FanHouse TonySparano

It seems Mel Kiper can't open his mouth without upsetting someone. First, he went off on ESPN colleague Todd McShay (wait, what?), and now he's drawn the ire of the Dolphins' wide receivers after dismissing the group that has played together since 2008.

Brandon London, a former Giants practice-squadder and part-time model before coming to Miami, was especially bothered by the comments, and took it upon himself to share Kiper's message of hate* with his teammates in an effort to motivate them.

One of the unintended consequences of releasing Terrell Owens is that now there's no one around to take the focus off Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips. (On the upside, the offense is now "Romo-friendly," so there's that.) In previous seasons, Phillips' shortcomings were partly overshadowed by anything T.O. might do, no matter how seemingly benign.

Now, though, when we aren't talking about Tony Romo, the conversation falls squarely on the guy responsible for benching Doug Flutie for Rob Johnson. I have a vague notion of how this is going to end.

At the annual NFL meetings earlier this week, Phillips offered this thoughts on how long it takes to evaluate a head coach. (Presumably, his response is autobiographical, though he could've been speaking in generalities.)

Just in case there were any lingering doubts about John Beck's prospects in Miami, head coach Tony Sparano confirms what most of us already suspected: Chad Henne is the Dolphins' quarterback of the future. Not the immediate future -- that job is still Chad Pennington's -- but come 2010, the former second-round pick is scheduled to take over the full-time gig.

And while the organization is making plans beyond next season, they want to make one thing clear: there is no quarterback controversy in the interim. Pennington, who came to the Dolphins from the Jets last summer and helped guide the team to an improbable 11-5 record, is firmly entrenched as the starter for '09. Just something to keep in mind.

Under the guidance of first-year head coach Tony Sparano and free agent pick-up Chad Pennington, the Miami Dolphins went from a 1-15 laughing stock in 2007 to the AFC East champions in 2008. If they want to remain as the top team in the division in 2009, they're going to have quite a challenge, as they are projected to have the league's toughest schedule.

Not only does Miami have to play six its six divisional games (two each against New England, New York Jets and Buffalo), but the AFC East has drawn the difficult talk of being matched up against the AFC South and the NFC South, neither of which had a losing team in 2008.

With Tuesday's sale of the Miami Dolphins to Stephen Ross, giving him control of 95 percent of the franchise, team vice president Bill Parcells now has a 30-day window to cash in the remainder of his $16 million contract and bolt to another team (or the nearest beach and/or golf course). That is, if he wants to.

Parcells is spending this week, along with Dolphins head coach Tony Sparano and general manager Jeff Ireland, at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, scouting the NFL's stars of tomorrow. On Tuesday afternoon he addressed the window of opportunity he has to exit Miami with a truck full of cash.

Two years ago, Todd Haley was the Cowboys' wide receivers coach. In addition to his traditional job responsibilities (breaking down film, helping craft the game plan), he also had to make sure Terrell Owens was happy in his new home.

Haley was pretty good at the former but failed miserably at the latter. In fact, owner Jerry Jones contemplated disciplinary action against him. Welcome to Dallas, Todd! Where the inmates have been running the asylum since 1989. (Actually, Haley had berated T.O. for being tardy, and the news somehow made its way to the media, which is what bothered Jones. That's the story, anyway.)

Terrell Owens is 35 years old and has a $3.1 million roster bonus coming his way in June. Those facts, coupled with the perception that he's not the easiest guy to work with, probably have everything to do with speculation that the Cowboys might release him in the coming months.

Last week, the Dallas Morning News' Jean-Jacques Taylor wrote that the organization faced some serious offseason questions, particularly of the "Do we have anybody on staff who can control T.O.?" variety. The obvious answer is: "Bill Parcells," but I'm pretty sure that ship has sailed (or has it?*)

That said, as MDS pointed out at the time, "We should be clear that Owens is in no way, shape or form similar to [the recently released] Pacman [Jones]. Owens is both a much better player on the field than Pacman and a much better person off the field than Pacman. These are not similar situations."

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick got one vote among the 50 members of the media who selected the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year, and that one voter is none other than NBC's NFL studio host, Bob Costas.

Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe contacted Costas to ask why he voted for Belichick, rather than Falcons coach Mike Smith or Dolphins coach Tony Sparano, who were by far the two top vote getters, with Smith edging Sparano by one vote. Costas replied:

"I thought he deserved a nod for what might have been the best, or certainly one of the best coaching jobs of his career," Costas said. "He loses [Tom] Brady, and it's not just losing Brady, but also that [Matt] Cassel basically never played. It's not the same thing as losing Johnny Unitas and you have Earl Morrall. He brought the kid along."

I don't ever recall a coach getting any Coach of the Year recognition after a season in which his team's win total declined by five from the year before. Then again, I don't ever recall a coach leading a team to a 16-0 record, then losing his MVP quarterback in the first game of the following season, only to go 11-5 with a backup quarterback who had never even started a game in college, let alone in the NFL.

I probably would have gone with the plurality who selected Smith, but I don't have a problem with Costas's choice. The argument for Belichick as coach of the year is a legitimate one.

I'm sure it comes as no consolation today -- following a playoff loss to the Arizona Cardinals -- but Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons has won NFL Coach of the Year honors in his first season. Smith took on an unenviable task, as the Falcons appeared to be in shambles following the Michael Vick debacle and Bobby Petrino leaving during his first season, but he came through with an incredible performance. They finished 11-5 and made the playoffs after a 4-12 2007 season.

Smith won the award by the narrowest of margins, taking down Miami Dolphins' rookie coach, Tony Sparano, by one vote, 23.5 to 22.5. Yeah, someone voted a half-vote for each coach. I don't quite understand that. Just make a decision. Either way, that only leaves four more votes from the 50 total. Jeff Fisher of the Titans received three, and Bill Belichick garnered one.

Sparano took over a 1-15 Dolphins team and improved on that record by 10, getting them back into the playoffs for the first time since 2001.

Norv Turner might not be the flashiest or the smartest or, hell, the best-looking coach in the league. But the guy knows how to finish games. At least since coming to San Diego, anyway.

Hired prior to the 2007 season to replace general manager A.J. Smith's nemesis, Marty Schottenheimer (who was coming off a 14-2 '06 effort), Turner and the Chargers stumbled to a 1-3 record last year, and weren't much better this time around.

And it's not an exaggeration to suggest that FanHouse was pretty hard on Norval Eugene. Okay, really hard on him. Luckily, he doesn't know now to operate an Al Gore Machine so he had no idea. (From a recent San Diego Union-Tribune Q & A: Are you familiar with the Web sites nomorenorv.com and firenorv.net? Norv: "I know they're there, but I haven't had my kids teach me how to log on to them." Classic.) But we know and, frankly, we feel very guilty about it. Hence this post.

Also, as Brinson pointed out previously, Norv's 9-0 in December since coming to San Diego. And now he's 3-1 in the postseason, too. The guy he replaced? Bupkis in five years with the Chargers, and his last playoff win came in 1993 with the Kansas City Chiefs.