Dolphins on the hotseat

Posted on Sat, Sep. 06, 2003

Not Wannstedt, but 'everyone' is on hot seat

Players: All jobs are on the line

BY ARMANDO SALGUERO

[email protected]

They are pointed toward winning a Super Bowl and more than one player on the roster has said anything short of that would be tantamount to failure. That is the curse these Dolphins have brought upon themselves even before the 2003 season begins Sunday at Pro Player Stadium.

Teams built for glory can find no refuge in the ordinary.

Dave Wannstedt's team can please everyone by winning the Super Bowl in Houston next February. Or it can fail. That's it. No middle ground, no room for negotiation.

Just win baby, to paraphrase a rival NFL owner, or heads will roll.

''The reality is if we don't win, Dave probably won't keep his job,'' defensive end Jay Williams said this week. ``That's just how it is in the NFL. For coaches and players the NFL means not for long. They're always looking to replace you. That goes for coaches and players here if we don't win.''

The Dolphins are not focused on the consequences of failing. They're looking at the Houston Texans as the first challenge in a season where challenges will be overcome.

''I think there's just a mind-set of it makes no difference what anybody says, bad or good,'' Wannstedt said Friday. ``We get a chance on Sunday to prove what kind of team we have. I believe with all my heart that we've put together a great group of men in talent and character. I'm excited to see what happens.

``I think that every one of us, starting with me, we're going to prove that we're going to get this thing done and we're going to have an outstanding year.''

But if anyone on the Dolphins, including Wannstedt, forgets the stakes this season, he need only tune in a sports radio talk show, turn on a TV, log onto the Internet, or open any publication, to be reminded.

Sports Illustrated, which reaches more than one million homes nationally, put Miami's situation in this context in its NFL preview issue: It ran a photo of a focused, confident-looking Wannstedt next to a one-inch headline that read:

The Hot Seat.

The premise of the story is that this could be Wannstedt's last chance to win in Miami. Of course, it's not a premise players agree with.

''It shouldn't be like that,'' defensive tackle Admin Chester said. ``Even though the organization from within feels like we failed to meet our own expectations last year, if you look at [Wannstedt's]win-loss record, he shouldn't be on the hot seat. If winning is what defines coaching, he shouldn't even be mentioned.''

Unfortunately for the Dolphins, when Wannstedt is mentioned in that light, the entire team is caught in the same glare.

''Heck, if we lose a lot of games, I don't know what's going to happen to me, I don't know what's going to happen to anyone else in this locker room,'' quarterback Jay Fiedler said. ``Everyone is playing for each other in here. We're a team. If we don't make the playoffs, if we have a terrible year, it's not just going to be one guy that's going to feel the blows of what happens.''

Said linebacker Zach Thomas: ``I think everybody in here is on the hot seat. Look at what happened to [former New England safety Lawyer] Milloy. He got cut. Nothing's guaranteed for any of us. We lose, we could all be gone. I get hurt and I'm not the same guy, there's no telling what will happen.''

It might be tempting to think a football team pushed into such an uncomfortable position might grow stronger, might bond tighter, might play harder. Anything to save a popular coach and well-liked teammates, right?

Not necessarily.

''Players are going to play harder when their job is on the line,'' Thomas said. ``When it comes to a coach, that doesn't work. If you need the motivation of playing for a coach, you shouldn't be here. You play for your family, for yourself.''

Fiedler appreciates what Wannstedt has meant to his career, but agrees that winning for the Gipper is not foremost in the mind-set of today's players.

''I don't know that we go out and say, we have to do it for this one guy or that guy,'' Fiedler said. ``Dave's a great coach, he's been great with me and one of my biggest supporters since I've been here so, yes, I want to see him have success. But by him having success means we're all having success.

``That's the motivating force. We want to go out and be successful because we have pride and have egos.''

i like that quote by Salguero at the begining of the article: "Teams built for glory can find no refuge in the ordinary." i wonder if he made that up

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sport...rts/6706003.htm