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Mike Smith of the Atlanta Falcons and Tony Sparano of the Miami Dolphins have both led their teams through astonishing transformations. The Falcons were 4-12 last year and currently sit at 11-4, the Dolphins were 1-15 last year and currently sit at 10-5, so the coach of the year award should obviously go to one of the two.

Which rookie coach do you think made the most out of the hands they were dealt?

Mike Smith had an Atlanta franchise who were completely cripped by the Mike Vick saga, and a head coach (Bobby Petrino) who completely abandoned them in the middle of last year’s season… oh yeah, they’re also starting a rookie quarterback. Tony Sparano had an organization full of aging players, no quarterback, and non existent discipline.

It’s a really tough choice but I’m apt to give the edge to Sparano. Aside from Pennington, Brown, Williams, and Porter… this team is full of no-name roleplayers who put their heads down and get the job done.

Who’s your pick?

Where is the NAACP when you really need them??? Michael Vick, Pacman Jones, Cedric Benson and every other troubled black NFL player should absolutely be up in arms! Being that this is the week President-Elect Obama made history, we at Sportaphile don’t want to pull out the ole race card.But NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell needs to stop playing games!

How in the hell is Jacksonville Jaguars WR Matt Jones still catching passes although he was charged with cocaine possession back in July?

Let me get this straight: Pacman is out effective immediately for getting into a scuffle with his own bodyguard, but Matt Jones is still starting in games even though he was caught by police inside a parked car allegedly cutting up cocaine with a credit card?

Hate him or love him, but Miami Dolphins Linebacker Joey Porter is actually right on the money this time:

“If I knew the answers, I’d still have 20 more thousand dollars,” said Porter, who was fined $20,000 last month for criticizing referee Ed Hochuli after a loss to Houston. “But I’m still trying to figure out how a guy gets caught with cocaine in his car and still plays the game and nothing happens.

“He got caught with cocaine and Matt Jones is still playing football. How does he get away with that? And then you fine people $20,000 for making comments to the media about the refs. The guy got caught with cocaine.”

Granted, Matt Jones was suspended for three games and is presently under appeal. But, in the meantime, Matt Jones is still actively in the lineup. If this was Pac or any of the other “thug life” players, would the same still be happening? Or would the media be defending them in claiming ‘due process?’ I think not. Matt Jones wants to toot toot, beep beep in parked cars? Then his ass needs to be suspended for violating the player personal conduct rules. Period! But no, he lives to see the next Sunday. And we hate to point out the obvious, but Mr. Jones is Caucasian….

So again, we ask: What is wrong with this picture, Rog???? Cuz we KNOW the brothers wouldn’t get the same pass from you AT ALL.

This is probably one of the biggest falls from grace in football that doesn’t involve dogfighting, drugs, or jail time. Just four years ago, Culpepper had one of the greatest seasons for a quarterback in NFL history, but as of now he’s unemployed and seemingly unwanted by the entire league.

The logical question to ask is…. what happened?

Aside from suffering a catastrophic knee injury his last year in Minnesota, he’s had two major obstacles that have blocked his road to success. The first hindrance is the fact that he’s played for two of the worst teams in football for the last three years. He left Minnesota and landed in Miami, a team that had NO offensive line to protect him and atrocious coaching. Daunte was doomed before he even took the field. Culpepper then left Miami for Oakland, who were a similarly bad team, with an equally bad line, and even worse coaching than the Dolphins.

The second major road Read the rest of this entry »

If Bill Parcells and Tony Sparano really want to get back at Jason Taylor for being an unruly employee, they’d trade him to the Green Bay Packers as these rumors suggest.

Sure, we all know that the Green Bay Packers almost made the Super Bowl last year, and we all know they have a MUCH better chance of success than Miami does. That would be an ideal situation for Jason Taylor as far as doing something meaningful in the last year of his career.

but dude…

Trading a black man who lives in a warm climate with Hollywood aspirations to Green Bay, Wisconsin is probably the most evil thing you could do. Jason has been jetsetting between Miami and Los Angeles for the entire offseason setting the wheels in motion to take the entertainment industry by storm when he’s done with the NFL. Shipping him to a freezing city that contains 1.38% black people and 0.000000% to do with anything remotely entertaining will assuredly bring Jason to tears when he hears the news.

As a longtime Dolphins fan, it’s sad to see it come to this but at the end of the day it’s probably the best option for Taylor. New Dolphins coach Tony Sparano made it pretty clear to reporters today that Jason’s status with the team is in extreme jeopardy.

“I know that Jason is not going to be at any OTA’s,” Sparano said. ”I know that Jason will not be at any minicamps. I know that right now Jason is not going to be at training camp.

“That’s what we know. Jason is a player under contract with the Miami Dolphins. He knows that. Both parties are well aware of the information. That’s all I’m going to say about it. . . . I’m not going to talk about another thing about Jason.”

Like I’ve said many times in the past, Taylor gave the best years of his career to the Dolphins, so now that he’s nearing the end it’s only fitting that they let him compete for a super bowl ring somewhere else (as long as it isn’t new england).