June 7
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington, who hosted a barbecue for the entire team Thursday, said he's not worried about competition from Chad Henne or having one more year remaining on his contract. "It's a good situation to be in,'' Pennington said Saturday afternoon at the Miami Beach Marina behind Monty's restaurant. "I'm not really concerned about it. To me, it's never really a true competition until it happens on Sunday. "[Practice is] preparation and evaluation. We have to be prepared to play and be ready as players. Coaches have to evaluate and see who they want to play. Competition happens on Sunday.'' Pennington, 32, who won the Don Shula Leadership Award Friday, realizes that last ..."
March 26
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Chad Pennington was holding court during the first day of the Sony Ericsson Open and after an informal hit with Nadia Petrova, the ninth-ranked player in the world, he shrugged off any talks of the Dolphins grooming Chad Henne to take his place. "I have no reaction to it,'' said Pennington, who flashed a decent forehand but ugly backhand. "It's not news. Coach [Tony] Sparano, Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland have been up front since day one about my future. My future is now.'' On Tuesday at the owner's meeting in Dana Point, Calif., Sparano told reporters, "You could see the ball jump off his hand,'' referring to the former Michigan quarterback's arm strength. He said that Henne, a ..."
January 29
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington made his first appearance at any Super Bowl site Wednesday, but unfortunately it was limited to guest spots on radio row, NFL Network and as an endorser of a Gatorade 'G' on-line promotion. "This is my first time at a Super Bowl,'' Pennington told the Sun-Sentinel outside a ballroom of the media center in the Tampa Convention Center. "Next time I want to be playing.'' Pennington, whose contract expires following next season, said he has no plans to re-negotiate an extension. "I've been in this league long enough to know to feel good about where I am right now and let that take care of itself,'' he said. Pennington, who was the NFL Comeback Player of the ..."
January 5
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Ethan J. Skolnick
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Head down, eyes glazed, Chad Pennington kept folding slips of paper with his fingers, then tossing them on the floor. One by one, players placed a hand on his shoulder to console and thank him. "I can't say enough about these guys," Pennington said 20 minutes later, in the wake of his worst game as a Dolphin. "They've been unbelievable." Pennington was an unbelievable performer in 2008, which is why teammates, most not knowing him before August, could never say enough good things about him. Joey Porter was right; Pennington should have been the MVP. His reward? He enters next season as the unquestioned starter and leader, even with Chad Henne waiting. Yet while Pennington will likely play ..."
January 4
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist David Hyde
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Near the end of any concert there's the hopeful moment after the band has left the stage when the crowd keeps cheering, the lighters start flickering and the chant goes up, "One more song …" We're officially at that moment in the Dolphins' season. Do they have another song in them? Does Chad Pennington, specifically, have an encore performance? Inside the Dolphins' locker room last week, where some cameras focused, linebacker Channing Crowder was saying, "My first three years I played with guys who got up under center and handed off the ball." He looked at Pennington sitting at his locker with a notebook. "That guy's made all the difference," Crowder said. "He's the big reason we're here." ..."
December 22
Miami Herald
columnist Israel Gutierrez
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If you ever needed proof of a higher power occasionally dabbling in sports, this whole Pennington-Favre thing provides some pretty convincing evidence. ''This is the only way fate would have it, right?'' said Chad Pennington, the quarterback currently benefiting from the apparent divine intervention. How else would you explain this scenario? The Jets so desperately craved Brett Favre that, upon trading for him, they immediately waived Pennington and shipped him home from a preseason game in Cleveland. Favre is welcomed to New York like a king, or even a god, bringing Super Bowl aspirations out of retirement with him. The exiled Pennington, meanwhile, goes to Miami, where two wins would've ..."
December 22
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Dave Hyde
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Chad Pennington sidestepped the question the first time as easily as he did Kansas City Chiefs linemen all Sunday. Who could blame him? Everyone knows the story line is straight out of Disney: He was tossed like used coffee grinds by the New York Jets when Brett Favre became available, cut before a preseason game in Cleveland and sent away on a plane, alone. He left eight years in New York to cheers for Favre. His career was a question mark. Only now Pennington stood under a frozen Arrowhead Stadium after the latest Dolphins victory, their eighth in nine games. He had thrown three more touchdowns. He set a career high for passing yards in a season. He delivered like he always does in ways ..."
December 9
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Chad Pennington's favorite phrase is "quarterback-friendly." Players who fit that description usually turn into the Dolphin quarterback's favorite target, which might explain why rookie receiver Davone Bess has caught 15 passes the past two weeks since being called on to replace injured starter Greg Camarillo. Bess caught a season-high nine passes for 74 yards in Sunday's 16-3 win over the Bills, following up on last weekend's six-catch performance in the win over St. Louis. "I'm always prepared," Bess said. "Coach stresses every receiver has to be ready on every play, run the route like you're the main receiver, so I'm expecting the ball." And Pennington is usually giving it to this ..."
November 16
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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Starting quarterback Chad Pennington was added to the Dolphins' injury list on Saturday because of a foot injury he suffered during the weekend. Pennington, who has started all nine games for the Dolphins (5-4), is listed as "probably" for Sunday's 1 p.m. home game against the Raiders (2-7). If Pennington, who has completing 66 percent of his passes for 2,200 yards and eight touchdowns, isn't able to play because the foot injury worsens expect rookie quarterback Chad Henne to serve as his fill-in. Henne, a four-year starter at Michigan who was selected in the second round of the 2008 draft, has only played in the Dolphins' 31-10 loss to Arizona back in September. During that lopsided game ..."
October 27
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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There's nothing sexy about Chad Pennington's game. His arm isn't the strongest and he doesn't have the most nimble feet. But the Dolphins' starting quarterback continues to find ways to move this offense. In Sunday's 25-16 win over Buffalo, Pennington led the offense to scores on five of 10 drives (the 11th possession ended with a kneel-down as the clock hit zero). "It's not about touchdowns and stats. It's about getting your team in the end zone and winning the football game," said Pennington, who completed 22 of 30 passes for a season-high 314 yards and one touchdown. He was sacked just once despite facing plenty of pressure, and he didn't commit a turnover for the fourth game this ..."
October 21
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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(On the interception for a touchdown) - "It was a bad decision. I get tackled there; probably just take the sack and punt. I saw him (Terrell Suggs) and I felt like (Patrick) Cobbs had outrun him, but I just didn't have the angle. I didn't have the angle to get Cobbs the ball especially with the position I was in. I just need to eat it there, take the sack and punt." (On if it bothered him that he was forced to throw on the run) - "No, with a good pass rush team you got to be able to move in the pocket. When you get outside the pocket and a lot of times you can get some things that way because it displaces the defenders from their normal coverage responsibilities. That was something I felt ..."
October 12
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Dave Hyde
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Bill Parcells collects lines. His line to teams is, "You are what your record says you are." His line to fumbling running backs is, "The football is your paycheck." His line about quarterbacks is you don't know if they're tough enough until they've thrown a few interceptions, lost a game, been booed and doubted and then enter the huddle the next Wednesday in practice. Let's go to the Dolphins' Wednesday practice after the Sept. 14 Arizona loss, as ugly a loss as the Dolphins have had in years. Chad Pennington didn't throw an interception that game. He still looked lost. His offense spun its wheels. The rookie, Chad Henne, led the only touchdown drive, which began the predictable chant for ..."
September 22
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Ethan J. Skolnick
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Time after time, Chad Pennington split out as a flanker Sunday. Time after time, defensive backs rudely disregarded the decoy. "There's no respect for me out there," Pennington quipped. It's time to show him a little respect in this space. Many, including myself, have questioned whether the 32-year-old quarterback still had sufficient arm strength to stretch the field vertically. Never has it been reasonable to question whether he possessed the intellect and experience to capably manage the position. While Pennington's near perfection in the conventional offense will get lost in all the postgame talk of tricks, it should be noted that he played as efficiently as any Dolphins quarterback in ..."
September 15
Miami Herald
columnist Armando Salguero
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The quarterback position is not the problem, and that is one of many reasons Chad Henne is not starting next week. Tony Sparano was asked Sunday if Henne might be his new starter following this humiliating 31-10 Arizona victory over the Dolphins in which the rookie quarterback was the sliver of good news to come out of the mess -- a rose trying to rise out of a sewer. ''No,'' Sparano said. And the coach is right. This is not yet the time to throw a promising rookie into Miami's talent breach as if he was a pagan sacrifice being thrown into a volcano. Henne is confident and calm, and every turn he gets on the field confirms publicly what the Miami brass believes privately: That he is this ..."
September 8
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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A flushed and dejected Chad Pennington didn't dream about a perfect ending to the Dolphins' "New Beginning," but had practiced it Friday. "I told the guys Friday ... this game is going to come down to two minutes," Pennington said after his new team lost 20-14 Sunday to his old team in a game that came down to an end-zone interception by Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis with five seconds remaining. "We went down and scored on the last play, as a matter of fact, on fourth down in practice." Well, practice didn't make perfect in Pennington's debut as the Dolphins' 13th starting quarterback since Dan Marino. The main reason for another sad Dolphins' ending against the Jets (five losses in a ..."
September 8
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
columnist Ethan J. Skolnick
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The Dolphins took what the defense gave them. Trouble was, the defense took away too much else. So, yes, Anthony Fasano and David Martin deserve credit for combining for 10 second-half catches. But before declaring either the next Mark Bavaro, Ben Coates or Jason Witten, recognize that their involvement was more a matter of necessity than choice. The Dolphins averaged only 2.9 yards per carry, in part because Chad Pennington couldn't stretch the field enough - whether wide or long - with completions to outside receivers. Ted Ginn Jr., Greg Camarillo and Davone Bess combined for 62 yards receiving. Pennington's longest completion was 24 yards, to Martin. He was less accurate, especially ..."
September 8
Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
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A flushed, dejected Chad Pennington didn't dream about a perfect ending to the Dolphins "New Beginning,'' but had actually practiced it on Friday. "I told the guys Friday this game is going to come down to two minutes,'' Pennington said about 20 minutes after his new team lost 20-14 Sunday to his old team in a game that came down to an end-zone interception by Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis with 10 seconds remaining. "We went down and scored on the last play, as a matter of fact, on fourth down in practice.'' Well, practice didn't make perfect in Pennington's debut as the Dolphins' 13th starting quarterback since Dan Marino. The main reason for yet another sad Dolphins' ending against the ..."