The Miami Dolphins formally introduced the franchise's new general manager and head coach, Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley, to local media Thursday at the Baptist Health Training Complex. The pair of former Green Bay Packers outlined their vision with detailed implementations to achieve the ultimate goal of winning a championship and building a sustained winner in South Florida.
"We're going one way and it's going to be the hard way," Sullivan said. "And if you're not part of it, if you don't want to be part of it, it doesn't make you a bad human being, but you're going to have to get off the train. It's going to be an uncomfortable environment for you, and (Jeff Hafley) is not afraid to be uncomfortable when it comes to work ethic."
Sullivan and Hafley both earned their current positions through similar paths – routes built step by step through grit and hard work. Hafley left a job at the University of Albany in 2006 to take an assistant job at the University of Pittsburgh. He slept under his desk for two years, committing everything he had to the profession. It helped him develop a love for the grind.
"I wanted to have no regrets, and I wanted to give everything that I had because I had sacrificed a lot," Hafley said. "I really didn't go out. I didn't do anything but coach football. I missed family weddings, I missed friends, and I just said, 'I'm going to give everything I got for two years, and I want to see where this takes me.' And that's what I did."
That's the mindset Sullivan and Hafley aim to bring to Miami. They emphasized the importance of culture and outlined their blueprint for building a winning atmosphere.
"The culture of competition, hard work, resilience and love for each other will bounce off the walls of this place day in and day out to where you can't deny what we're about," Sullivan said.
The NFL doesn't operate in the gray areas or in the world of "what if." There are certainties in this game, even if there are no guarantees. One of the few guaranteed challenges, though, is adversity. Hafley described the callouses he developed over a lifetime of coaching and picking himself up off the proverbial mat.
"I learned what it's like to hold people to an extreme level of accountability," Hafley said. "I learned what toughness is about, and I learned how to grind. I learned that you can't be afraid to coach guys. Every good player wants to be told what to do and how hard to do it, and you can't back down because they all want to get better. I learned how to win and unfortunately, I've taken some losses, but what I've learned, I'm going to get back up every single time. And so are those people that are around me every single day."
Sullivan and Hafley represent the new generation of the Dolphins football team, a generation of, "winning football games and being very, very competitive," as Chairman of the Board/Managing General Partner Stephen Ross described. They are the first head coach-general manager pairing to join the Dolphins at the same time in nearly two decades – a duo that brings a shared vision and alignment.
"We'll build this from the inside out," Sullivan said. "I think you have to make sure that your line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball is big, tough, resilient and that there's depth so that you can survive the – it's a violent game, there's going to be injuries – that you can survive injuries."
Hafley added: "There are certain core beliefs that I really do believe in like running the ball and being really physical up front. So, when they know we're going to run the ball, we're still going to run it well."
Fans and media alike were given a glimpse of what's to come. There are no shortcuts on the road to success, only the payoff of one's investment. As soon as the press conference concluded, Sullivan and Hafley rolled up their sleeves and embarked on a new journey with the Miami Dolphins.
The entire press conference can be found on the Dolphins YouTube page, and for more analysis, download the Drive Time Podcast with Travis Wingfield.
