RIP, Tony Sparano
This is just tremendously sad news. A coaching lifer having his heart run out of summers as such a young age like this.
Tony Sparano always struck me as one of those universally respected Football Guys. A branch off the Bill Parcells coaching tree who’d worked alongside such big names as Tom Coughlin, Marty Schottenheimer and Rex Ryan, to name a few. But who never seemed to be one for much self-promotion or a high profile public image. Just a nuts-and-bolts coach who didn’t provide the world with much in the way of memorable press conference moments because that simply wasn’t his style. Obviously I never talked to Sparano so I could be wrong, but he came across to me as a no-BS coach who let his players know where they stood with him as opposed to playing head games.
What I can confirm is that he was the architect for one of the great turnarounds in NFL history: The 2008 Dolphins, who went from 1-15 the year before to 11-5 and winning the AFC East in Sparano’s first season. Due to a lot of factors, the leading one being Sparano introducing one of the major innovations of the 21st century in pro football: The Wildcat. Which he used to pants the Patriots like nothing else has in the Bill Belichick era. As much as anything, that will be his mark on NFL history.
Not that he invented it. Credit for that goes to Arkansas in 2007, who ran it with Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and Peyton Hillis, which they called The Wild Hog. The Razorbacks used it to light up Nick Saban’s eventual National Champion LSU for 385 yards on the ground and 50 points and it caught on with other college teams. The offensive coordinator of that Arkansas team was the Dolphin’s QB’s coach the following year. After a bad loss to Arizona, Sparano spoke to Lee about the need to try something different against the Patriots, who had won an NFL-record 21 straight games. Lee suggested trying The Wild Hog, with Ronnie Brown lining up behind center.
To his eternal credit, Sparano had the brass balls to do something a lot of coaches wouldn’t. Namely, something different. A seemingly gimmicky formation born out of college offenses where the Zone Read – thanks to QBs like Tim Tebow – had become the hotness. If could have made a first year head coach like Sparano look desperate and not ready for the pros if it didn’t work. Instead, it blew up in Belichick’s face like a special delivery from Bugs Bunny. The uber-prepared Patriots were caught totally off guard. And no amount of sideline coaching and on-the-fly adjustments were any help. Brown lined up at QB six times and dissected the baffled Pats’ D with three rushing touchdowns and one passing. And just to further teabag them, added another rushing TD out of a pro set. That win gave Miami the tiebreaker edge over New England that eventually won them the division, the only time a team other than the Pats have won the AFCE since 2002. Sparano ended up coming in second to Atlanta’s Mike Smith for Coach of the Year, one of the most under-recognized miscarriages of justice in the history of awards.
Unfortunately, like the last line of Patton says, “all glory is fleeting.” Parcells, who had hired Sparano in Miami, retired to spend more time with his family at the race track. He was replaced by Stephen Ross, who immediately cut his coach’s balls off by interviewing Jim Harbaugh, Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden. Eventually Sparano was let go. But like a lot of Football Guy lifers, went back to his true niche, being an assistant. Hands on, working directly with players, solving problems behind the scenes. One of those vital pieces you need to win in this league but who get just a tiny piece of the adulation when you do.
And now it comes to an end. Let this be a cautionary tale for everyone, especially middle aged guys in high pressure jobs. If you feel something in your chest, do not mess around. Get help. If your doctor says it’s nothing, ask for a stress test. Get an EKG. Get your blood checked. Believe me, my family has a history of this stuff and it can hit you like a bolt of lightning. RIP to a respected guy who deserved to live to be an old man and retire from football on his own terms. Sad.