The Sports Xchange

Miami Dolphins football boss Mike Tannenbaum denied a report that he tried to fire head coach Joe Philbin last offseason so he could hire former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

Tannenbaum inherited Philbin when he was hired by owner Stephen Ross in January as the Dolphins’ executive vice president of football operations.

The Dolphins fired Philbin on Oct. 5 and named tight ends coach Dan Campbell interim head coach the day after the 1-3 Dolphins lost 27-14 to the New York Jets in London.

During a round of radio interviews Tuesday, Tannenbaum insisted Philbin was supported up until a change became necessary.

“That’s totally not true,” Tannenbaum said of the Quinn report when he appeared on 790 The Ticket in Miami. “I took the job after meeting with Steve Ross a couple of times. I knew coach Philbin was on the precipice of being announced with a long-term extension. I knew about it and supported it at the time. I was offered the job with one set of circumstances, which was to work with (general manager) Dennis Hickey and Joe Philbin, and I’m really proud to say I gave coach Philbin everything I had for seven months. I’m disappointed that the decision was made.”

After the Super Bowl, Quinn was hired by the Atlanta Falcons, who are off to a 5-0 start.

Ross wasn’t in Miami when he decided to fire Philbin, and Tannenbaum said it was unfortunate that Philbin had to learn of his fate via a phone call from the team owner.

“Here’s what I can say about that: Steve’s an incredible person,” Tannenbaum said. “He’s incredibly loyal. That’s certainly been his track record. It’s not for me to speak about, but I can say that Joe and Steve have a very good relationship.

“In a perfect world, things logistically could have been different. But a decision had been made. … Candidly, we had to do what was best for the Miami Dolphins, which is, if a change was going to be made, it had to be done as quickly as possible to give the successor every minute of that bye week to get as organized as possible.”