SPF's Take: Yes, Cam Cameron deserved to be fired!
Posted: Jan 03, 2008The year of suffering for Dolfans is finally over. Both Randy Mueller and Cam Cameron are out courtesy of Bill Parcells.
(Watch Chris Mortenson on ESPN below)
The press in Miami has been extremely generous to both men, especially Cameron. Dan LeBatard calls Cam's firing "unfair" while Greg Cote says that Cam deserved another year.
There have also been the misapplied comparisons of Cameron's 1-15 year to the poor first year records of Hall of Famers like Tom Landry, Chuck Noll, Jimmy Johnson, and even, Parcells himself. There have also been some cries and moans about it not being Cam's fault because he inherited a mess making it not his fault.
SPF says HOGWASH!
Let's answer the second point first. Wayne Huizenga made it perfectly clear that he thought the Dolphins were a playoff caliber team going into this season. Cam Cameron and Randy Mueller were retained on that basis. The goal in hiring Cam was that he would get the offense good to serviceable to go with the already strong defense.
Cameron and Mueller drafted Ted Ginn to help bring speed to the offense. Additionally, Cameron engineered a trade for the aging Trent Green to be his QB. In the process, Miami bypassed other more talented players in the 2007 Draft and cut a good to decent QB in Daunte Culpepper.
None of these moves worked. Ginn was exactly as advertised, fast but raw - certainly not a #1 WR. Green was "as advertised" as well - old with nothing left and prone to concussions. The offense sputtered and quickly became an achilles heel.
In the meantime, the defense just got old. Anyone with eyes could see that the Dolphins' defense was starting to get long in the tooth last year, but Mueller and Cameron ignored those signs because it was in their interest.
Dumping Chris Chambers at mid season didn't help either. He was a solid veteran that any team can use. That move was made to take the heat off of Cameron as was the decision to play John Beck, the QB this dud of a duo decided to draft instead of Brady Quinn. Cameron and Mueller quickly changed their tune from "we are a playoff contender" to "we are rebuilding" when it suited their interests. Further damage was done with this CYA approach.
Let's also not forget that Cameron lost the support of his best player, Jason Taylor, during the season. That doesn't speak well of him at all. This breakdown probably developed because Cameron was more interested in self serving moves. New coaches cannot lose the support of their veteran leaders.
So, in conclusion, Cameron and Mueller inherited a mess, but they told Huizenga it was a playoff worthy roster, and then they made everything much, much worse by trying to put a band-aid on a sinking ship. (BTW, if Cameron and Mueller didn't realize that they were doing just that, then Parcells had even more reason to broom them both.)
Now, let's get back to the first point - comparing Cam's first season to greats like Landry and Noll. Those coaching greats were hired to build or rebuild teams from the ground up. Cameron was not hired to rebuild the Dolphins. When he was hired, he was expected to win and contend for the playoffs. Again, no one called the Dolphins a "rebuilding" job until they were 0-8.
To LeBatard and Cote, SPF says - do you really believe that Cam Cameron is a future Hall of Fame coach? We didn't think so.
So, why is Cam getting all of this sympathy?
SPF suspects that Cam was very good with and good to the South Florida media, but we don't judge him on that. We just him on his actions. In the end, Cameron is a failure as a head coach. He might be a solid to good OC in the NFL, but he has shown no ability to lead a team. He had a horrible record as Indiana University's head coach as well. Cameron simply is not head coach material.
Parcells and Ireland were right to pull the plug. Kudos to Huizenga for not allowing his ego to get in the way. Firing Cameron and eating his contract is a complete and total admission by Huizenga that he was wrong.
That's hard for a lot of men in his position to do. He deserves credit for doing the right thing.
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