Tony Sparano Pink Slipped By Dolphins

Added on Dec 12, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Not a big surprise, but head coach Tony Sparano has been fired by the 4-9 Miami Dolphins. Clearly Sparano knew it was coming–he’d had his house on the market since early this season.

Miami started the season 0-7 but earned Sparano a bit of a reprieve by going 4-1 in their next five games. The last straw was apparently a non competitive home field loss to the dysfunctional Philadelphia Eagles. The setback assured Miami of having their third straight losing season–the first such streak since the 1960′s. Team owner Stephen Ross said that this was an unacceptable result for the franchise:

“The results speak for themselves. We’re looking to becoming a winning organization, and I thought this was the best time to make the change and let us go in a direction that will allow us to become that.”

Ross doesn’t have a replacement in mind, but quipped:

“I’d like to find a young Don Shula if that’s possible.”

Ross added that declining attendance at Dolphins’ home games didn’t help Sparano’s case:

“Certainly when you’re winning, it’s a lot easier to sell tickets. If you win, everything takes care of itself, and that’s what we’re really trying to bring back.”

Ross is also planning to shake up the front office–current GM Jeff Ireland will stay on board in some capacity but Ross wants to bring in Carl Peterson, former president of the Kansas City Chiefs (who, ironically, fired their head coach on Monday) in the same VP of Football Operations role once held by Bill Parcells. Peterson is denying this arrangement:

“Steve Ross is a very dear friend. I work with him on our project with FanVision and, yes, there are football-related matters that I am more than happy to discuss with my friend but I do not anticipate any job as described in the report.”

Miami has plenty of problems on the field as well–they’ve already lost starting quarterback Chad Henne for the season and his replacement, Matt Moore, is listed as ‘questionable’ for Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills after suffering a concussion. For that reason there’s currently no NFL betting line on the Bills/Dolphins game.