Miami Dolphins Fire Special Teams Coach John Bonamego

Added on Oct 05, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

Tony Sparano woke up this morning and got himself an ax

The fact that the Miami Dolphins have fired special teams coach John Bonamego isn’t particularly surprising. The speed with which they pink slipped him is something of a shock. After a horrendous performance by the Dolphins special teams on Monday Night Football head coach Tony Sparano made the announcement though he sounded more like a lovelorn 20 something girl saying that he’s “moved on” from Bonamego. Special teams assistant Darren Rizzi will assume the coaching duties, at least for the time being.

In all my years of watching pro football I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a special teams meltdown like the one experienced by the Dolphins against the New England Patriots on Monday Night. Miami led 7-6 before the downward spiral began–two blocked kicks (a punt and a FG) turned in for touchdowns and a 103 yard kickoff return for a score completely changed the dynamic of the game which was eventually won by New England 41-14.

Sparano gave Bonamego some props in announcing the move:

“I truly appreciate everything Bono has done for us. I think he’s an outstanding coach and a hell of a person and a really good friend. … It’s a hard decision to make because he’s a hell of a guy and I know how hard this guy works. Nobody works harder than him at what he does.”

“Special teams is a hard area because I think there’s a lot of hands involved in that area. Players have some responsibility in that area too, and the players change a lot in that area. … Our players also need to take responsibility.”

Longtime Dolphins observers can’t remember another case where the team fired an assistant during the season. Sparano went on to praise Bonamego’s replacement, Darren Rizzi, and suggest that the special teams unit can become a strength. Rizzi has a wealth of experience at the college level, including serving as head coach of 1-AA/FCS Rhode Island:

“This is one of the reaons I brought Darren here: He’s a very smart, intelligent guy that I think has his own way of doing things. I think that’s important, that he’ll have his own spin on the special teams area. He’s a high energy guy, a lot like Bono in that situation. Very detailed, very similar that way.”

“There’s a lot of good things on film right now from a special teams standpoint. It isn’t all broke. It’s important that we had some continuity there and fix the problems.”

Sparano denied that he’s trying to ‘shake things up’:

“That isn’t what we’re trying to cause here at all. His familiarity is good. He knows our personnel, and I think he understands how to fix some of the problems that we have right now.”

He gave a ‘no comment’ when asked for details on how long he’d been considering the move:

“I’m not going to get into how long and who, what, when and why and how come I did what I did. It’s just something that I did, and it’s not something I just spent two minutes on.”

The Dolphins catch a scheduling break and have a bye week for Rizzi to get to work fixing the holes in the special teams unit. Miami returns to action on October 4th when they play on the road against the Green Bay Packers.