"By the end of his first day, in the quiet of a back room, Joe Philbin dropped his head to his chest, all the football fell out of his voice and the new coach became a grieving father again.

"It was absolutely heartbreaking,'' he said, so softly. "Nothing can sugarcoat that. It was devastating. The resiliency of our children …"

He paused, chin to chest, and took a breath.

"… I can't say enough about them …"

How do you celebrate with a heavy heart?

This is what Philbin tried to explain a few minutes earlier Saturday in his introductory news conference as Dolphins coach. He rewound the clock two weeks to when the day after his first Dolphins interview when his 21-year-old son, Michael, died in an icy Wisconsin river.

"You're devastated,'' he said."