Dolphins right to bounce Cameron

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Truth is, coach Cam Cameron deserved to be fired, anyway -- even if Bill Parcells hadn't come to Miami to resurrect the Dolphins.One miserable season was enough.Enough bad decisions.Enough bad results.Enough bad football.Turns out, one season was more than enough time to see exactly what Cameron had to offer as an NFL head coach.Which wasn't much.Working in tandem with Randy Mueller, the Dolphins' also-ousted general manager, Cameron never seemed to have a plan -- not one he was wholly committed to.He brought in the wrong players. He didn't know what to do with the players he had. He failed to demonstrate any of the leadership qualities necessary to get his players to believe in him.Too often, as his team staggered to a 1-15 finish and the worst showing in the once-proud franchise's history, he looked helpless.Worse, he coached scared.On the field.And off.Then, confronted by the prospect of a winless season -- of the kind of football infamy that undoubtedly would've prompted public cries for his firing -- Cameron committed the cardinal sin in sports.He put himself ahead of the team. He put saving his job ahead of doing what was best for the franchise. He put aside his plan to start rookie quarterback John Beck for the final seven games and, instead, handed the ball back to Cleo Lemon after a Dec. 2 loss at home to the New York Jets dropped the Dolphins to 0-12.Just to try to win a game or two.Just to save his neck.Rather than stick with his strategy to use the remainder of a lost season to develop his handpicked quarterback of the future, Cameron panicked. His motives were as transparent as they were selfish.Clearly, as the losses piled up, as the crowds disappeared, as the media criticism grew, Cameron became more concerned with keeping his job than doing what he was hired to do -- build a championship contender in South Florida.That's unforgivable, even for an otherwise-nice guy like Cameron.Mistakes in the draft? Gambling on Trent Green? Giving all that money to a washed-up LB Joey Porter? All understandable, even if you don't necessarily agree with what was done.But the last thing the Dolphins needed, after Nick Saban slithered off to Alabama, was another coach who put his interests above the best interests of the franchise.Yes, there were injuries.Losing RB Ronnie Brown hurt. Same goes for veteran leader Zach Thomas. And Green.But remember: It was Cameron who wanted Green, even though everyone else in football knew the aging veteran quarterback was one good hit from being done.It was also Cameron, along with Mueller, who passed on Notre Dame's Brady Quinn in last April's NFL Draft, opting to use the Dolphins' first-round pick on Ted Ginn Jr. and take Beck in the second round.It was Cameron who left the Dolphins no closer to solving their quarterback problem than they were before he arrived.Beck was supposed to be the guy, but he did nothing in his four starts to prove to anyone that he can be a big-time NFL quarterback. He completed 56 percent of his passes for 559 yards and one touchdown, but he threw three interceptions and was sacked 10 times. He also fumbled seven times, losing five of them.He didn't win a game, didn't get the Dolphins into the end zone until coming off the bench in the season finale.That's on Cameron, too, because his specialty was supposed to be offense, especially quarterbacks.But there was nothing special about Cameron, nothing he did to make anyone think: This guy has the answers.So Cameron is gone.One season was enough.One win wasn't -- and shouldn't be.Not the way it was won.Not for the reasons it was won.Not when that win came at the expense of doing what was best for the franchise.(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. Contact him at ray.mcnulty@Scripps.com or on the Web at www.tcpalm.com.)