SUNDAY’S CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES
MIAMI — Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin has become the Miami Dolphins’ seventh head coach in the past eight years.
The Dolphins announced the hiring Friday night and plan a news conference today.
The hiring comes less than two weeks after Philbin’s son drowned in a Wisconsin river. Philbin, who has never been a head coach, first interviewed with the Dolphins on Jan. 7. The body of son Michael, one of Philbin’s six children, was recovered the next day in Oshkosh.
After spending a week away from the Packers, Philbin rejoined the team last Sunday for its divisional playoff loss to the New York Giants.
Philbin, 50, has been with Green Bay since 2003 and has been offensive coordinator since 2007. He has 28 years of coaching experience.
“Joe has all the attributes that we were looking for when we started this process,” Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said in a statement. “(GM) Jeff Ireland and I felt Joe was the right choice to bring the Dolphins back to the success we enjoyed in the past.”
The Dolphins are coming off a third consecutive losing season, their longest such stretch since the 1960s. Even so, Philbin called them “one of the premier franchises in professional sports.”
“The Dolphins have a strong nucleus to build around,” he said in a statement. “And ... I know that together we will return the team to its winning tradition.”
The Dolphins fired Tony Sparano last month with three games to go in his fourth year as their coach. AFC: Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots, 2 p.m. CST, WREG Channel 3 NFC: New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers, 5:30 p.m. CST, WHBQ Channel 13
The former Super Bowl MVP added he doesn’t believe his next deal will prevent the Saints from keeping other key members of their record-setting offense who will become free agents, including Pro Bowl guard Carl Nicks and receivers Marques Colston and Robert Meachem.
“My No. 1 priority, and it always has been this, is keeping our team together and making sure we have the right guys in the right positions to make a run at this for a long time,” Brees said.
Briefly: The St. Louis Rams agreed Friday to play a regular-season game in London in each of the next three seasons. The Rams will play the New England Patriots on Oct. 28 at Wembley in the first game of the deal. That will be followed by games at Wembley against undetermined opponents in 2013 and 2014. ... The Pittsburgh Steelers have signed quarterback Troy Smith to a reserve/futures contract. ... New York Giants tight end Jake Ballard is questionable with a sore right knee but says he will play in the NFC championship game at San Francisco on Sunday. ... Lawyers for Ben Roethlisberger and a woman who accused him of raping her at a Lake Tahoe hotel-casino in 2008 have reached a settlement that ends her civil suit against the Steelers quarterback. Cal Dunlap, the Reno lawyer representing the woman, said Friday “the matter has been resolved.” He said he had no further comment.