Both Coaches deserved it. Glad to see Sparano win. http://www.nflgridirongab.com/2009/01/02/smith-sparano-share-nfl-coach-of-the-year-award/
im glad for sporano but im dissappointed in the sharing idea..don't get me wrong,i think smith did a great job with atlanta but nothing like what sporano has done with miami. if this is the case then pennington should be sharing mvp with peyton.
Great vote turnout as smith and sparano were the best coaches. How childress got a vote is beyond me, not that it mattered much. Way to go sparano.
Thank you, m ino -- I agree 100%. I think this is just flat-out wrong. I'm happy for Sparano, too, but this is just crap. Sorry, just how I feel...
Both men deserve recognition, IMO, Sparano for leading a 1-15 team to being the Division Champion and Smith for taking a team that was destroyed by Vick's idiocy, then abandoned by their coach, to the playoffs.
I disagree 100% Both coaches deserve it equally. Both took chicken spit and turned it into chicken salad. Last year's Falcons team was really bad too, they just won a few more games than Miami. Falcons fans could argue (erroneously, of course) that Sparano doesn't deserve it cause he has Bill Parcells to lean on. Let's put our homer hats away and send congrats to both coaches.
well to me atlanta wasn't a bad football team last yr..they were a team that lost focus and drive between the vickapade and the coaching mess. granted smith came in and applied "focus on football" to it's already good group of players and acquired a qb that was more suited to their style of football. but everyone and i meen everyone had us maybe winning 3 or four games this season even with the hiring of parcells and co. sporano took a poor team for yrs and inserted them into the playoffs in a matter of months. i might have my homer hat on a little tight but it's been a bumpy ride. what sporano came into and did compared to what smith has done is no comparison in my eyes.
for the record and just to clarify for those that may have misunderstood my point in original post..im not as much upset that sporano didn't win it outright by himself as i am that they are making co-coaches of the yr. it is called "coach of the yr"..no plural. if this is the case then why not have a three-way coach of the yr because harbaugh(sp) of the ravens did just as good a job with what he had to work with up in baltimore(losing #1 and #2 qb only to make it with their 3rd string qb,being a rookie hc with a new oc..). there are quite a few coaches this yr that deserve it.
I have no problem with them sharing this award....I dont know much about Mike Smith...but judging by the way his team played...he must be pretty good. I also know Coach Sparano would have it no other way. I never thought I would look at a professional coach the way I did with Coach Shula. I never in my wildest dreams thought we would have a coach that would end up personifying the Miami Dolphins the way Shula did... I know its only been one season.... But Tony Sparano will follow Coach Shula into the Hall one day. He is just a damn...DAMN good football coach....a great family man...and someone we can all look to with great pride. Its safe to say...the sidelines are in very good hands for quite awhile...
I am also glad Sparano won but I think Smith deserved it more than Sparano. While we had a worse record, we just sucked. That's it. The turmoil Atlanta went through was insane. Remember, we got Parcells, we were going to be good sooner or later. The team Parcells used then abused to get here? Atlanta. They were not supposed to be any good for a long time. There has been co-mvps before. Oddly enough it was manning, and Steve McNair
Congrats to both. The fact that there were so many deserving coaches this year, helps maintain the significance of even shared recognition.
If true, Im happy for Sparano. I've been saying he deserved this award since about week 6 or so in my sig. Maybe I should put something about the super bowl in there, maybe it'll come true too I feel like Sparano should have won this award outright though. The falcons had a bit more for Smith to work with out there. Sparano had nothing really, mostly new players on this roster, alot of castoffs from other teams, and of course we were atrocious last year. Then add in, Sparano took us from junk, to AFC East Champions. He helped us win the division. That alone should give him the edge over Smith. Congrats to both though. Way to go tony!
Ah just to think if we had a thug quarterback last season he would have gotten the award free and clear. I'm happy he was recognized though I think he should not have had to share it. Smith had a better core and hell his QB situation was vastly improved by what Vick did last season.
I find it amusing how hard we argued the fact we lost 6 games or whatever by less than 6 points to prove how we weren't that bad, but don't bring that up when we try to argue how bad we were
Both deserve recognition imo. Sparano for everything we all know he has done for us, and Mike Smith for being a rookie head coach, with a rookie GM and a rookie QB leading the team. Truly is remarkable their turnaround. Congrats to both.
How many votes did Parcells get? Both equally deserving, good way to do it like McNair / Manning in 2003 for MVP.
I'm happy for Sparano obviously, he deserved it. Smith did a great job too. The only thing I hate is that anytime anyone (anyone in the media usually) mentions ATL, the first sentence out of their mouth has to be about "erasing the memory of Michael Vick." Very annoying that it can't just be about football. If the media wants to go that route then we should be credited for erasing the Cam Cameron era and winning without the dancing dolphin.
Both coaches deserve the split, but I think the fact that Sparano's team is division champs should break the tie. Of course you can argue that Carolina better suits the "elite" category than any of Miami's challengers, but still.