The sandy shores of Hilton Head don’t attract many NFL coaches with preciously short summers. But the Caribbean or Europe never fit Tony Sparano, a man loyal to family routines.
Sparano needed Jeanette, his wife of 34 years, and their three children — Tony Jr., Andy and daughter Ryan Leigh — with him during the few days away from football, even after the kids had families of their own. Three decades of getaways to the same island off the coast of South Carolina prompted fellow coaches to question Sparano’s downtime decisions.
“People would be like, ‘Well, don’t you want to travel?