Ryan Tannehill upset by report he mocked practice squad’s paychecks

There’s a new coach on the Miami Dolphins, and it was quite an interesting day around the team Wednesday.

Included in interim coach Dan Campbell’s first full day with his team was quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s strong denial that he mocked a practice squad player who picked him off by saying, in part, “Enjoy your practice squad paycheck.” Never happened, Tannehill said.

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“Yeah, I’m upset. It’s slanderous to report things I didn’t say, to degrade my reputation, it’s sickening to me,” Tannehill said, according to NFL Network’s Jeff Darlington via the league’s Around the NFL blog.

Aside from needing a journalism law crash course — Tannehill wanted to use libel, which is written defamation; slander is orally defaming someone — other Dolphins said the National Football Post report didn’t happen as it was reported. According to Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald, center Mike Pouncey said the report was bull … excrement, and that Tannehill didn’t deserve it.

“I said nothing about a paycheck,” Tannehill said, according to Darlington. “I hold myself to a higher standard than to say something like that.”

The Miami Herald said Tannehill grew angry with linebacker Chris McCain for being more aggressive than is typical for a Saturday practice, and that the scout team’s antics were disruptive.

Wednesday’s Dolphins practice seemed pretty intense. Campbell has vowed to change the culture, and that seemed accurate from practice reports. The team did the Oklahoma drill, an old-school physical drill in which there is a blocker, a tackler and a ball-carrier. You don’t see NFL teams doing that a ton during the season. There was a fight between Jarvis Landry and Cedric Thompson early in the period that was open to the media, the Miami Herald said.

The culture definitely seems a little different. The Dolphins needed something to spark them.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab