Thursday, December 15, 2011

Dolphins' motivation for rest of year? Keeping jobs

BY NICK ST. DENIS

The Miami Dolphins are 4-9, and general perception is that they have nothing to play for.

But Dolphins (ex-)coach Tony Sparano was fired Monday for performance reasons, and interim coach Todd Bowles reminded the team Wednesday that the players and coaches -- Bowles included -- are still being closely evaluated.

"We all still a have job to do," Dolphins running back Reggie Bush told the media Wednesday. "If you’re not doing your job, then they’ll find someone else who can. So I think that’s the motivation is to still go out and these games, they're divisional games. And it still means something.

"...And so the motivation is all right there for us and I think we have the type of guys on this team with good character and who are going to go out there and play hard.”

Bush has certainly played with motivation the latter half of the season, and he was a bit bothered by the Sparano firing because Sparano was the one who brought Bush in, giving him a chance to be a No. 1 back after departing from the New Orleans Saints.

The Dolphins have a chance to record the season sweep over the Buffalo Bills Sunday, which would even the teams in the standings and give Miami a the opportunity to not finish in last place in the division despite starting the season 0-7. In fact, it would be Buffalo's seventh loss in row.

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