The moving on and getting past began Friday in a way both tangible and symbolic. Dolphins were on a football field again for the first time since the mess that was last season ended. However far the road back to respectability proves to be for this beaten franchise, mark this day as the first step.
'We're all startin' over here right now,'' said Tony Sparano after a practice that marked his first on-field workday as Miami's head coach. ``I was excited all day. Didn't sleep much last night. All the administrative stuff is behind me. Now we go to work.''
This was the day that formally began the slow buildup to the 2008 season opener Sept. 7, the day fans could begin looking forward and let all the bad stuff start to fade.
Only one year earlier, Dolfans were grumbling about an unpopular draft that had them openly booing coach Cam Cameron -- a fitting prelude to what would be a nightmarish 1-15 season that marked Miami's sixth consecutive year out of the NFL playoffs and summarily swept Cameron out of town in ignominy.
From that nadir, everything is new now, fresh air blasting away stench. New is all you saw Friday, everywhere you looked as the two practice fields at the team's Davie facility began to fill.
Sparano, 46, the new head coach charged with rekindling a franchise glory that seemed to retire with Don Shula and Dan Marino, spent his day observing while his assistants coached. He paced, watched, all the while pulverizing chewing gum. Occasionally he would call out, adding to the sense of urgency that permeated the start of this three-day ''minicamp'' for rookie players.
''Let's go, let's go, let's go!'' he shouted.
Sparano saw a tight end prospect named Khristopher Kasparek catch a pass but not turn quickly enough upfield and boomed, ``Everything you do, finish. Finish, finish, finish! You got all night to sleep!''
All the players who worked Friday were new like Sparano, all of them incoming rookies, from last week's star draftees like the overall No. 1 pick, tackle Jake Long, and quarterback Chad Henne, both from Michigan, to undrafted free agents and guys invited in for glorified tryouts.
Might Henne prove to be the franchise's long-sought ''next Marino''? The beauty of it is, in early May, anything seems possible, right? When you're starting over and all you see is new, everything seems possible.
New franchise co-owner Stephen Ross was there watching.
So was new executive vice president of football operations Bill Parcells, the man they call ''Tuna,'' the architect of the Dolphins' road back, the man who hires and fires. The rookie players had no idea who Ross was.
BIG PRESENCE
Parcells, they knew. Oh my, yes. The man may have looked nondescript in shorts and a long-sleeved white shirt, but his presence demanded attention. Tuna lorded over the proceedings like a football don, his consigliere, general manager Jeff Ireland, usually at his side.
Parcells has turned publicly inscrutable, and afterward declined a media request for a moment of his time, with a polite smile and a ''sorry.'' No matter, his mere presence shouted sufficiently to the young players he surveyed.
''That was pretty neat, seeing him,'' undrafted wide receiver prospect Jayson Foster said with a smile. ``You see him on TV all the time!''
Fourth-round draft pick Shawn Murphy, a guard, had been eating in the lunchroom the day before with a few other guys when Parcells, not saying a word, took a table next to them. Discreet nudges and head-nods ensued.
''We all sat up a little straighter,'' said Murphy. ``And watched what we said.''
Parcells was hired with full power, handed the keys to the kingdom, last Dec. 20. He hired GM Ireland on Jan. 2. They hired Sparano on Jan. 16. Free agency followed. And the offseason conditioning program. Then the draft.
But none of it began to seem it's-actually-happening real until Friday, when all of the change materialized for the first time on a football field.
There was Parcells out there looming large, and Sparano pacing the field, and Long beginning to show why he's worth all that money, and Henne barking signals like he meant to scare the birds off the telephone lines.
HAND-PICKED GUY
Sparano's only previous head-coaching experience was in college at small New Haven in 1994-98, but he is Parcells' hand-picked guy from their years working together in Dallas, and there remains a heft to Tuna's judgment, an imprimatur, something inviting confidence.
Likewise a survey we ran in our Miami Herald web log indicates a remarkably strong faith in the recent draft headlined by Long and Henne, with 90 percent of fans grading the draft an A or a B -- in such sharp contrast to a year earlier.
That is plain belief in Parcells, along with a dollop of desperation, perhaps, from a fandom with bellies aching to taste success again. To see a proud franchise matter again.
Friday was just the first small step forward, yeah, but you wouldn't call it insignificant. Hardly anything ever is concerning South Florida's beloved, flagship sports team.
So the Dolphins are back, and everything is new.
The Dolphins are back, and hope is, too.
