Talking Morris-Sparano: Talent Trumps Character

So Tony Sparano is gone with less than a month to play and Raheem Morris is still working.

So what, you say?

Seems fair on the surface. Morris led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a surprise 10-6 mark last year while Sparano has done little in his short tenure as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. Why wouldn’t he get a little extra time to sort out this mess of a 2011 season? After all, the bottom line is winning and Morris has done more of that than Sparano.

LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING

Don’t get me wrong, Sparano did not deserve to keep his job beyond 2011. He hasn’t won much in his three-plus years with a team seemingly talented enough to contend for the playoffs. Clearly he is either not ready to be a head coach in the NFL or simply doesn’t have the talent to do the job.

But his players expressed tremendous respect for the man and proved it with their efforts on the field week after grueling week and for that reason, he deserved to finish what he started.

What a bone-headed call it was to fire a man who managed to keep his players focused and motivated with three games left on the schedule. What has Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland proven with this move? Can you gain any real insight into the viability of Todd Bowles as a head coach over the course of the next 12 quarters of football? I doubt it.

No, what Ireland and more likely owner Stephen Ross are showing is that they have no idea what they’re doing. Ross has said that he wants to bring in a big-name coach. If that’s the case, this move makes even less sense. It’s not like the man was a disruption, disrespecting management in the media and dividing his team with his actions.

YOU DON’T WANT TO BE “THAT GUY”

Stories in recent weeks have Morris disagreeing publicly with ownership, team personnel and players over the accounts of his inconsistent dealings with flawed characters like Aqib Talib and Brian Price, who have received more chances under Morris than some veteran Buccaneers feel is acceptable.

One player told Yahoo! Sports that Morris has sent the message that “talent trumps character” in Tampa Bay. It’s been said that his flaw as a leader is that he gives too many chances, that he feels like he can turn every head-case around and doesn’t seem to understand that some players cannot be reached.

If true, he’s guilty of being naive. A head coach in the NFL is not a personal savior. His job is to prepare an entire team to win football games and the best of the best always do it as a unit.

If untrue, then Morris is guilty of allowing the problems of a select few players impede the progress of a young, richly talented franchise.

Either way he has divided the roster and cost his team a once-promising season. Yet Morris remains to fight another day.

What a sad circumstance. One man does the job to best of his ability and is released short of the finish line. Another manages to lose the respect of his team and he gets more chances. Talent over character…indeed.

———-
Jacque Wanabe loves football, baseball, hoops and Rock Band. He competes almost daily with other jock wanna-be’s on the field, computer, console, or all alone in his warped stat-infested mind. A child of the 80’s, Jacque’s passion has always been the Washington Redskins; for years he had a dumb dog and a fast car, each named Riggo, and longs for the days of straight-leg kickers, The Hogs and The Smurfs.
———-

Sources: Yahoo! Sports, ESPN, Pro Football Weekly, NFL Network


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *