Sunday, September 20, 2015

Miami Dolphins, Especially Head Coach, Display Indifference About Loss

I watched in dismay today's Miami Dolphins football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Dismay is the proper word for a number of reasons.  For one, they lost, pure and simple...and in the worst possible way: Jacksonville won on a last-minute field goal, 23-20, after they moved into field goal range because a Dolphins defensive player angrily shoved back at a Jaguars player after the end of a play and was called for a personal foul.  As the camera followed this player walking back to the sidelines, he didn't seem particularly perturbed at what he had done...and neither, it appeared, did any of the other Miami players.  In fact, the Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin not only remained completely taciturn and untalkative at the game's end (and for most of it as well), but he actually had the nerve to clap when Jacksonville kicked through the winning field goal with only seconds left.  What is it with this guy and his team?  Where is the kind of passion I see in other NFL and college football teams?  Why should the Dolphins organization expect me, as one of their fans who followed them since 1968, to feel anything other than abject apathy about that team's performance when their own coach and players seem indifferent?  Miami has a lot of talent out there...although they do seem to have some issues on their offensive line.  Still, they have an excellent quarterback in Ryan Tannehill and enough key players to fill in gaps in their lineup.  After all, every team has its own weaknesses.  And I'm okay with the Dolphins having their own.  But weaknesses or not, they just don't seem to care that much whether they win or lose...