Commentary: Tony Sparano will be Dolphins' guiding light

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/dolphins/content/sports/epaper/2008/07/26/a1b_stoda_0727.html

Commentary: Tony Sparano will be Dolphins' guiding light

By GREG STODA
Palm Beach Post Staff Columnist

Saturday, July 26, 2008

DAVIE — Tony Sparano gets big points for honesty Saturday afternoon on his first day of training camp as head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

"Right now, it's very, very dark out," Sparano said when asked to summarize his Friday night pre-practice message to the team. "There's no light at the end of the tunnel, so don't look for it. We'll find it somewhere down the road."

That's as blunt as the Dolphins' 1-15 record last season.

And blunt is good, because blunt is exactly what these Dolphins need. They were too pampered and coddled by Cam Cameron in his single miserable season in charge.

The truth of the matter is the Dolphins are still searching for a successor to iconic coach Don Shula, who was shoved aside (any other viewpoint is revisionist history) more than a decade ago. Shula took the Miami glory of yesteryear with him, and soon thereafter began the Dolphins' tumble into their current state of disrepair.

Jimmy Johnson, Dave Wannstedt, Jim Bates in an interim role, Nick Saban and Cameron came and went as the Dolphins dissolved from respectability to wreckage.

Now, it's Sparano's turn to take over as field boss.

He might, finally, be the right man for the job.

Sparano arrives as part of a triumvirate, in concert with Dolphinczar Bill Parcells and General Manager Jeff Ireland, trumpeted in advertisements and Web sites as A New Beginning for a franchise once proud but now an NFL dreg.

Sparano couldn't care less about that part of his gig.

He and his wife, Jeanette, were driving home from Hilton Head Island, S.C., recently when he saw a billboard featuring himself, Parcells and Ireland, and Sparano said he almost drove off the road.

Sparano looks and sounds and acts dock-worker tough, and the Dolphins could use more of that kind of grit.

Sparano is asking his team to believe in itself and in the new regime that has set about restructuring the roster. How strange, indeed, it was to see the Dolphins sweating with neither Zach Thomas, now a Dallas Cowboy, nor Jason Taylor, now a Washington Redskin, in uniform.

Thomas and Taylor, a star linebacker and defensive end, respectively, were team leaders in every possible manner, which Sparano knows full well and ... dismisses.

"One of the things I don't want is (anyone) to audition for the leadership role," Sparano said.

He figures leaders will identify themselves through hard and effective work, which is nothing if not a stevedore's code.

The Dolphins, if elder statesman Vonnie Holliday is to be believed, appreciate Sparano's methodology. If the words come out a little cold, well, so be it.

"You're like, 'Whoa!' " Holliday said after the first two-a-day session. "If he says it, it's so. We have to buy in. They're not holding any punches."

Nor should they.

The general review was that this year's practices have moved more quickly, been better organized and more upbeat than last year's workouts.

But, hey, it's 0-0 early.

Sparano complimented the team for having arrived in what he called "great" physical condition, glossed over news that linebacker Joey Porter is on the active/non-football injury list and scolded himself for breaking his own no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel rule by wanting too much too soon.

Parcells, he said, has been giving him variations of the same speech on a weekly basis: "That offense is never going to look as good to you as when you were running things down in Texas."

That's a reference to Sparano's tenure with the Cowboys when his various duties as an assistant included some time as the team's primary play-caller. It might also be a gentle reminder that Sparano goes from having Tony Romo as a starting quarterback to having Josh McCown or John Beck or Chad Henne at the position.

The Cowboys and Dolphins exist in the same NFL galaxy in name only. It would be no surprise whatsoever, for example, should Dallas and Miami produce reverse records (say, 12-4 and 4-12 in that mirror) this season.

But failure by measure of wins and losses won't, or shouldn't, be what counts for these Dolphins, who are being torn down and rebuilt by Parcells, Inc., and will require several seasons to evaluate. There were seven - count 'em, seven - transactions announced by the team Saturday alone.

There remains precious little reason for optimism, but there shouldn't be any reason for impatience.

The Dolphins, it is assumed, reached their nadir last season. So thorough was their failure that the elementary task of attitudinal adjustment is necessary. The losing became habitual.

It's why Sparano said he's seeking to establish a "sense of enthusiasm" across the pre-season schedule of monotonous practices and otherwise meaningless games.

It's why he welcomes the South Florida summertime heat that "grabs you" and can swallow anyone unwilling or unable to get through it. He knows the difficult work probably will take years to complete in trying to climb out of the darkness of Miami's tunnel.

He knows, too, it's a waste of time to search for a light that isn't there.