Sparano starts to Squeal

Tony Sparano is definitely a little bit old school. Okay, he's a lot old school. He believes in keeping things in-house (not to the extent of New England, but there's a thin line between what they do and what the Dolphins did in 2008).

Injuries WILL be discussed ONLY when they are asked about. I've watched my fair share of head coach pressers in my day, and quite often, if not most of the time, the coach will walk to the podium and immediately rattle off any injuries or excused absences BEFORE taking questions. This saves time by getting it out of the way and clearing room for more interesting questions.

The Dolphins prefer the 'wait-and-see' strategy. 9 times out of 10, the media jumps on it. But it is clear that in 2008, several Dolphins had significant injuries that no one knew about. Keep in mind, the NFL rules don't say you have to disclaim every injury or be specific about it, but that you have to classify players as PROBABLE, QUESTIONABLE, or DOUBTFUL based on the severity of the injury. This is how the Dolphins managed to hide several injuries by using the rules in their favor..

I don't know if anyone else had this problem but I was unable to watch the press conference all the way through as it kept stopping every minute or so and wouldn't start up again. It did this at work and at home so I have to assume it was an Aquavision problem. I will upload this anyway as it might work differently on this site.

Anyway, my original point was going to be that Sparano has been unusually candid of late, much more so than he was last year at this time. He actually discusses injuries to a certain extent, and his body language on certain questions has been much more readable (for example he doesn't seem worried about Jason Allen, and all indications are they want him on this team along with Sean Smith as their two big receiver cover guys, more on this in an article still to come). But it's hard to tell that if the video isn't working (crossing fingers).

Coach Sparano comes across as genuine and honest to a fault. There are no moments in his press conferences that are dull ala Belichick, yet it never rises to become a spectacle of it's own ala Singletary, Tomlin, Whisenhunt, Coughlin, and just about every out-of-work NFL head coach in the last 5 years shares one undeniable characteristic - they wanted to be the star. And their press conferences tended to make the highlight reels more so than their actual football team. Sparano does not have this characteristic. He believes in letting the work speak for itself. But while his 'behind-the-camera" attitude hasn't changed after a year of unimagined success, his confidence in sharing some extra detail has.