Fisher hiring would change perception of Miami Dolphins - MiamiHerald.com

It has been a sad lot of seasons since the Dolphins or St. Louis Rams have won a game as important as the one in which they are now competing. That is why both teams are shopping for a new coach in the first place. And it is why both see the incomplete rèsumè of Jeff Fisher like hungry diners eyeing a platter of filet mignon and lobster.

Fisher in 16 full seasons with the Tennessee Titans lost the only Super Bowl he got to, but he is by consensus the 2012 prize among available NFL coaches, and that is enough for two sagging, desperate franchises.

As one man hones in on his long-awaited decision between his stated two finalists, one team prepares to exalt in victory while the other readies a scrambles into damage-control mode over its latest defeat.

Fisher comes with no guarantee except this one: Public perception will take immediate sides upon his word, disproportionately anointing his chosen team as having turned that invisible corner toward happier days, while stamping a big red “L” on the team he rejects.

Oh how the Dolphins need to “win” Fisher â€" but for that perception even more than for the reality.

The current reality is that one great quarterback bridges a team to pro football power far more assuredly than one (solid to arguably) great coach.

The perception, at least for Miami, is that the Dolphins are mismanaged by a star-struck, novice owner in Stephen Ross and by an inexperienced, lightweight general manager in Jeff Ireland.

Getting Fisher won’t solve the QB reality holding this club back, but it would go a long way to mending the perception that hounds the Dolphins â€" a perception only underlined a year earlier when Ross was rebuffed in his play for Jim Harbaugh.

A Woody Allen line from the movie Annie Hall has always stuck with me: “I never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.”

Fisher joining would enhance the club’s turned-ragged image. He would be Miami’s most exciting, NFL-proven coach hire since Jimmy Johnson in 1996.

Dolphins fans at this point need experience and proof to hold onto.

Since Johnson and Dan Marino retired in tandem following the 1999 season, the painted horses on the club’s coaching carousel have been Dave Wannstedt, Jim Bates (interim), Nick Saban, Cam Cameron, Tony Sparano and Todd Bowles (interim). None since Wannstedt arrived with previous head coaching experience in the league, and Wannstedt’s was a mostly failed stint in Chicago.

Miami has been a coaches’ proving ground for too long.

Too many men here were still on training wheels.

And that inexperience describes everyone the Dolphins have interviewed for this current opening â€" every one except Fisher.<</p>

This was the league’s longest-tenured active coach when he parted with Tennessee after the 2010 season. Turning 54 next month, he is in his prime. His hiring would not feel like recycling as the hiring of Marty Schottenheimer or even Bran Billick or Bill Cowher might. And Fisher wants back in as eagerly as the teams that want him, as opposed to Cowher or Jon Gruden (already both with their rings) being coaxed and cajoled from the comfy complacency of their TV booths.

Fisher missed winning the 1999-season Super Bowl (or at least going into overtime) by less than 1 yard.<</p>

You don’t think this guy wants his last shot at being a champion?

Miami is right to want him and go hard after him.

Fives times his teams won 11-plus games in a season, grounded by strength in fundamentals. Twelve times in 16 full seasons his teams ranked in the top-10 in rush defense, eight times in rushing offense, seven times in total defense.

Fisher should want Miami, too, over St. Louis.

The foundation is here. The Dolphins’ overall roster talent is superior by a notable margin, closer to winning now. The Rams’ big claim is QB Sam Bradford, but he missed six games injured last season, has an 8-18 career record and a 74.2 passer rating. Calling him a franchise quarterback still begs “might be” as a prefix.

St. Louis’ edge in the coming draft (picking second overall to Miami’s eighth or ninth) won’t make up the shortfall in talent.

Miami also is a more traditional franchise with a more storied history and more solid future, with rumors a-swirl that Rams owner Stan Kroenke could move the club from St. Louis. Also, for all his faults Ross is committed to the Dolphins, while Kroenke owns three other pro teams.

(Oh, and you’re a California guy, right Jeff? We have a beach here with your name on it. The closest beach to St. Louis is about a 2,000-mile cab ride).

Speculation at first was that Fisher leaned to St. Louis but Wednesday that nebulous assumption seemed to swing back and favor Miami, with the NFL Network “reporting” that Fisher was “close” to choosing Miami but that “that could change.” Isn’t that sort of like reporting nothing at all? How about let’s just wait until we hear the verdict from Fisher himself, the magic words tickled by that luxurious mustache of his.

(I am working on a plan to make that ‘70s mustache a retro-fashionable trend in South Beach clubs, by the way. If I can just get LeBron and D-Wade to cultivate a “Fisher ‘stache” we’ll be on our way).

A choosy coach might also consider that St. Louis is inarguably an entrenched baseball town, while Miami â€" despite our infatuation with the Heat and a new baseball stadium opening â€" is a traditional football town in search of a man who’ll revive that natural order and be a hero to a longing multitude.

Be that guy, Jeff Fisher.