‘Slick' Vic Fangio uses vintage photos to break the ice with Dolphins
MIAMI GARDENS — Dolphins linebacker Jerome Baker was in a defensive meeting, watching clips of various coverages, when the image of a young boy came on the screen.
“Damn,” Baker thought. “That looks like me.”
Then a second image of the same kid popped up.
“That really looks like me,” Baker thought.
Finally, a third.
“I know that’s me.”
The photos were 100 percent Baker.
The handiwork was 100 percent Vic Fangio.
Dolphins players weren’t quite sure what to expect when they learned Fangio was their new defensive coordinator. They knew they were getting one of the best, if not the best, at what he does. Because of Fangio’s age (65) they assumed he was old-school. “Grandfatherly,” is how defensive tackle Christian Wilkins described Fangio in the spring.
Little did players know what Fangio had in store, especially off the field. What is coming together on the field has been well-documented heading into Sunday’s season opener against the Chargers in Los Angeles. What has been happening behind the scenes is another story. This story.
Fangio asked Irma Gonzalez, executive assistant in football operations, to collect photos of the players through the years. The idea, one Fangio hadn’t used before, was to lighten up meetings by posting the photos on the screen, one player at a time chronologically, and having the players guess who was shown.
The theme was “get to know your teammates,” but in the process, players also got to know their defensive coordinator.
“I’ve always been the same way,” Fangio said. “I don’t smile a whole lot. You know, that’s not my natural facial expression.
Fangio likes to confuse quarterbacks — and his players
“So some people think I’m grumpy. But I’m really not.”
Turns out that Fangio has a knack for confusing not just quarterbacks but his own players. More than once his players have fallen for taking Fangio seriously when he’s giving them a dose of his dry humor. X's and O's? Obviously, there’s time for that. Fangio’s approach?
“It just breaks the tension in the room a little bit,” Baker said. “C’mon, now. At the end of the day, we work together. We do all of this, but we’re still guys. Let’s have some fun. I think for him, that’s a good start and a balance of, ‘I don’t want to get too crazy, but I want to have a little fun and get you guys to smile a little bit.’ ”
Smile, they have, whether it’s seeing a kindergarten-aged Duke Riley (looking an awful lot like Duke Riley today) or a young Kader Kohou, originally from the Ivory Coast, in traditional attire. Some IDs are easy to guess, but when you have a young Jerome Baker and Baker himself isn’t sure it’s him, that’s when things get interesting.
“I was a cute baby so I don’t really mind it,” linebacker Bradley Chubb said. “He got some guys. Some guys were ugly babies though, for sure.”
Upon hearing Chubb tout his own looks, Riley, whose locker is nearby, cut Chubb down to size.
“I don’t know about that,” Riley said. “He kind of had the same haircut he has now.”
Amid the banter, there is one thing players can agree on: the need to get to the bottom of who has been spilling the goods to Fangio.
“I even asked that question today,” Kohou said.
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“Vic is very slick,” Riley said. “I don’t know where his true sources are, but I’m gonna find out. I have to go back to people at the crib and figure that out. Only my momma got some of those pictures.”
It’s not a mystery to Baker.
“I know if you text my mom and say ‘Miami Dolphins, we need photos of Jerome when he was a kid,’ she would flood you with pictures,” Baker said.
But it’s not just players who have been targeted by Fangio.
“I did it with the coaches, too,” Fangio said.
When will it be Mike McDaniel's turn?
Even his boss, Mike McDaniel?
“He’ll be next year.”
Late in camp and nearing the bottom of his stash, Fangio informed the group he had “saved the best for last.”
Yes, it was a young Fangio.
“Everybody was starting to ask if I was going to be up there,” Fangio said. “And luckily, when I moved, I’m packing some boxes. I found some old pictures.”
If you think players had mercy on their coordinator, think again.
“I picked it up so fast,” Baker said. “Like, ‘Dude, these photos are black and white. These are old-ass photos. It’s got to be you. You’re the only person that was alive.’ ”
It was then that Baker was reminded of an incident from opening day in 2019. It illustrates how NFL players can break down walls with stern coaches. In this case, the coach was Brian Flores.
“When Flo first got here, everybody would say all this stuff about Flo: He’s uptight, he’s this, he’s that. The Patriot Way,” Baker said.
So, shortly before kickoff, he approached Flores.
“Flo, joke a little bit. You could smile. This is still football,” Baker said. “And that blossomed our relationship to what it is.
“And the same thing with Vic.”
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Baker said he and Fangio now have a running joke about what constitutes being on time, generating from a time Fangio considered Baker to be late.
“He gets on me about everything,” Baker said. “He challenges me every day. I appreciate it, actually.”
That’s the football coach in Fangio, as opposed to the “grandfatherly,” dry-wit side of him.
“The persona in the meetings versus on the field is different because we’re in our element there with the guys,” Fangio said. “And I look at them as they’re my guys.
“Sons. Not grandsons.”
Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Vintage photos help ‘Slick' Vic Fangio throw curveball at Dolphins
