Why didn't the Dolphins leave for London earlier than today?

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
There's been a lot of talk on social media in regards to the Dolphins leaving for London on Thursday evening, especially after learning the Oakland Raiders flew there after their game on Sunday against the New England Patriots. Many fans are upset the Dolphins didn't think and plan like the Raiders to get there earlier in the week so they could get acclimated to the climate, culture and time difference.

On Wednesday, Joe Philbin explained their rationale in leaving later in the week rather than earlier. 

“We want to keep it the same basically. We have to go over earlier. We’re leaving Thursday evening. We’re going to get there Friday and we’re going to get right into a normal day on Friday. We’re going to get right to work, get practicing, get our meetings going. (We’ll) give them some time Friday night. If they are here Friday night and they want to go out to dinner, they can go out to dinner. I’m not going to mandate what they do on their off time, that’s their time."

"Saturday, we’re going to do the same exact schedule, all the things that we would do here and then we’re going to have our meetings. We just want to make it as similar to what they do every time they play a football game as possible. And so I’m not going to mandate every single second of their time. Again, I think it’s going to be a great test for the maturity of our football team.

Philbin said they talked to other teams about their routines when they went to London and this was the best plan that they could've put tog

“We are going to jump on the plane and feed them a big meal,” Philbin said. “Hopefully, they’ll sleep, get to London and make it a normal Friday. That was the thought process. We talked to other teams, and we came to a conclusion that this was the best way for us to prepare for this game.”

History has shown that teams who stay home longer usually do pretty well and there is no huge advantage to getting their earlier in the week. In the end, it's going to come down to who the better team is and who the better coaches are. At this point, it's tough to say either team has an advantage in either category.

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