WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Chad Pennington knows how to work a room.
It's at least part of the reason he's the Dolphins' starting quarterback.
Whatever it was that coach Tony Sparano saw at halftime Saturday during a 24-0 preseason win against Kansas City was enough to affirm his belief in Pennington's ability to direct a team — not just an offense — off the field as well as on.
Oh, sure, Pennington has the proper physical skills, or Sparano wouldn't have chosen him rather than rookie Chad Henne, because actions always speak more loudly than words in the NFL's violent world.
But the Pennington demeanor Sparano mentioned and the way he said players responded to the quarterback during the halftime break also happened to be on post-game display.
The home locker room was emptying, and Pennington was preparing to head to the formal interview area when running back Ricky Williams, on his own way out, stopped to speak to him.
"Nice going out there. Good game," Williams said with a handsake.
Pennington acknowledged the compliment, but then leaned closer to Williams to say something else. Asked what he said, Pennington went a long way toward explaining the personal touch that impressed teammates so quickly after he signed earlier this month.
"I told him he played a good game, too, and that we can't be as good as we want to be without him," Pennington said. "I said, 'We've got to keep it up. We're the ones who have to set the example and keep everybody moving forward. We're the old guys, now, on a team that has a lot of young players who are going to watch us and follow our lead.'"
That's a familiar refrain, and nothing profound or powerful within the habitat of professional sports.
But the best, though not spoken to Williams, was yet to come as Pennington explained what he sees as his place — and other veterans' places — on the team.
"We have a responsibility that goes beyond playing the game for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon," Pennington said.
Those words carry a certain persuasiveness for which eloquence isn't a requirement. Pennington, quite obviously, is a forceful personality, but with the volume turned low. A colleague pointed out how Trent Green, late of the Dolphins after holding the starting quarterback job at this time a year ago, also presented himself well ... and already is long gone.
True enough, but the Dolphins can't afford to borrow that kind of trouble. All they're really hoping for is to get luckier with Pennington than they did with Green, who was an injury risk coming in and turned out to be not worth the gamble.
The 32-year-old Pennington, frequently beaten up and entering his ninth NFL season, isn't likely a long-term solution at a position problematic for Miami ever since St. Daniel was canonized in retirement almost a decade ago. Henne, obviously, is the next great quarterback hope for the Dolphins, and Pennington is his tutor just as Green was supposed to be for then-rookie and now-forgotten John Beck.
Sparano seems satisfied with the arrangement. Let's just say he's talking about more than X's and O's when describing Pennington's "management skills."
Pennington's equanimity figures to come in especially handy when the Dolphins open their season at home on Sept. 7 against the New York Jets, for whom he worked until they acquired Brett Favre.
The Favre vs. Pennington quarterback pairing will generate more than standard interest in a game featuring teams trying to recover from miserable records (4-12 for the Jets; 1-15 for the Dolphins).
Pennington is sure to be wildly motivated against his former employer. It was the Jets, after all, who made him the first quarterback chosen (with the 18th overall pick) in the 2000 NFL Draft. But he probably won't get caught up in the hype or the inevitable comparisons to Favre or anything else.
Better to work a room than to get all worked up.
Greg Stoda writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: greg UNDERSCORE stoda AT pbpost.com.