Still About Football

New Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin

It has been confirmed by the NFL Network and other sources that Green Bay Packers' offensive coordinator Joe Philbin has accepted an offer to become the next head coach for the Miami Dolphins. The Dolphins fired Tony Sparano in the middle of the season, and former Temple alum Todd Bowles took over as head coach. The Dolphins certainly improved from their woeful start to the season, where they didn't have a win deep into October.

Philbin now has an early offseason because the Packers lost to the New York Giants in an upset in the Divisional game. Philbin had been interviewing for other openings as well, but now that the Packers are eliminated, he focused on taking the best opportunity possible, which clearly was the Dolphins. While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may be an enticing job as well, the Buccaneers still seem to lack talent, even though they seem to have a lot of young, promising players.

Philbin, however, is still enduring a family tragedy with the death of his son Michael Philbin. So one may ask; how are you still able to negotiate for a head coaching position while still grieving the loss of your son? I asked myself how in the world he was able to coach this past Sunday's game while burying his son the day before. I questioned his judgment for that, but I, like many others, don't really know how he's coping with it because that obviously won't be reported.

I'm pretty sure the Philbin family is still grieving this tragic loss to a young man who had a whole life ahead of him to live. However, there comes a time where life goes on as well. A good opportunity presented itself for Philbin. He took it! He will probably think of Michael in almost everything he does, and ask for a little strength from above to conquer his new challenge; righting the Miami Dolphins.