All in the family: Adam Gase hires father-in-law Joe Vitt as Dolphins consultant
In the NFL, as in pretty much every area of business, it’s all about who you know. So for unemployed former assistant coach Joe Vitt, having your daughter married to the head coach of the Miami Dolphins comes in handy.
According to Sporting News NFL reporter Alex Marvez, Vitt has been hired by Adam Gase to work as a consultant in Miami. He has already begun his new gig, as Marvez writes Vitt is working with the Dolphins’ football research staff, focused on special projects.
Vitt’s daughter, Jennifer, met Gase in 2007 at a charity golf tournament; they married a year later. They now have three children together.
Vitt spent over a decade in New Orleans as assistant head coach and linebackers coach; in 2012, he served as interim head coach of the Saints when Sean Payton was forced to sit out the season as penance for bounty-gate; Vitt himself served a six-game suspension at the start of that season for his alleged role.
In January, Payton and the Saints fired Vitt, but his son, Joey, is still with the team as an area scout.
The 62-year-old Vitt has been an NFL coach since 1979, so he has a wealth of knowledge to offer his son-in-law, who is still one of the youngest head coaches in the league.
It might be weird to work with your father-in-law, but it’s not the first time it’s happened in the NFL – Scott Pioli met and married his wife, the former Dallas Parcells, while working under Bill Parcells with the New York Jets, former New York Giants offensive lineman Chris Snee was married to then-head coach Tom Coughlin’s daughter, and when Rod Marinelli was head coach of the Detroit Lions, his defensive coordinator was also his son-in-law, Joe Barry.
