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« on: June 05, 2008, 12:38:01 am » |
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Dolphins reach detente with Jason Taylor
By GREG STODA
Palm Beach Post Staff Columnist
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
DAVIE — Click! There's a tumbler rocking into place.
Click! There's another.
How many more turns of the dial it will take to open the vault that is the impasse between Jason Taylor and the Miami Dolphins is anybody's guess, but work is underway on the combination lock.
It's all very tedious stuff, but the realization seems to have set in for the Dolphins that Taylor is going to get his way on the first part of this, umm, situation, and they'll probably end up accommodating him on the second part, too.
The first part has to do with training camp, which Taylor will attend when he's good and ready and not one snap sooner. That's the part Taylor controls, because all the Dolphins can do is fine him for his absences. They can't make him show up.
The second part has to do with the trade Taylor desires, but, obviously, can't dictate. The team holds all the power there, and new Dolphins boss Bill Parcells has said as much by adopting the stance that Taylor either will retire or play for Miami next season.
But that was prologue. Now the posturing has begun.
First, there was Taylor's attempt to smooth the waters with a Sunday news conference during which he tried his "no hard feelings" best to convey that he understands business is business. He's willing to play wherever he lands, but, sure, he'd be a whole lot happier if he lands somewhere other than where he is now.
Then came new Miami coach Tony Sparano's conciliatory statement Wednesday at training camp, where he said he "wanted to make it clear to Jason that we as an organization wanted Jason back here, and that I was anxious to see him running around out here with his teammates."
It was an almost exact recitation of what Sparano said Tuesday night during a WQAM 560-AM interview.
Quite a change in tone from when Sparano was so dismissive of the player two weeks ago when revealing that Taylor wouldn't be in training camp.
Still, Sparano couldn't quite keep himself from sounding a little bit antagonistic when asked what he thought of a veteran - Taylor has spent 11 seasons in the NFL - who thinks training camp is an unnecessary evil.
"It's plain and simple," Sparano said Wednesday. "We're out here trying to get better each and every day trying to push these guys. I would say to walk into the locker room and ask some of the veteran players who are here right now what we are doing. Ask them that question.
"We're going a million miles an hour. I think there is some information there that can be gathered ... there is information that people can get from one another. There is a lot of information you can get from your coaches when it's a new system."
That's the commercial.
That's the word from the sponsor.
But what the Dolphins are doing, finally, is what's best for the Dolphins.
If they're going to give in to Taylor's wish for a trade sooner or later, anyway, then the intelligent thing to do - and Parcells is at least as smart as he is stubborn - is to make him as attractive as possible to potential shoppers. Taylor wants to skip most or all of the practice stuff? Fine. Don't risk a July or August injury that could scuttle a deal.
Taylor will be 34 years old when the season starts, and Miami, in a win-win scenario having nothing to do with what likely will be a mediocre record, could save money and be younger without having him on the roster.
The Dolphins will live with whatever Taylor chooses to do when the first mandatory mini-camp starts Friday, and won't worry about him.
If they end up stuck with each other, they'll make the best of it.
In the meantime, though, the Dolphins are making nice with Taylor if only as the first baby steps toward giving him what he wants and giving themselves what they need.
Sometimes, after all, the first move in getting to good-bye is saying hello again.
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