Sparano deserves nod if Fins win

MIAMI – Tony Sparano would have clinched the NFL’s coach of the year award already if this was a typical season.

Sparano, Miami’s rookie head coach and resident dream weaver, has already done the improbable in leading his team to 10 victories after the Dolphins won only once last season. The coach has already brought success and respect to a team that has enjoyed precious little of either in recent years.

In becoming the bulldog face of a stubborn team, Sparano also has earned the respect of his players, his fellow head coaches, and the media that covers him. Yes, any other season, Tony Sparano would already be a cinch for the Associated Press coach of the year award.

But this season has been as strange as it has been scintillating and that’s why the coach of the year ballot AP sends me every year remains blank. In my mind, Sparano has not clinched the award quite yet.

Just as his team goes into the season’s final weekend trying to join the company of other playoff teams, Sparano goes into the NFL’s final weekend trying to separate himself from an elite list of coaches.

Jeff Fisher, Bill Belichick and Tom Coughlin deserve to be in the coach of the year conversation. But for me, that conversation will start and finish with three other men:

Sparano. John Harbaugh. Mike Smith.

I will vote for one of them.

I want to vote for Sparano. He’s the hometown guy. He’s a good man. And, all homerism aside, he’s often pretty darn brilliant.

Today, Sparano deserves my vote. But I’m worried about tomorrow.

The Dolphins must beat the New York Jets on Sunday to earn a playoff berth. Harbaugh’s Baltimore team similarly must win to earn a playoff spot. And Smith’s Atlanta team is already in the playoffs and can win the division title with a victory and a Carolina loss.

So what the Dolphins, Falcons and Ravens do this weekend matters for the postseason and for the postseason award of coach of the year.

What if the Falcons – a team last year ravaged by bad coaching, bad luck and bad decisions by their former quarterback – complete their climb from the bottom of the NFC South to a division championship?

How would one take the vote away from a playoff-bound Smith then?

And what of Harbaugh? The team he inherited lost to the Dolphins last season under Brian Billick, but already has beaten Miami at Dolphin Stadium this season.

What if the Ravens beat the Jacksonville Jaguars as expected Sunday and are in the playoffs while the Dolphins miss the postseason because of a loss in their final game? How does it make sense to vote for Sparano over Harbaugh then?

So that is what it will boil down to for me: If the Dolphins cannot finish what they started, if they cannot win against the Jets while other rookie coaches lead their teams into the playoffs, my vote will go to one of those other coaches.

But if the Dolphins beat the Jets and complete the greatest turnaround in NFL history, I will vote for Sparano as coach of the year regardless of what Baltimore and Atlanta do.

I suspect I won’t be alone.