Tony Sparano's firing on Monday was one of the least surprising outcomes in the history of the Miami Dolphins. Sparano came this close to being fired during the offseason, when the team not so openly courted then-Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh to coach the team.
But the Dolphins' effort to upgrade at head coach failed, and the team was guilted into extending Sparano's contract as a make-good to their scorned coach. He was effectively given an ultimatum: win in 2011, or find a new job.
Too bad the team did not give Sparano the necessary tools to win. Even though the Dolphins would eventually try to replace quarterback Chad Henne during the preseason, general manager Jeff Ireland decided not to select a quarterback in the 2011 draft.
But despite the team's apparent disappointment in Henne, there he was under center when the season started. Even if Henne did not suffer a season-ending injury in the fourth game of the season, it is doubtful he would have become anything more than the disappointing quarterback Dolfans had come to expect.
On Monday a number of Dolphins expressed disappointment that their coach - who was much loved in the locker room - was dismissed. "We kind of failed Tony a little bit," Jason Taylor said.
That was the understatement of the week. The sad truth behind the firing of any coach is the fact that he is usually the only person who can be held accountable for a team's shortcomings. If Jeff Ireland could fire all his underperforming players and replace them, he would.
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But that's just not possible, so Sparano was the only person who could take the fall. His conservative playcalling may have contributed to the team's poor performance over the last three seasons, but in the grand scheme of things, there are plenty of players who are more directly responsible for the Dolphins' downfall.
To put it another way, firing Sparano does nothing to give the Dolphins a better chance at winning its final three games. The only silver lining to the entire episode is that at least Sparano no longer has to answer questions about his job security every week.
