Last week was the end of the world for Joe Philbin and the Dolphins. Everything crashed, everything was wrong, nothing could console. And while a football man’s personal pain following the passing of his son is much worse than a football team’s ache in missing on a coach hiring, the hell each was catching on different fronts for different reasons could only be defined the same.

Awful.

But now comes a new day.

Today, the Dolphins will introduce Philbin to his new digs, they’ll show him off as their new coach, they’ll give him a new start. Joe Philbin will begin a new life.

None of this, mind you, will erase the tragedy of last week. Philbin lost his 21-year-old son Michael, who went missing and was discovered drowned in a Wisconsin river hours later. Nothing will ever fill that void in Philbin’s heart or erase the grief of burying a son.

But despite Philbin’s terrible loss, life does go on and he is willing to embrace it and live it.

Amidst Michael’s death, the family’s tears and the funeral, Philbin still coached for the Packers last weekend. No, that didn’t go too well because the New York Giants upset Philbin’s Green Bay Packers.

But after the game Philbin and his agents talked about what the coach wanted to do next.

The men discussed whether Philbin preferred to do the safe and comfortable thing, staying in the cocoon the Packers are known to form around their players and coaches. That would have been easy. The Packers, watching the conference championships this weekend, will surely return to the postseason next year and Philbin, their offensive coordinator, would surely get other opportunities to become a head coach in the future.

But that wasn’t what Philbin wanted. Philbin told his agents he felt strong enough to continue his search for the job of his dreams. He wanted to chase an NFL head coach job this year, in the wake of his tragedy, even if it meant a change of scenery … and duties … and lifestyle.

Philbin told his agents not to turn down interview opportunities so he met with Tampa Bay one day after taking a second interview with the Dolphins.

The man who will plot the course for the Dolphins’ future didn’t want to pull back. He wanted to plow ahead.

“He has great vision, he’s a fine technician,” a Dolphins source said Friday night, hours before the club officially announced Philbin’s hiring. “He knows what a good team looks like and understands how to build an offensive unit and hopefully a team.”

For now we’ll have to trust Philbin is ready for his new assignment on both a professional and emotional level. There’s no guarantee on either.

But no coach hiring comes with a guarantee anyway.

The Dolphins learned that years ago when they hired Jimmy Johnson only to find out much later he wasn’t really into the work as much as he thought and they hoped.

They relived a similar experience when Wayne Huizenga convinced Nick Saban to leave Louisiana State University only to find out Saban’s style wasn’t suited for the professional game and his family wasn’t happy in a big city.

So now the Dolphins and their fans must trust Philbin is not only ready to make the leap from offensive coordinator to first-time head coach but they must also trust he’s ready to dive into his job while still treading water on his personal pain.

This is surely a gamble. But for this franchise the hiring still feels like something of a victory.

You’ll remember that exactly one week ago the franchise was left licking its wounds after a failed courtship with Jeff Fisher.

The team chased the biggest name, the most accomplished coach, the safest hire and was rebuffed when Fisher picked St. Louis over Miami.

St. Louis!

Try as they might to spin the loss, acting like they didn’t get played and didn’t make tactical negotiating mistakes, the Dolphins were soundly defeated by Fisher’s decision. I heard that defeat in a source’s voice when he sounded like players sound in a locker room after a loss.

Yet out of that loss, the Dolphins rise today. They have reached into a successful organization and hired a successful assistant. There’s a chance their next big move might be to bring that successful assistant’s backup quarterback Matt Flynn.

Suddenly missing out on Fisher becomes a fleeting memory. Suddenly the hell of last week is cooled by the fresh possibilities ahead. Like Philbin, the Dolphins are pointing forward, refusing to pull back.

In that sense, Joe Philbin and the Dolphins were truly meant for each other.