When he was hired as Dolphins’ head coach, Tony Sparano wasn’t going to hand the playcalling duties to just anyone.
He did know one person he could trust … himself.
Sparano eventually tabbed longtime coach Dan Henning the team’s offensive coordinator.
But Sparano, who called plays for the 2006 Cowboys, once again could find himself considering going it alone if Henning, who turns 67 on June 21, were to retire for a third and final time.
“I can go back and call it – and would,” Sparano said Tuesday during the AFC coaches breakfast at the NFL’s annual meeting. “If I didn’t find the right guy, I absolutely would.”
A close friend and longtime associate of Bill Parcells, Henning might be gone already if the Big Tuna had decided to exercise his $12 million escape cause following the transfer of ownership from Wayne Huizenga to Stephen M. Ross.
The restless Parcells could be gone in the next year or two, and Henning along with him, leaving Sparano searching for another playcaller he could trust.
“When I was hiring coaches and I went around and started to look at some different people and started to visit with them, I had two different deals going on,” Sparano recalled. “One was if I found somebody I was really comfortable with who had the experience to run the offense, they would run the offense and I would be the head coach and make sure I was able to touch both sides of the ball, special teams, have my hand involved in all that and bring this thing together a little bit more.
“If not and I found somebody who maybe needed to be coached a little bit, then I would call the plays.
“I found Dan Henning. He has 30 plus years of experience and has been a head coach in this league, has called plays for a lot of head coaches and I turned the offense over to Dan. Dan and I communicate very well together. That’s all I can ask for.”
