his office.