Woodley's death sad but powerful By Ken B. May 7, 2003

I spent last night watching basketball, continuing to enjoy the NBA playoffs even though the officiating makes me nuts and Bill Walton makes me wish I were deaf. But as I watched the Kings — just between you and me, my choice as future NBA champs — rip through the Mavericks in the second half of Game One of their series, I noticed something scrolling across ESPN’s Bottom Line at the bottom of the screen that hit me like a ton of bricks.

David Woodley was dead.

That’s former Dolphins QB David Woodley, who led Miami to the Super Bowl in 1983. Forty-four years old, and dead of liver and kidney failure. Woodley underwent a liver transplant in 1992, something I didn’t know about, but his health progressively got worse and he passed away Sunday. Now, I haven’t thought about David Woodley in I don’t know how long. He wasn’t one of my favorite players growing up, and it’s not like I was ever a Dolphins fan. But still, the news of Woodley’s death really shook me.

It’s odd how some news can hit you. I know why Woodley’s death struck me so hard. It’s because he was an integral part of developing my love of football when I was young. When I was a kid, just like now, I simply loved football. Hell, all sports for that matter. Football, basketball and baseball took up pretty much my entire waking time. I spent my time reading about the history of all the sports, playing them whenever humanly possible and developing a love of the games that exists to this day.

I’m the son of a Rams-fan father and a Bears-fan mother, but being born in the Chicago area, I’ve always been a Bears fan. The Bears, however, didn’t bring a lot to the table in the early 1980s except the best running back of all time in Walter Payton and a string of quarterbacks that had great names and little talent. Mike Phipps, Bob Avellini and Vince Evans were the signalcallers at the time for the Bears, and Neill Armstrong was the head coach. When my father let me know that the guy coaching the Bears did not, in fact, walk on the moon, I had no more use for the fake Armstrong.

But my love went well beyond the Bears. I also loved the Rams (just a little influence from Norm), hated the Raiders (cheaters), liked the Bengals (great uniforms), despised the Cowboys (America’s Team? Not in Indiana). But the 1982 Redskins really caught my eye because they had a quarterback who had a helmet like the ones I was seeing in my history books, and a kicker who still kicked straight on. They also had the Fun Bunch and the Hogs and the Smurfs, all things that appeal to a 9-year-old who is just making his way in the world.

Which brings me back to Woodley. Woodley was the quarterback when the Dolphins played the Redskins in Super Bowl XVII, only the third Super Bowl that I actually remember watching live. I was completely into the hype surrounding the game, to the point that my mother bought me a Redskins T-shirt to wear for the game. And I had to hear story after story about how David Woodley, the hated David Woodley, was the youngest quarterback at the time to start a Super Bowl, how he was an eighth-round pick who had won the job over veteran Don Strock and was trying to follow in the footsteps of Bob Griese to lead the Dolphins to glory.

Hey, when you’re a kid, you’re pretty emotionally charged, and I had no love for David Woodley in that game.

And right off the bat, he justified my hate. He threw a 76-yard TD pass to Jimmy Cefalo to give the Dolphins a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. My hate got cranked up to 11 at that point, and it pleased me to no end to see Woodley struggle after that. So much so, in fact, that he had to be lifted in favor of Strock late in the game after going 4-of-14 passing for 97 yards.

John Riggins took care of the Dolphins, however, in the fourth quarter, and for the first time in my long and illustrious three years of watching the Super Bowl, the team I was rooting for had won. The Redskins beat the Dolphins and that big jerk David Woodley, and all was right with the world. Again, when you’re 9, there rarely is a whole lot wrong with the world.

Woodley, of course, didn’t hold that starting job for much longer. Some kid out of Pitt named Marino won the gig the next year, and the year after that, Woodley was just a memory in Miami. And for me, he became a memory I rarely thought of.

But the news of Woodley’s death brought all of those memories back, although they have taken on a different form in the two decades since he was Ken’s Enemy No. 1 in January 1982. Now I just smile at how ridiculous I was, and I hope Woodley realized how much of an impact he had on people. He gave the Dolphins a Super Bowl run and helped give at least one little boy in cold and windy northwest Indiana a reason to have a passion for football that continues to this day.

My fiancée, Lauren, gets upset with me because I don’t always remember the names of her cousins, but the name of David Woodley has stayed with me through the years. Woodley is a man I never met, I never talked to on the phone and I never really thought about all that often. But that doesn’t mean that his life didn’t have an impact, or that he should be forgotten. The news of his death is sad, but in passing away, he has brought back a lot of fond memories for football fans, and that’s a testament to the impact he had on the game.

Twenty years later, Dolphins remember NFL strike of '87
By Ethan J. Skolnick | Staff Writer

October 4, 2007

They assured a Fresno banker that he wouldn't miss a weekday of work, as long as they could bank on him long-snapping in Seattle on Sunday.

They located a defensive lineman on a British Columbia moose hunt, then convinced him by satellite phone to hunt Dolphins in the Kingdome.

They recruited a running back with three years' experience by emphasizing his NFL pension eligibility after three more games.

They signed a safety to serve as an option quarterback, until they could persuade veteran passer (and Nebraska teacher) Bruce Mathison to come run a pro-style offense.

Training camp discards. Other teams' rejects. Semipro players from Tacoma. Any stray body that Randy Mueller and the Seahawks' other personnel men could find to face a team of replacement Dolphins on Oct. 4, 1987, two decades ago today.

"It was comical, and really a lot of fun," Mueller said of the signing spree the 1987 strike created. "It wasn't easy to get guys to Seattle, either. It's the last stop before Nome."

Mueller is now across the country, trying to rebuild the Dolphins as their general manager. At least this rebuild represents a conventional challenge. Back on Sept. 22, 1987, when the NFL had its second work stoppage in five years, Mueller and current Dolphins college scouting coordinator Rick Thompson were Seahawks personnel assistants. The league canceled the Sept. 27 schedule, then gave teams less than a week to construct a team of "replacement" players for contests that would count.

"I'm sure every team took a little pride in getting players," Thompson said. "It was analogous to trying to sign free agents after the draft, except you're filling out an entire roster."

Their work led to a 24-20 victory, one that resonated weeks later, when the Seahawks qualified for the playoffs as an AFC wild card at 9-6 while the Dolphins missed at 8-7. The strike's strange circumstances still do.

"Hopefully, it will never happen again," Dolphins security director Stu Weinstein said. "But it really gave me an appreciation for what coaches do."

The Dolphins had been especially disappointed, since the Sept. 27, 1987 cancellations had postponed the sold-out regular-season opening of the new Joe Robbie Stadium against the defending champion Giants. Then the "replacement" mandate created some unusual complications. They couldn't house the players in the training camp hotel at St. Thomas University, because now students were using it. So the players lived in the dorms.

"Talk about archaic," said Weinstein, who stayed in the hotel's media relations office.

In those short-staffed days, he handled community relations and player development in addition to security. So he was caught between his duty to assist replacement players and his loyalty to regulars, who picketed adjacent to the practice facility when they weren't at Miami-Dade College North participating in practices organized by Dan Marino and Don Strock.

"I had to go out there every morning to keep the peace," Weinstein said.

It was hard for the coaching staff to keep focus, as it tried to construct a cohesive unit to take to Seattle. Don Shula had three offensive linemen at the first practice. Supporting unions were issuing threats. Weinstein secured the promise of St. Thomas and police not to arrest players trespassing on private property.

Weinstein had to get another blessing, this one from the Volusia County State Attorney's Office. Without time for the usual background checks, he didn't learn until the team was headed for Seattle that one player was out on bond on a murder charge.

"I had to get the judge to put him in my custody and Coach Shula's custody, guaranteeing I would get him back to the judge when the game was over," Weinstein said.

No Dolphin regular crossed the picket line in time for the first game. The late punter Reggie Roby did after the second game, citing a need to rehabilitate his injuries. Liffort Hobley, a safety cut in camp, reported that first Friday, minutes after the team had left for Seattle.

So the Dolphins took their ragtag team and off-duty police officers to Seattle. The climate was combustible league-wide, particularly in traditional union cities. The "Spare Bears," with future NFL coach Sean Payton at quarterback, arrived at Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium at 5 a.m. Sunday, napping in the locker room to avoid confrontations.

"The focus was how do you get the players from the airport to the hotel to the game and back out without any of the interruptions from possible picketers and security threats," said Dolphins President Bryan Wiedmeier, then the travel secretary. "It was a whirlwind."

Home teams took their own precautions. The Seahawks didn't stay at their usual pregame hotel, predicting correctly that news trucks and striking players would show up there.

"We weren't that stupid," Thompson said.

The replacements took the game seriously.

The level of play?

"Division I-AA," Mueller said.

Kyle Mackey threw for 179 yards for the Dolphins. Mathison threw for 326, including 137 to Jimmy Teal. One connection set up Rick Parros' winning touchdown. Mueller called it one of the five greatest wins in Seahawks history, "because of what we'd gone through to build a team. There were about 20,000 people that day. When we left the stadium, they were still chanting."

Twelve days later, the strike ended, though teams would play a third replacement game. By then, about 15 percent of players had crossed, including five Seahawks. Steve Largent had 13 catches for 261 yards in the first half against Detroit, before taking himself out.

"He had the guy spinning like a top," Mueller said. "He said, 'I just can't do this anymore.'"

Most teams felt that way by the time all regulars returned.

Still, the Sea Scabs, as some called them, had their moments. They went 2-1. The Dol-Finks went 1-2. Mackey and Hobley led a 42-0 home win against the Chiefs on Oct. 11. Mackey then took the host Jets to overtime on Oct. 18, despite 55 facial stitches and five interceptions, and while facing regulars Marty Lyons, Joe Klecko and Mark Gastineau.

Could history repeat? Will teams ever hunt down players on moose hunts?

"It would be ludicrous to think we couldn't find better options," Mueller said. "But again, I've seen a lot of stuff."

Miami Orange Bowl: The End Of An Era

by Suzy on November 12, 2007

ABOVE: An ariel view of the Orange Bowl overlooking Downtown Miami.

Barring the occasional crowing rooster, the residential area surrounding the Orange Bowl is like any other in the country; kids playing in the street, parents on the sidewalk watching over them, barking dogs and teens zipping by way too quickly.  But not on select Saturdays during college football season- University of Miami Hurricanes home football games to be exact.  On these days, the ordinarily quiet area transforms into a 5 mile radius block party. 

On game days, the residential area is invaded with orange and green.  In typical game day gear, fans, students and parents arrive with painted faces, dyed hair strands, and even beads.  Dishing out upwards of $50 per car to park on residential streets within close proximity of the Orange Bowl, fans will overtake lawns and convert them into roadside barbecues.  Mini-tents will go up and radios will start blasting.  Home-made contraptions to guzzle beer come out and kegs begin to flow-all in the name of spirit; a spirit that will be no more.

Earlier this year, University of Miami president Donna Shalala, citing dilapidated facilities as the key factor, announced that the university would not use the Orange Bowl after the 2007 college football season but rather would be moving the team’s home field to Dolphin Stadium.  The decision brought mixed emotions to students and fans alike who say the Orange Bowl, rich in university history, is much more than just a football field. 

And it is.

Built in 1937, the Orange Bowl was originally named Burdine Stadium after Miami pioneer Roddy Burdine.  The Orange Bowl classic, for she which she is named, began there the year after but it wasn’t until 1959 that the stadium received a name change.

Orange Bowl Highlights Over the Past 70 Years

The Miami Dolphins played their first 21 years in the venue.  It was at the Orange Bowl where the Dolphins flourished under Hall of Fame Football Coach Don Shula.  The only undefeated season in NFL history was played there. Dan Marino made the stadium tremble with patrons when he broke the single-season passing record.  Actually, there was a steel structure in the end zone that fans would set to rumbling by stomping their feet.  They also had a dolphin in a tank at the end zone.  The Miami Dolphins enjoyed a level of success at the Orange Bowl that they have not been able to recreate at Dolphin Stadium.

The Orange Bowl ties the Rose Bowl for second place in the Super Bowl Host category having hosted five. Super Bowls like the one where Joe Namath shocked the crowd and made good on his Super Bowl promise, and the most famous upset in Super Bowl history: Super Bowl III, Jets vs Baltimore.
The Old Lady also crowned fourteen national champions when the Orange Bowl Classic was held there including three belonging to the University of Miami.

Not just rich in football history, in 1956, the Orange Bowl hosted the largest crowd ever for a minor league game.  57,000 came to watch a 50 year old pitch for the Miami Marlins.  The Orange Bowl has hosted international soccer teams as well as pro teams.  It was even the venue for some of the 1996 Summer Olympic events.  The Orange Bowl was also the place where the world crowned Welter weight champion Alexis Arguello following his bout against Aaron Pryor.

The original home of the Miami Dolphins, the Orange Bowl has seen many historic athletic moments.  Yet, even though the Orange Bowl is rich in athletic history, it’s actually been ground zero for some of the most memorable events in not only Miami’s but South Florida’s history as well.  Actually, the Orange Bowl boasts a remarkable fact.  No venue in the entire Southeastern United States has hosted as many games, names and memorable moments as the Orange Bowl has.

In 1946, just days before his famous “Sinews of Peace” speech, Winston Churchill spoke before a crowd of 17,500 spectators at the Orange Bowl as he accepted an honorary degree from the University of Miami.

In 1962, forty thousand men, women and children applauded as then President John Kennedy was handed the treasured brigade flag from the commander of the 2506 Brigade.  The 2506 Brigade, was a group of American-trained Cuban fighters sent to overthrow Castro in the ill fated Bay of Pigs invasion.  Those that were captured by Fidel were held in exchange for ransom that was paid later.  It was on that December 1962 day that the surviving members of the brigade walked on to the Orange Bowl’s field and were personally thanked by President Kennedy before a thunderous cheering Cuban crowd.

The same stadium became a cot-lined home to many Cuban immigrants during the Mariel Boat Lift in 1980.  The camp provided a safe haven for the refugees who, upon arriving in Key West, would be sent via bus to the Orange Bowl during the immigration process. 

U2, the Eagles, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, The Police, Metallica, Genesis and Prince have all performed at the Orange Bowl.  Actually it was the site of Prince’s Purple Rain finale where it was rechristened the ‘Purple Bowl.’

In 1995 Hurricane Wilma caused severe structural damage to the OB which was later repaired.  Incidentally, the stadium also served as a supply distribution locale following the storm.  Tens of thousands of desperate, unprepared people waited in lines for hours for basic supplied.  Cars sat in half mile lines for bags of ice.  They would line up again days later to apply for government assistance in the wake of the storm.

In recent years, the Orange Bowl has been home to monthly car sales outside the stadium, wrestling events, tractor pulls, car shows, international soccer games, FIU college football (as their new stadium is being built), high-school football games, religious revivals, and numerous commercial shoots; But no tenants that lasted as long or drew as many fans as the University of Miami did.

The Hurricanes with their 31-30 victory over Nebraska in the 1984 title game received their first national title there.  It’s a favorite memory amongst many Hurricane fans.  Later that year and equally as memorable is the most replayed ending in college football history: Doug Flutie’s 46 yard Hail Mary(Flutie) pass that connected in the end zone with the hands of Gerard Phelan to hand the defending National Champions a 47-15 loss to Boston College; and of course, who can forget any number of ‘wide’ kicks made by Florida State.  Sadly, the school’s farewell to the Old Lady would not be as joyous as any of the Seminole’s errant kick games. 

The Hurricanes played their last home game at the Orange Bowl on Saturday November 10th.  The ‘Old Lady’ as she’s referred to, once home to the nation’s longest winning streak, closed out her rein with an embarrassing loss to Virginia.  Nobody rushed the field. Officials quickly turned the scoreboard off following the university’s final goodbye to the place it called home for 70 years.

Even sadder than seeing the University of Miami leave it’s home, is the city of Miami’s decision to demolish the Orange Bowl.  In a move that’s angered many residents, the city of Miami has decided to free itself completely of the dilapidated sports mecca in the hopes of using the land for a new ballpark with a retractable roof for the Florida Marlins.  They will begin selling off pieces in early 2008 as memorabilia before tearing the Old Lady down.  The last event scheduled to be held is a high school football All-Star game.

I’ll be sad to see her go when the city begins demolition in 2008.  Much like many other residents of Miami, I have a “my first event” story at the Orange Bowl.  I first went there as a little girl in the 80’s with my aunt and cousin to see my first concert ever: Madonna.

It’s not just a field, stadium or venue, not to me anyway.  The OB is a another piece of my childhood I’ll be losing. 

Orange Bowl: End of an era

By Tim Reynolds | The Associated Press    12:31 PM EST, November 8, 2007

MIAMI - As pregame tradition dictates, a cannon will boom and white smoke will pour from a tunnel leading out of the locker room. The Miami Hurricanes will emerge and run east into the night, traipsing across ground where John F. Kennedy spoke, Joe Namath made good on his Super Bowl guarantee and the Miami Dolphins were perfect.

A rusty old building, nothing but steel and concrete and ghosts, will shake in delight.

And an era will end.

For 70 years, the Hurricanes called this place home. The Orange Bowl, now an exquisite eyesore, hosted everything from Super Bowls to the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, from Hollywood movies to hurricane evacuees.

And, by the way, some of the finest college football games were played there, including 11 that decided national championships.

On Saturday night, the Hurricanes will play there for the 468th time.

The final time.

"I guess the old girl had to be retired at some point, since we couldn't get enough money to get her built up the right way," said Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Warren Sapp, a 1994 All-American at Miami. "She goes out the greatest stadium in America, in my mind."

At the beginning, she was.

Billed at its opening as "the largest and most modern steel stadium in the nation," the Orange Bowl - or Roddy Burdine Stadium, as it was originally known, a nod to the department store magnate who got it built - was beyond compare.

"A beautiful structure without peer in beauty and adaptability," wrote Jack Bell in the Miami Daily News on Dec. 10, 1937, the night the place was dedicated. Times change.

The Orange Bowl's best days were decades ago. More than a few seats are falling apart. The scoreboard is as modern as bellbottoms. It's not uncommon to see something fall off the structure during games. Some visitors make the sign of the cross as they enter the elevators. There's drips from the ceilings, rust on all corners, puddles in the concourses and evidence of decay almost everywhere.

"Not the prettiest place on earth," said former Miami quarterback Ken Dorsey, who led the Hurricanes to the 2001 national championship. "But it was our home."

A cherished home, too.

The Hurricanes won three national titles on their home field, all when the Orange Bowl game was played in the Orange Bowl stadium. They won a record 58 straight games there during one stretch, were victimized by plays forever known as the "Florida Flop" and "Hail Flutie," and put a historic 58-7 beating on Notre Dame there in 1985, the worst loss in Fighting Irish history.

Namath's Jets won the 1969 Super Bowl there over the Baltimore Colts, the one the quarterback guaranteed he'd win. Flipper, a dolphin that swam in a tank behind the east end zone during Dolphins games, was a star attraction for years. Dan Marino's Hall of Fame career started at the Orange Bowl in record-setting fashion.

But the night perhaps most fondly remembered by Miami football fans was Jan. 1, 1984.

Nebraska vs. Miami, Orange Bowl, national championship game. The Cornhuskers closed within 31-30 in the final minute and coach Tom Osborne simply didn't want the game to end in a tie, so he went for a 2-point conversion with the title on the line.

Ken Calhoun deflected Turner Gill's pass, and Miami prevailed.

After more than a half-century of often-mediocre football, the Hurricanes had won it all.

Farewell, 54
By Omar Kelly | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

February 15, 2008

A day noted for romance brought a bittersweet breakup for Zach Thomas, who parted ways with his one-and-only NFL franchise on Valentine's Day.

Thomas' celebrated 12-year career with the Miami Dolphins came to an end Thursday, as the team terminated his contract in an attempt to get younger and create cap space for the impending free-agency period, which starts at the end of this month.

While Thomas, 34, was told he no longer fits into the team's long-term plans, the seven-time Pro Bowl selection intends to continue playing despite having his 2007 season shortened by concussion-related issues.

According to his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, Thomas is healthy and cleared to play, and his goal is to latch on with a contender.

Rosenhaus claims the former fifth-round pick, who has led the Dolphins in tackles 10 of his 12 seasons, has already drawn some interest now that he's on the open market.

"Zach will most likely be playing for a team that was in the playoffs," Rosenhaus said.

"I have been very pleased by the interest so far."

Because the bulk of Thomas' signing bonus was paid in the first two seasons of the five-year extension he got in 2003, nearly all of Thomas' $5,560,000 salary comes off the books with little penalty.

Thomas was the fifth 2007 starter cut by the Dolphins this week as part of a massive roster overhaul.

Nine players — most notably quarterback Trent Green, receiver Marty Booker, right tackle L.J. Shelton and defensive tackle Keith Traylor — were cut Tuesday.

The Dolphins were the first NFL team to start terminating contracts and doing so cleared between $13 million and $15 million in additional space once prorated bonuses are factored in.

In total, the Dolphins are approximately $35 million under the 2008 projected salary cap of $116 million, which puts them in prime position to be one of the biggest movers and shakers in free agency. However, all the recent moves further depleted a roster that finished 1-15 last season, the NFL's worst.

Thomas' departure means Channing Crowder, who led the team with 78 tackles in an injury-shortened season, will likely take over as the team's middle linebacker unless the Dolphins address that position in free agency or in April's draft.

Thomas was one of many Dolphins who had the 2007 season shortened because of injuries. He suffered a concussion in the second game of the season against Dallas. He came back and played three games after a two-week hiatus, but was sidelined again due to concussion-like symptoms stemming from an October car accident after a loss to the Patriots.

Thomas contributed 52 tackles in the five games he played last season, marking the first time in his career he didn't record 100 tackles. During his career, he had 1,866 tackles, 18.5 sacks, 17 interceptions (four for touchdowns), 13 forced fumbles and seven fumble recoveries.

Thomas did not return phone calls Thursday, but in a released statement he thanked the Dolphins new front office for handling his release in a "first-class manner."

"I want to thank the entire organization, especially [team owner H. Wayne] Huizenga, for making my 12 seasons with the Dolphins as memorable as they were," Thomas said. "I have a tremendous appreciation and admiration not only for the Dolphins organization, but for the fans as well, for all of the support that they have given me. I am healthy and look forward to playing in 2008, but will always consider myself a Miami Dolphin."

Don't cry for No. 54

Zach Thomas: Longtime fan favorite of Dolphins has been released

Dave Hyde | Sports Columnist

February 15, 2008

He arrived as a nobody from Pampa, Texas, who in his first Dolphins summer was mistaken for a high school player by his barber and as a nightclub valet attendant by major league pitcher Tom Glavine.

"Here you go," Glavine said, tossing him the keys.

"Uh, OK," Zach Thomas said.

Now here it is, 12 years later, and the most productive tackler in Dolphins history is finally throwing back the keys to what turned into an era. He's saying goodbye. The Dolphins released Thomas on Thursday in a move that's cold, potentially questionable, all kinds of uncomfortable and something else above all that:

It's best for Thomas.

This move sets Thomas free. It lets him play the open field. It gives him a chance for the elusive happy ending. If you're a Thomas fan — and, come on, who hasn't been these past 12 years? — you have to see that.

Thursday's move means Thomas' final days won't be wasted baby-sitting another Dolphins rebuilding job that may or may not work out, but certainly won't be finished before his football days are. So don't cry for Thomas. Be happy for him.

Hope he finds a contending team that's desperate for a middle linebacker.

And hope Jason Taylor is next out the door.

In fact, hope harder for Taylor, if you want what's best for him. What's best for the Dolphins is another matter. They can't keep saying goodbye to productive players. But Taylor, at 34 next year, is just a year younger than Thomas, potentially just a year from a similar fate as his brother-in-law and brother-in-arms.

Can you root for your favorite players over your favorite team?

Dolphins fans are about to find out. The point is, if you like happy endings, you should have stopped reading the story about Thomas and probably Taylor a couple of years ago.

There wasn't going to be a happy ending here involving them and the team they'll be forever linked with. Not considering the Dolphins' revolving regimes. Not with the roster annually put around them. Not when Thomas and Taylor were the last two draft picks that the Dolphins front office hit out of the park.

Sure, they made millions chasing a ball and lived the rock star's life doing so. But their doomed fate as a competitor was clear long before Thomas yanked his namesake sign out from his Dolphins' parking space at the end of last season and brandished it for the cameras like a memory.

It was even clear before the latest dismal season, when Thomas looked at the offseason happenings and said in a private moment, "I hope these guys know what they're doing."

The regime of Cam Cameron and Randy Mueller were his last hope. At 34 last season, he knew that. Really, Nick Saban and Dave Wannstedt sunk him far much more. Everyone talks about the Dan Marino's wasted years. At least he made the Super Bowl.

Thomas never made it past the second round of the playoffs. And so now he'll try to do what Marino never did, what Dolphins fans never have really had to watch. He'll try to find the right match of a contending team and see if they want him.

Did you notice at the Super Bowl of New England's linebackers of Tedy Bruschi and Junior Seau are retiring? Do you think, with a few other adjustments, Thomas could have a place there? Maybe? If his health holds? Would they trade for Taylor, too?

Dolphins fans need aspirin just thinking such thoughts.

The blueprint of the new Dolphins czar, Bill Parcells, isn't clear yet. He's cut some old players. He's cut some expensive players. He has made a lot of salary-cap room and open positions (nine starting positions are open).

That's the easy part, as we've seen over the wasted years. The harder part is filling these holes with decent players.

So if it's understandable from the cold logic of business why Thomas was cut, at 35, with health issues, with a hefty contract, you have to see who replaces him before saying if it makes full sense. Maybe Thomas refused to trim his contract because he wanted out. Maybe the Dolphins didn't want him back no matter what.

What's strange in this, what's utterly wrong, is the only spokesman from the Dolphins is General Manager Jeff Ireland. He's been here six weeks. Where's team owner H. Wayne Huizenga or vice president Bryan Wiedmeier or someone who's been around for all of Thomas' years publicly expressing the thanks every Dolphins fan is today? Isn't that simple manners?

As for Thomas, everyone says he had to make believers out of everyone. It's true, too. Starting with himself. His dream was to play one year in the league. That's it. Hook on with special teams. Carve a role for himself for a year.

That's what fifth-round draft picks do. Instead, he started the first game of that first season, a Dolphins win under Jimmy Johnson. He walked out of the stadium that day and was met by his parents.

"I saw the look in their eyes that said they couldn't believe I could play like that," he once said.

For most of 12 years, he put that look on everyone's face. He beat all the odds. Now, nearing 35, he tries to beat them again somewhere else. Maybe it's best for the Dolphins. We'll see about that. But one thing's for sure: It's best for him.

Fifth-rounder-turned-star gets plaudits

By Harvey Fialkov | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

February 15, 2008

When then Dolphins coach Jimmy Johnson took 5-foot-11 linebacker Zach Thomas with his third pick of the fifth round of the 1996 draft, he thought he could be a solid special teams player.

Instead, Thomas just ended up being special.

Thomas, who was released by the Dolphins on Thursday after a dozen sterling seasons, became a seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker and notched at least 100 tackles in each of his first 11 seasons.

Johnson said Thomas' greatest talent was his preparation and anticipation.

"He never took a bad step," Johnson said Thursday during a radio interview on WQAM (560-AM) . "He was able to anticipate where the ball would be and where the receiver would go. He was thoroughly prepared. We'd be in the office to the wee hours of the morning and we'd leave and Zach would still be there studying tape."

"He played with a passion like no other," said Dolphins defensive tackle Vonnie Holliday, Thomas' teammate the past three seasons. "He epitomized professionalism. You know a lot of changes were coming and you hear the rumors but when it happens it's certainly disappointing to see a guy like Zach go. When you think of the Miami Dolphins, you think about Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor.

"If he's healthy and everything is going well, he'll go somewhere else and make some plays. I just hope it's won't be on the Patriots like everyone else."

Taylor, Thomas' teammate for 11 seasons and also his brother-in-law, was traveling Thursday.

Many pundits consider Thomas the greatest linebacker in Dolphins history, including his predecessor, five-time Pro Bowl selection John Offerdahl.

"We're all replaceable. It's a matter of time that someone shines higher and brighter than you, and Zach certainly did," said Offerdahl, who retired three years before Thomas' arrival. "No question he was the greatest Dolphins linebacker. Look at the length of time he played, the level he played at and his productivity. You don't need to take my opinion for that."

When former Dolphins fullback Rob Konrad played for the Dolphins from 1999-2004, the defense was always ahead of the offense.

"He's been the heart and soul of that defense for a decade or more," Konrad said. "He demanded the best out of himself, so everyone gravitated to that. He was so emotionally vested in football, be it at practice or preseason. I can't think of a time Zach wasn't going at full speed. ... If you could build a whole team with players like Zach, you'd be in good shape."

University of Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt, who spent 1999-2004 with the Dolphins, said he has never been more impressed with a player.

"In 26 years of coaching football and coaching over a dozen Pro Bowl players and five to six Hall of Famers," Wannstedt said, "I always look for one guy that I use as an example for the younger players, and Zach's the guy."

Dolphins Hall of Fame coach Don Shula never got to coach Thomas, but wishes that he had.

"I would've loved to have the opportunity to coach him," Shula said. "Zach and Jason are a credit to the Dolphins and even in the tough times you could always count on those two to be great players.

"I love the way he played. He did everything he could do to prepare to play at the best of his ability. In my mind, Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas are both future Hall of Famers."

DOLPHINS 17, CHARGERS 10

Miami Dolphins tough out a disciplined victory against Chargers

Miami secured a tough victory as it continued to learn how to win again. Said Yeremiah Bell: 'How do you get [respect]? You go out and you take it.'

By JEFF DARLINGTON

Marino says goodbye to his 'hero'

Tuesday, Dan Marino remembered his father. Involved, but not overbearing, Dan Sr. imparted life lessons. And he sure taught his son how to throw.

He hugged his dad upon leaving for the night Friday and said he loved him, because that's how they parted for as long as they were father and son. He then phoned his parents before flying to New York on Saturday morning and was told everything was fine, not to worry. By the time Dan Marino got to the CBS studios in Manhattan he received the phone call all of us fear: There was a problem. He'd better come home.  That was Saturday afternoon, and now it was Tuesday morning as Marino walked before a crowd of 1,000 family members and friends gathered at St. Bonaventure Church in Davie. Dan Marino Sr.'s coffin already had been walked to the front. Some grandchildren had read from the books of Wisdom and Corinthians. Ave Maria and You Lift Me Up were sung.

"I want to say a few words for our family about my dad," Marino said now.

He looked down and cleared his throat. "I know he would appreciate you coming here. He was a great man. He cared about people. He loved to laugh. He was my hero."

He repeated that thought, more quietly this time, "He was my hero."

This is a story you don't hear enough in a sports world where the dad is a beaten caricature. There's the dad who's deserted and the one who's overbearing, the dad who's living through his athletic kid and the one making money off his position.

Marino raised his voice into a joking tone now and looked at Don Shula in one of the front pews. "No offense, Coach Shula," he said. "He was my greatest coach."

Dan Marino Sr., 71, was someone worth knowing or, since he didn't allow that much, someone worth knowing about. Even if you didn't see him much in the spotlight, you saw his finished product. It wasn't just the surface stuff that he taught his son on the Pittsburgh sandlot that now bears the family name.

"Who taught you to throw?" University of Pittsburgh coach Jackie Sherrill asked Marino after a few practices.

"My dad," Marino said.

"Don't let anyone change you," Sherrill said.

Other lessons took root just as deeply.

Hard work? Dan Marino Sr. drove a Pittsburgh Press circulation truck even after his son had signed a five-year, $25 million contract midway through his career.

Values? He lived in the same working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh for his first six decades. Family, loyalty, sacrifice — it was all there in him.

"My dad used to joke when mom said she had faith in him," the son was telling the church. "Forty-eight years ago when they married, my mother had to have faith, he'd say, because he didn't have a job."

Dan Marino Sr. had good lines like that. Often they accompanied better advice. When his son hung his head once in defeat as a kid, the father said, "Don't let the scoreboard define you." When his son's team once talked openly about playing a better team, the father said, "Make sure you bring out their best game."

When others talked about the son's great football future, he didn't fully believe it until his father said something to him after high school. "If you stay humble and keep working, you might do something," the father said.

In a sports world where fathers are too strong a presence or not one at all, Dan Marino Sr. found the proper medium. He was there for his son but didn't push himself on everyone else. He even refused to move to South Florida for years, accepting only a satellite dish from his son so as to watch Dolphins games. The yard was so small they had to cut down a buckeye tree to fit it in.

Then, instead of calling his son immediately after a game, he'd go to the basement and write letters. Pages and pages of encouraging letters to his son.

They often were finished with lines like, "You're the best!" and "Believe in yourself" and, always, "Love, Dad."

"That was my therapy after games," Dan Marino Sr. once said.

The letters meant so much to the son, he kept them. Only a few years ago did he discover they meant something to the father, too. He had kept copies, too.

"Some things I just found out recently," Marino was saying now at Weston Hills Country Club, where a reception was held. One involved a junior-high game. Dan Sr. was the coach and pulled his quarterback son when the score demanded. Some guys from the neighborhood asked Dan Sr. to put his son back in. They'd put money on the game, unbeknown to the coach. There was a point spread to cover.

"He said he put me back in," the son said, laughing at this thought.

He never made it back from New York to his father's side Saturday before the cancer took him. But there's one more trip to go. Back to Pittsburgh. Back for the burial. Back to the old neighborhood that made the Marinos, father and son, and made them a story you don't hear enough in sports today.

Bring on the Jets -- Dolphins put Chiefs on ice

By Harvey Fialkov | SunSentinel.com

10:49 PM EST, December 21, 2008

Worst to first: Dolphins are AFC East Champs

By Harvey Fialkov | SunSentinel.com 12:50 AM EST, December 29, 2008

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - All week long Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington dodged using the word revenge, as adroitly as he avoids pass rushers, but his teammates knew better, just by his demeanor and the expression on his face.

Even in the raucous post-game locker room in which Pennington was handed the game ball by his teammates and coach Tony Sparano after leading the Dolphins to a 24-17 victory over the New York Jets Sunday to clinch their first AFC East title since 2000, the former Rhodes Scholar candidate held his emotions intact.

Sparano said Pennington was burning the midnight oil on Christmas and Christmas Eve, preparing for the Jets, who discarded him last August after eight seasons of quality service as soon as legendary Brett Favre became available.

"It s not the revenge factor, it really isn't,'' said Pennington, who was 22 of 30 for 200 yards with two touchdowns to finish the season with a franchise-record 67.4 completion percentage, bettering Dan Marino's 64.2 percent in 1984.

"It was much different than the first week which was extremely emotional because it was so fresh. This being the 17th week of the season it was strictly about focusing on winning a championship. ? It so happen it had to come through New York.''

But several of his teammates weren't as controlled after watching their poised leader outplay Favre all season and again Sunday. Favre, 39, who may have played his final game, added to his league-leading interception total with three more (22), while Pennington added to his classy resume as the conductor who directed a 1-15 team to 11-5, tying the 1999 Colts for greatest single season turnaround in NFL history.

"Chad never would say it but that's how he feels. He was coming out yelling, 'Defense!' all game,'' said linebacker Channing Crowder, who proudly wore his AFC East Champion t-shirt. "He wanted to beat these guys because it was a division game for the playoffs against a team that released him to bring in someone else. Chad beat the hell out of them in front of people that booed him. In his mind, he was saying he kicked their butts.''

The ''butt-kicking'' wasn't easy despite the Jets knowing that the 11-5 Patriots had already beaten the Bills and the 11-5 Ravens were hammering the Jaguars 24-7 at halftime, all but eliminating the tail-spinning Jets (9-7) from playoff contention even if they beat the Dolphins.

The Dolphins, who tied the 2008 Giants for the fewest turnovers in NFL history Sunday with 13, played a sloppy first half, with even Pennington committing his first lost fumble of the season to set up a 13-yard touchdown pass to Laveranues Coles. A botched snap kept it at 6-0, and as usual Pennington answered a few minutes later when he pulled off one of his patented Houdini escapes from the rush, only to hit Anthony Fasano on a key third-down conversion.

Two plays later, Pennington, who for years was bashed for his lack of arm strength, lofted a 27-yard strike to Ted Ginn Jr. in the corner of the end zone.

"We knew what it meant to him,'' Ginn said. "Words weren't going to explain anything. We knew in his face.''

Less than 15 seconds later, Favre lofted a screen pass that rookie defensive end Phillip Merling snared, and showing off his high school tight end moves, rumbled into the end zone from 25 yards out.

Defensive end Vonnie Holliday couldn't hold back tears after the game speaking of his little brothers like Merling, who he compared to his son, "taking his first step.''

"All I've gone through in Green Bay and Kansas City, then Nick Saban, Cam Cameron, 1-15. It doesn't get much better, but it does,'' Holliday said. "The end of this story hasn't been written. Why not us?''

The Jets, who didn't see the Wildcat in their season-opening 20-14 victory over the Dolphins, got both barrels, with the best a fleaflicker that resulted in a 44-yard connection from Pennington to Ginn. Five plays later Pennington placed the ball perfectly over Fasano's shoulder for a 20-yard TD and a 21-17 lead they wouldn't relinquish.

Pennington basically iced the Dolphins first trip to the playoffs - a Sunday 1 p.m rematch at home with the Ravens, when he made the 4th-and-1 to help maintain possession until 17 seconds were left.

"I just wanted it,'' Pennington said. "I felt like I could get it.''

Pennington's got it all season, and he too, isn't ready fort this most remarkable season to end.

"I'm proud of what we've been able to do but I don't think we're satisfied,'' he said. "I feel like there's some unfinished business.''

Jim Mandich's take: 'Anything is possible'

By Jim Mandich | SunSentinel.com

8:53 PM EST, December 28, 2008

Fans Rally, Show Dol-Fan Spirit At Bokamper's

By Andy Kent
MiamiDolphins.com

Seven years of waiting led to a high volume of bottled up emotions for South Florida Dol-fans, and a hastily put together pep rally today at Bokamper's Sports Bar and Grill celebrating Sunday's first-round playoff game between the Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens served as the perfect release for those emotions.

The idea was hatched by Miami's flagship radio station, 560-WQAM, the day after the Dolphins clinched the AFC East championship with a 24-17 win on the road over the New York Jets. They called former Dolphins linebacker and current host of Dolphins Tonight, Kim Bokamper, to see if his restaurant could host the event. Bokamper rallied his management and staff and once they all figured out it was doable, he called WQAM back at around 4 p.m. on Tuesday and the pep rally was being promoted on the radio an hour later.

"They've done a good job with the Dolphins this year and I think they wanted to allow the fans to have a place to come and enjoy it so I've got to give WQAM all the credit for it," Bokamper said. "We had to make sure we had enough staff, but the one good thing is we're a sports bar and we're a restaurant so all we had to do was open the doors and let's go."

Even though the pep rally didn't officially start until 3:30 p.m., with a live radio broadcast on WQAM going up until 7 p.m., the parking lot was full well ahead of time and fans sporting Dolphins apparel streamed in constantly throughout the day. There were raffle drawings for club level seats to the game and T-shirts among other prizes and the crowd had a chance to get up close and personal with Bokamper, Dolphins wide receiver Greg Camarillo, offensive lineman Justin Smiley, former Dolphins tight end and radio color analyst Jim Mandich and Dolphins pre-game radio analyst Danny Kanell.

Camarillo and Smiley were vital to Miami's resurgence this season, but both players suffered season-ending leg injuries a week apart in late November and are on injured reserve. Smiley arrived before Camarillo on crutches as he is recovering from a broken leg and severe ankle that happened on the road at St. Louis, and he sat down for a radio interview before signing autographs and posing for pictures. His wife, Missy, and their toddler son, Justin, Jr., accompanied Smiley and Missy has been taken aback by how much the fans have taken to Justin.

"In San Francisco it was never like that and this is how we imagined it, being somewhere where he's appreciated," she said. "So it's just like watching a dream come true and I'm really happy for him."

Miami's fan base has been known to reach far outside the borders of South Florida, and Tony Gomez of Lakeland is living proof. A season ticket holder since 1999, Gomez and his 5-year-old son, Austin, arrived at Bokamper's a full 90 minutes before the pep rally started so they could get a good table and have time to hang their unique banner out in front of the entrance. It was near the special truck carrying a giant video board that was sent over by the Dolphins.

Gomez, whose wife passed away following a bout with cancer in August of 2006, sits high above the field in Section 431 and he and some of the other section occupants got creative after the "Wildcat" formation was unveiled at New England in Week 3. They dreamed up the equation, "Wildcat Formula: Ronnie Brown (23) + Ricky Williams (34) = Ricky Brown (squared)." Some of Gomez's friends in the section come from as far away as Ocala and Orlando and they made it to every regular-season game this year, so they have caught the playoff fever.

"To be able to beat the Jets last weekend and to see the Jets and the Patriots at home, that's my Super Bowl," Gomez said. "Of course I'd like to see us win on Sunday and I think it's going to be a close game and a tough game. I'd like to see the Dolphins win by something like 20-6, but I think it'll be something like 9-6 or 13-10. I just love Coach (Tony) Sparano and everything about this team and this season has brought life back into me and helped bring me closer to my kids since my wife died. I'm not a football nut but it's given me something to smile about."

Camarillo was remembered prior to this season for providing the only positive memory of last year by catching the 64-yard game-winning touchdown pass from Cleo Lemon in overtime against the Baltimore Ravens to give the Dolphins a 22-16 victory, their lone win of 2007. He picked up where he left off by earning a starting spot opposite Ted Ginn, Jr. and becoming quarterback Chad Pennington's favorite target until his knee injury, so it came as no surprise to see him get mobbed by fans upon his arrival.

Sans the crutches, unlike Smiley, Camarillo managed to make it through his radio appearance and then maneuvered through the crowd as he signed and posed on his way to a waiting table, where his girlfriend, Sharon, already had escaped. A few autograph seekers still managed to coax Camarillo into signing as he soaked in the atmosphere and reflected on how special a season his team has put together.

"We have I think the best fans in the NFL and it's because of the history of this team," he said. "Everyone celebrates the undefeated season but we still had fans when we were 1-15 and that speaks a lot about their character. And then to immediately turn around so we can reward all of the fans for their loyalty, it makes it that much more fun and I know tomorrow's going to be a great opportunity. I think it'll be another tough one and I think it's going to come down to the fourth quarter, but we have full confidence that in the fourth quarter we can pull out a victory."

Camarillo and Smiley will be watching the game from the stands along with rookie right guard Donald Thomas, who also is on injured reserve, so they will be able to share in the emotions.

Mandich, as he is always apt to do, summed up the moment best.

"This is great and it's wonderful and our fans are championship starved and success starved and you can feel it," said Mandich, who was a member of the 1972 team that finished 17-0 and won the Super Bowl. "But there are no better fans in the world, honestly, and it's huge. The beauty of this time of year is the stakes are high. You win, you move on and you lose and you're going to sit in the locker room and there's this emptiness that, 'Where do we go tomorrow? What time's the meeting?' and it's not there. The season is over, so we're hoping for the best."

'IR Crew' misses playoffs, puts on Smiley face

Ethan J. Skolnick |

Sun-Sentinel January 2, 2009

Chad Pennington's arrival was a 'savior moment' for Miami Dolphins

Although quarterback Chad Pennington's numbers were among the best in his career, it was his leadership as much as anything that helped raise the level of the Dolphins' play.Dolphins playoffs: Hottest ticket in town!

Miami Herald Staff--January 2, 2009--DAVID J. NEAL

Offensive tackle Vernon Carey, whose career had coincided with the worst four-season stretch in Dolphins history, remembers when he realized the Dolphins had a different brand of leader at quarterback.

It was a preseason practice, a day or two after the team had signed Chad Pennington, just dumped by the New York Jets, whom he had led to three playoff appearances in his six seasons as a starter.

'Coach [Tony Sparano] was like, `Come on! Come on! Come on!' and Chad just said, 'Calm down, coach. We got it,' '' Carey recalled. ``You sit there and, wow, somebody who just stood up to the coach. Like, `Hey, man, we've got this.'

``I guess Coach respected him for that, and all the players respected him for that.''

''Leadership'' tops the short list of the few NFL assets not quantified by any clock, tape or Byzantine formula.

But it's the quality -- above a rocket arm, pinpoint accuracy or Second City improvisational ability -- that coaches and scouts consider a requisite in quarterbacks. It's why Bobby Layne is in the Hall of Fame and Jeff George, whose passing talent still gets scouts misty-eyed, couldn't keep a starting job.

It's what the Dolphins instantly knew they had with Pennington.

LIFE AFTER MARINO

From 1983-99, the Dolphins had Dan Marino, one of the few quarterbacks with George's talent and Layne's leadership skills. Since Marino's retirement, it has been Jay Fiedler, who bore many similarities to Pennington but was unappreciated by fans because he bore few physical similarities to Marino; A.J. Feeley, a backup miscast as a starter when team veterans preferred Fiedler; and Gus Frerotte, a nomadic fill-in throughout his career.

That was through 2005, and the post-Marino nadir still had not been reached. In 2006 came Daunte Culpepper, a single-knee Salvation Army store version of the All-Pro he had been two years earlier; Joey Harrington, already tagged as a flop in Detroit; Trent Green, a good leader but once and soon again concussed; Cleo Lemon, a career third-string quarterback; and John Beck, a rookie.

The 2008 draft revealed what the new Dolphins brain trust thought of Beck's leadership presence. After the Dolphins spent a second-round pick on Chad Henne, general manager Jeff Ireland listed among Henne's attractive qualities: ``He's a great leader. He's got an aura about him that you like about a quarterback.''

A LEADER WALKS IN

Yet another reason the Dolphins figured Pennington would be a perfect mentor for Henne.

''I think once we saw Chad [Pennington] come into our locker room that preseason game, when he actually entered our locker room, the atmosphere felt different,'' cornerback Andre' Goodman said. ``It's kind of like you can see a leader walk in.''

Goodman then spread his arms with a beatific expression: 'It's kind of like, `Ah-ah-ahhh,' that savior moment,'' he said. ``He's been that guy for us all year, a guy who doesn't make mistakes and got a competitive energy that fills the room. When guys see him out there, we know we have a chance.''

Sparano credits Pennington's leadership with helping raise the level of the receivers and the offensive line, with whom Pennington meets regularly in extra get-togethers.

''His work ethic is pretty contagious, and I think that when they see a guy has been in the league eight, nine, 10 years, and this guy is doing what he's doing, I think that all of a sudden these guys figure out that this has got to be the right way,'' Sparano said.

`EXTRA HOURS'

Carey noticed how Pennington ``came in and put in the extra hours with the offensive line. Every Thursday, we watch film with him. We watch different blitzes, discuss how we're going to pick up things. That's the first time I've done that since I've been here.''

Asked about the culture change among the Dolphins, Goodman pointed upstairs, to vice president of football operations Bill Parcells and Sparano. But the first player he named was Pennington, and he cited Sunday's play against the Jets that saw Pennington escape a rapidly shrinking pocket and throw back across his body to Anthony Fasano for a first down.

''When the whole team sees that, attitude changes,'' Goodman said. ``It just does. Attitude is a lot when it comes to playing this game.''

An attitude the Dolphins haven't had for several years.

This Miami Dolphins team has restored pride to fans

Dolphins coach Tony Sparano's leadership has allowed for veteran quarterback Chad Pennington, left, to be reborn into a star.   JOE RIMKUS JR. / STAFF PHOTO

By GREG COTE

gcote@MiamiHerald.com

If you are too close to something, sometimes it is harder to see it. Stand too close to an oil painting and all you notice is color and brushstrokes. You must step back from it to see the masterpiece.

So what have we got here in this 2008-into-2009 Miami Dolphins season?

What are we seeing? What will we be hearing this afternoon when Dolfans, long starved but now sated, pride restored, stand and roar thanks for this season that feels like a gift? Like a joy ride we don't want to end.

We are in the maelstrom, right in it, and it isn't finished yet (in and of itself a story Ripley wouldn't believe), so must we wait to place this in some sort of context?

No. We have seen enough. These Dolphins have done enough. No matter the result of the playoff game against Baltimore at Dolphin Stadium, this unlikeliest of teams and seasons have earned their place.

We hereby nominate this season as the most stunning and surreally unexpected, the most welcome and delightful, in the history of sports in South Florida.

A MIRACLE

Only for the sake of modesty did I add ''in South Florida.'' Because surely this season -- not much short of a sporting miracle -- would merit consideration if the topic were greatest turnarounds of all-time. Any sport. Any time. Anywhere.

Miami has become the first team in the NFL's 89 years to catapult from a one-win season to the playoffs in a single year. Start there.

A 1-15 record shames you. It literally is embarrassing. It makes a fan want to cut eyeholes into a paper bag. It has pretty much the same effect on the players working so hard only to be scorned or, worse, laughed at.

''It was hard to go out,'' defensive end Vonnie Holliday said of last season. ``It was hard to come out of the house.''

Now order is restored. Chins lift and chests inflate. The seven-year playoff drought has ended and the patron ghosts of Shula and Marino can smile again.

Now, where once there was chaos and futility, we see the calm guiding hand of personnel guru Bill Parcells. We see the relentless Tony Sparano, pit bull of head coaches. We see veteran quarterback Chad Pennington, reborn. We see defensive playmakers, all over the field.

We see a foundation. A plan. We see something special, in and of itself, let alone in the framework of the mess so recent.

A year ago, remember how beating Baltimore felt? It merely staved off historic futility, a winless season. The cheering dripped with derision. Or was it sarcasm?

What this team has done, with a holy mess as a starting point, I mark as the greatest season we have seen in terms of magic and surprise, and I don't do so lightly. I have witnessed them all. A brief chronology:

I was a teenager, a fan, cheering the 1972 Dolphins who rose to be our greatest champions, whose 17-0 Perfect Season remains unique in NFL history. But I also know that Miami had finished 12-4-1 (including playoffs) and reached the Super Bowl the year before. Don Shula had himself a budding juggernaut. There was greatness in what those '72-73 Dolphins did. But there was not surprise.

Anybody remember the 1977 Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the old North American Soccer League? They materialized in ugly bumble bee uniforms, Ray Hudson and his ''lads'' filling Lockhart Stadium, going 19-7 and making the playoffs, creating some of that same magic-carpet feeling as these Dolphins, though on such a smaller scale.

What the Miami Hurricanes football team did in 1983 has some kinship with what the '08 Dolphins managed. There was that sense of wonder, of disbelief. UM's later champions would have accrued the bad-boy swagger, the reputation. That first championship team was a bunch of kids coming out of nowhere, led by pipe-puffing, suit-wearing, erudite Howard Schnellenberger.

Beating mighty Nebraska in a 31-30 thriller on the home turf of the still-vibrant Orange Bowl that quarter-century ago fixed a gold star onto South Florida. Miami was on the national map in college football. Again, though, UM had been a decent team, 7-4 the year before. There was serendipity in the way the Canes became champions, the way teams ranked higher all fell, the way Kenny Calhoun's fingertip grazed that pass. But there was not that complete, from-the-gutter-up reversal of fortunes.

A CLOSE SECOND

The 1996 Florida Panthers might have been closer, still, to these comeback Dolphins. Hockey was new here. We were a third-year NHL franchise that had never been to the playoffs when, in 1996, the Cats somehow managed to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. It hardly mattered that they were swept out in four games. This little team of journeymen and overachievers rose to win our imagination in a sea of rubber rats.

The last Finals game was lost at home, 1-0, in triple overtime, and it was something I'll not forget. I have never seen an athlete more heroic in defeat than goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, nor heard fans more appreciative with hearts broken.

The Marlins' first World Series win, in 1997, was not a huge shock; a team of stars had been assembled as quickly as it would later be dismantled. The club's 2003 championship had more of the quality of delightful surprise we see in these Dolphins, youthful Marlins coalescing under the wise hand of cigar-chomping old man manager Jack McKeon.

In basketball, the 2006 champion Heat was hard-pressed to claim an underdog quality, led by future Hall of Famers Pat Riley, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade. Miami had reached the conference finals the season before.

That season was a great story, but it wasn't Cinderella in sneakers. This current Heat season is much closer to that, closer to the '08 Dolphins, the way the team has gone from worst in the league to credible in one short year.

Sparano talked following the AFC East-clinching victory against the Jets about ''a new set of goals'' now.

A year earlier, the goal was one measly win to avoid a permanent stain of shame.

Now one more win puts Miami within two of playing in a Super Bowl.

Impossible, right?

So was getting this far.

Taking a last look back at 2008's magical ride

By Harvey Fialkov | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

January 6, 2009

Tony Sparano's final thoughts on 2008 season

South Florida Sun-Sentinel 11:33 AM EST, January 7, 2009

(On how it feels the day after the playoff loss to Baltimore) � "It doesn't feel great. I don't think any of us really expected this. It's not something you can practice for. We came in here today and I woke up at 3:30 this morning kind of thinking about Pittsburgh. It's just the way it goes. Our guys, they fought hard all year, put themselves in this position and that ain't the way we wanted to end this thing, but unfortunately it's the way it went."

(On what he said to the guys in the last team meeting) � "In the locker room afterwards, I did tell them that I was proud of them in the locker room afterwards, but that really wasn't the place. In the locker room afterwards, you need to make sure that, in my mind at that point, you say as little as possible and you knew that you'd try to get to some of that today because anything you were going to say yesterday wasn't going to matter one way or the other. It wouldn't have mattered to me and wouldn't have mattered to them. Today, I did tell them that we were really proud of them. I did tell them that a long time ago when we walked in here, we talked about changing the culture and to a lot of people, that's lip service. To this group of people, it wasn't lip service. I said, 'How do you think you did?' We drove in here this morning, these players drove in here this morning, there are fans outside waiting for them. We get back from the airport from New York last week, there are fans out there. There are fans all over the place outside the stadium as they were driving out yesterday. All of a sudden nationally, people know a little bit about you and what we are all about and where we're headed. So how did you do?' I think they understand that they really have changed the culture here and it's not an easy thing to do. All of a sudden, the bar is raised and there are expectations that come with that and that's something that we can look forward to."

(On if he has received any vote of confidence from incoming owner Stephen Ross that football operations will be maintained the way they are right now) � "I haven't even scratched the surface with any of that stuff. I've just been so worried about football. That's really all I'm worried about. That's not my business right now."

(On his vision of where this team is headed) � "My vision on where this team is headed would be to win one of those ballgames like we were in yesterday. If we put ourselves back in that position, and to win one of those ballgames like we were in yesterday, to be better prepared, to be bigger, to be stronger, to be faster and all of those things when we arrive at that point next time. I think, when you come in here and you're a new staff, the players don't know your expectations, they're not aware of what you're looking for and all of a sudden now, they really are aware of what this thing is all about and they do know our expectations and how we expect to get to where we're going to be. They do know that we won't rest until we get this thing right one way or the other. I think that there's a little bit clearer picture, or an awful lot clearer picture for them when they do come back. For us, we've just won our division, we won 11 ballgames and now you've got to say to yourself, 'you set your sights on being better than that'. You have a bar up there, you've got to try to go after that thing. That's easier said than done and you can't take for granted what just happened because it doesn't always happen that way.

 (On if Chad Pennington will be the starting quarterback next year) � "Yeah. There are a lot of issues that go on out there during the course of the ballgame that can lead to throwing interceptions, fumbling the ball, giving up sacks. Normal things when you give up sacks, it's the line's fault; well you don't really know that. It can be the backs, it can be the receivers not running the site adjust, it can be a bunch of different things. There are a lot of things that went into why we didn't play well enough yesterday, particularly on that side of the ball. That quarterback has played very well for us the entire year. I think the guy is just an outstanding player."

(On not having a two month gap between the end of the season and when he gets back here) � "That's what we just talked about. We did talk about that, we just talked about the fact that, 'I don't want to be starting over again when we get here', we already had to do that once. When we got here, with some of the people that were here, we had to trim body fat, we had to do all of those kind of things, there is no time for that. This business is not a nine month business, it's really not, it's year round. You've got to keep yourself in shape, that's what we talked about. You've got to come in here in a situation where we're not having to go back to go forward. We want to hit the ground running when we do come back in here. They're all pretty aware of that right now."

(On how different his routine was this morning) � "Honestly, I just told the team this. I told them that at some point in the next couple days, they're probably going to wake up and feel what I felt today, which was, 'What the hell do I do now?' Right now, for them, they probably got a million things going on, but that's exactly what happened to me this morning. I woke up at 3:30, expected to come in here and go to work and play Pittsburgh. Now, I'm in here at 3:30, I'm going through the film and I'm done with that and now it's, 'Okay, where do we go from here', but I have so many things that I need to do right now. There is so much left out here right now that we have to dive into that you never really wanted to get into. Certainly, you didn't want to think about that. I knew there had to be an exit strategy and I actually said that to Jeff Ireland a couple weeks ago, or not a couple weeks ago, but the week of the Jets game. You're preparing for the Jets game and you can win the division, but you could also be going home and you have to prepare for an exit strategy. I couldn't bring myself to do that and I told Jeff that. I said, 'Look, I apologize, but I'm not going to be prepared for that. I'm can't bring myself to do that'. Now we're here so we've got evaluations that need to go on with players. We need to get this whole season cleaned up, evaluate our players right now, making sure that we're doing that, start to head down the road and get to the Senior Bowls and all of those things that need to take place, so there's an awful lot of work here; players, coaches, system, evaluate the systems on both sides of the ball, do all of those things. We need to get some things squared away right now, then I need to get these coaches out of here for a little while and let them take a little bit of a break."

(On what this team needs to improve going into 2009) � "Until I really sit back and go through all of the tape, I can't pinpoint one area and say to you, 'this is where'. I would say to you that the philosophy is that you always want to continue to improve in the lines. We made great strides there this year. A guy that played outstanding in that ballgame yesterday was Kendall Langford. This guy really played a good football game yesterday out there. When you see a young guy like that play that kind of game in that kind of game, it lends you to feel pretty good about some of these young guys that you bring in. Jake Long really had a good game out there yesterday. He gave up one (sack) yesterday on a Twist, but other than that, I think the guy played really a good game. When you're looking at those kind of things, you're saying, from my end, 'The lines are always the area that you never get enough of them. You're finding that out, you're down two guards. You just never get enough of them. You never get enough secondary people'. There are several areas we have to take a long look at where we are right now and know where we're heading."

(On how you force yourself to appreciate the season despite being so disappointed) � "It's kind of the way I'm built I guess. It's probably the bad thing about this business is just that the wins, (Bill) Parcells used to tell me this, he just used to say, 'The wins last so much less than the losses do. The losses can last for a long time and the wins fly by'. There's 11 of them and you just keep thinking of the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one and ah, that loss. Enjoying it, I love what I do, I love what I do with that team and I think they are a tremendous bunch of guys to be around, I really do. They are an inspiration to me, I give them all of the credit in the world, but we'll get through it. I give myself a 24 hour rule, too. We'll get back at it."

(On if Bill Parcells has said anything about coming back next season) � "I haven't really discussed that with him."

(On how close the core of players that he has is to where he wants it to be) � "Without going through the whole thing and really analyzing it, which we will do and we will go through long and hard, we won 11 games, you have to feel closer. You don't want to let that cloud your vision though. What I mean is, you can't just say, 'Well, you won 11 games, leave it alone. Everything is good'. You can't let that cloud your vision. The teams that do let that cloud their vision probably don't get a lot better. We can't let that cloud our vision, we have to continue to try to get better here which we will continue to do. The one thing that our players learned, you people have learned is that, we're going to leave no stone unturned right now to try to make this football team better."

(On what is more difficult; going from where this team was to respectability or from respectability to elite status) � "That's a good question. What we just did is pretty difficult to do. I really believe in my heart that that next jump is a really hard jump, it really is. You have to give all the credit in the world to the teams like the Patriots and the Giants and those kind of teams that do it and have done it consistently. From our end, again, I take nothing away from our players and what we've just accomplished, that's a heck of a thing we just accomplished, it really is. To do it over and over and over again, that's what makes you elite in my mind. The Lakers were elite, the Yankees were elite even though I'm a Mets fan. Another body blow today."

(On where he stands with the playmakers on both sides of the ball on this team) - "I can't really comment on the personnel that way without going through the whole thing and really sitting down and going through everything. From my end, I just know that some positions you can never get enough of and I've learned that this year. I was always told that. There was a point where I was just a pig headed line coach sitting in there wanting every offensive linemen. Then I used to get hit in head and they used to tell me, 'Look, you've got to think of the big picture. You've got to think of the big picture and there's some positions you just can't get enough of', and I'm aware of that now, I really am."

(On if he liked the feeling of the crowd when he got on the field yesterday) - "I sure did. You couldn't help it. Yesterday, the fans, they were tremendous, they really were. We didn't give them many reasons during the course of that thing, but it was outstanding. For our players to come out there like that, in that kind of situation and see that kind of support out there, it's exactly what you wanted. We said a long time ago that we have to give them reason to come out. I think we gave them reason to come out. I hope that they're proud of this group of guys because I sure as heck am."

(On if he can look back and be proud of the job that he's done because he earned the respect of the whole team) - "For me, that's the greatest deal you can have, it really is, to have the respect of your team. All that other stuff doesn't really matter to me, it really doesn't. I don't do this for those things; I do it for the players respect in that room. I think that that's the pay day, it really is. For me, I appreciate that, but those guys are the real reason why, they really are."

(On if the locker room after the Jets game would be the defining moment for him this season) - "Yeah, that would be it for me, that would be it. I think that was just a tremendous feeling at the end of that thing knowing that your back was to the wall every single game for five, six games. You just can't even put it into words what that's like out there. You know to have to go out there and have to win one every single week like that and have no margin for error, then to see it all come down to one of those games on the road like that. I think people want to say, 'you've got to win the hard games'. Well, they won a hard game there, they really did. They won a hard game down there, in their place, to win a division and it put themselves in this position. That would be the defining moment for me."

(Final comment to the media members) - "I do appreciate you guys, I really do. Your professionalism I think has been outstanding and sometimes we don't always agree, but I want to thank you for everything you did and the way you covered our guys. So thanks."

Dolphins still rate among South Florida's most surprising teams of all time

Dave Hyde | 8:10 PM EST, January 4, 2009 MIAMI GARDENS

They sat at their lockers with faces of stone, their emotions in cement, their egos under repair. "Disappointment," was the word many kept coming back to, coaches and players, rookies and veterans.

"There's not another word for what happened,'' safety Yeremiah Bell said.

He put his head down.

"Maybe 'sickening,'.'' he said after the Dolphins' 27-9 playoff loss to Baltimore.

Across the way, quarterback Chad Pennington still sat at his locker in his sweat-soaked T-shirt, staring straight ahead. Offensive coordinator Dan Henning was making rounds to players 30 minutes after the final play, as he does after every game, giving a pat on the back or a word of encouragement.

"It ends quick in this league,'' Bell said. "That's what hurts the most."

It shouldn't feel like this by today. Not with this team forgetting what it did across 16 Sundays this season. Not with it falling so hard. This final game, well, that's one thing how it played out, starting with Pennington throwing as many interceptions (four) in one game as his previous nine games combined.

But this season? Seasons like this don't get obituaries. They get parades. They're reminders of why we all fell in love with sports, once upon a time, cheering a team worth cheering.

The surprise is always the best story in sports, and this team rates with the '83 Hurricanes, '96 Panthers or '03 Marlins among the biggest of South Florida surprises. From 1-15 to 11-6? From the layoffs to playoffs?

"Who picked us to get here?" defensive tackle Vonnie Holliday said. "Anyone except the guys in this locker room?"

He tried a smile that didn't quite make it. "What hurts is we expected to get further, be a big surprise, not a little one," he said.

Sunday said this team had run out of surprises. There's no shame in that. Baltimore had some magic of its own, with a rookie coach and rookie quarterback. But what they mostly had was a bullet-proof defense, starting with safety Ed Reed, who had two of Pennington's four interceptions.

"Three of those interceptions, I felt really good about when I threw it,'' Pennington said. "I really did."

He was asked if the one he felt bad about was the deep pass that that sailed like a balloon toward Ted Ginn Jr. near the end of the first half. Ginn tripped. Reed returned that one 64 yards for a touchdown to put the Ravens up 10-3.

"No, I felt good about that one,'' Pennington said. "The one to Davone [Bess] at the start of the second half. I'd like to have that one back."

That didn't end in a Baltimore score. But on the next possession Patrick Cobbs fumbled, Baltimore recovered at the Miami 19 and four plays later it had another touchdown.

So much of this season the script was about how far they've come. Sunday it was about how far they still have to go. And it's quite a ways. Everyone understood they were a better story than a football team.

For instance, they only dressed three receivers Sunday. When Bess went out for a while with a thumb injury, three became two. And one of them was Brandon London, a special-teamer cut by the Giants in August who had three catches on the season.

Have you heard of any playoff team like this? Or one that never studied the long odds?

"Even in the fourth quarter, we were like, 'We can do it,'.'' Holliday said. "It didn't really hit home until Willis McGahee had that long run late in the game. We knew we were in a bad predicament then."

Even Sunday brought some good news. Bill Parcells is staying, team owner H. Wayne Huizenga said, to be the linchpin or backstop to the franchise's decision-making. However it has worked under Parcells, the point is it does.

Huizenga, meanwhile, left the locker room after the game and walked down the corridor under Dolphin Stadium probably for the last time as the team's majority owner. The end of the season looked heavy on him, too. But Huizenga has lived enough bad endings in his 19 years as an owner to know how to frame this one properly.

"It wasn't a great day,'' he said. "But it was a great season."

There's Nothing We Can't Accomplish

January 2009
Tony Sparano leaned back in his office chair Friday morning and thought about everything that is happening. Nine victories in the last 10 regular season games. An AFC East title. A home playoff game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. It has been quite an experience for the first-year head coach and Sparano talks about a variety of topics in this exclusive column for Dolphin Digest Online.

Q. It was reported that you told the players after the Jets game, "Don't let anybody tell you you can't do something." Can you elaborate on that?

TS: I just think through this whole process we've learned an awful lot of what we can do. These guys have overcome an awful lot of odds to get where we are right now and to put themselves in this position. We want to continue to do that. There are bigger obstacles for us now, but we can't look at them as big obstacles. We've got to know what we can do and take pride in the fact that we believe there isn't anything we can't accomplish.

Q. Can you describe what the feeling was like in that locker room right after the Jets game as AFC East champions?

TS: It was a tremendous feeling. To see the players' faces and the owners and everyone involved in this organization was so gratifying. For five weeks we had been going at this thing pretty good and we had to keep winning games just to get to that game. Once we got to that game, the feeling of winning it was something very special. It's also special knowing we can now set our sights on other things.

Q. Nine victories in the last 10 regular season games. When you think about that, isn't a little hard to fathom?

TS: Yes, it is a little hard to fathom. When you get into this thing, you talk about getting on runs. To get on a run like that one where you win nine out of 10 and win the last four out of five on the road and where you have to fight weather and different circumstances to do it, I think it says an awful lot. When you look at it, you think that was a tall mountain to climb what these players have been able to do.

Q. So many different players stepped up in the win over the Jets. Hasn't that been the story of this team?

TS: Yes, that's been the story. It hasn't been the same guys every week. We've done it with Joey Porter getting a bunch of sacks and then with Joey not having a lot of sacks. We've done it with Chad Pennington having a tremendous day and then we've done it with our defense having to carry us. Our special teams have risen to the occasion. It's always been a different unit, a different person, a different something. It could be Patrick Cobbs. It could be Davone Bess. It could be Andre' Goodman. So many people have stepped up on this football team.

Q. Earlier in the season you saw empty seats at Dolphin Stadium. Now, this game became a sellout the first day tickets were available. How does that make you feel about the support these players have?

TS: It makes me feel great. Our fans have been outstanding all year long. As I said before, we had to give them something to come out for. I understand the process. I think we've done that. I think they have responded. It has been better and better every week. The crowds have been loud and supportive. It has turned into what I had hoped it would be, a real home-field advantage.

Q. How specifically can that crowd be a factor on Sunday?

TS: It can be a big factor, no doubt about it. I have been in some places in playoff games, having to go to Carolina and Seattle, and those places are very loud and it's tough. Sometimes you can do things as the home team that you haven't done all year when you've got a crowd behind you like that. It can be really outstanding for us and for a team coming in here it can be a little bit difficult.

Q. What has happened to Andre' Goodman in the past 6-8 games; he seems like a completely different player?

TS: What Andre' has done in the last several weeks is he's gone back to basics and has gotten better fundamentally. He has taken that to another level. He has worked on his tools so well. He is also playing with a confident swagger now and at that position you need to have a short memory. It's kind of like a pitcher in baseball. You've got to let that last pitch go, and Andre' has been able to do that pretty well.

Q. Talk about the challenge of preparing to face the Ravens for a second time?

TS: It's a little easier preparing for the second time because it's kind of like a division game and we've prepared for a second division game all season. You know a little bit more about each other. When we played way back then, neither of us really knew a whole lot about each other. Now we do. When you are preparing for a team like this you better prepare for a physical game because they are physical on both sides of the ball. The last time we played them they had the ball for an awful long time, and that wasn't good. We have to match how physical they are and that could very well be the key to this game.

Q. Nobody seems to run the ball effectively on them? Is it a waste to even try; what can you hope to accomplish in that area?

TS: It's not a waste to try. When you look at their last 10 losses, people have run the ball for at least 100 yards against them, so that's the challenge. You have to go after that. You have to be in that ballgame. In their last 10 wins, on the other hand, they have held the opponent to about 68 yards rushing. In our last loss to them, we had 71 yards rushing, so you need more rushing yards. I don't think you're going to beat them by going out and throwing the ball 50 times.

Q. This will be Tony Sparano's first playoff game. What kind of emotions will you be feeling?

TS: It will be business as usual for me. What will be special is knowing that this franchise is in that situation on game day. I'll take a minute to think about that. More importantly, it will be business as usual and I'll think about the other things when this is all over with.

Q. Will you coach any differently, given that it's a playoff game?

TS: I don't think so. I don't think you can. One of the things we've tried to do here clearly is to keep the routine the same for the players. Game-plan-wise, you don't do more for this game. We've been aggressive in nature to get to this point, so we have to keep being aggressive. We can't go backward in any area. We have to be ourselves, coach the way we've coached, and we have to do the things that helped get us to this point. I know my team pretty well by now.

Q. While all of your coaches have a great effect on this team, it seems like your two coordinators have had the most visible effect. Can you talk specifically about Paul Pasqualoni and Dan Henning and what they have brought to this team?

TS: Every coach here has had a huge impact. I want to make that very clear. My defensive coordinator (Pasqualoni), my offensive coordinator (Henning) and my special teams coordinator (John Bonamego) have all done a tremendous job. To have to organize what they've had to organize, to have to deal with me on a regular basis, to have to do all the things that their job requires is a difficult task and they all do it very, very well. The way they have gotten the players to respond and the way they've used our personnel and adjusted to all the new players we have brought in, and not be married to the bottom of the roster, has really been something special. They are professionals and I really appreciate that.

Dolphins fans upbeat after loss

By John Holland and Sarah Talalay | South Florida Sun-Sentinel

January 5, 2009

Poor Ending Can't Dampen Remarkable Journey

His son, teammates and coaches remember David Overstreet
Promising Dolphins running back was killed 25 years ago this week
Ethan J. Skolnick | South Florida Sun-Sentinel         June 19, 2009

Over and over. Year after year. He kept hearing the same thing. From his mother Johnnie Mae. From his sister's godfather, the great Billy Sims. That they looked alike, sounded alike, acted alike, even ran alike.

Others didn't know the story. So they stared. Like the time he ran at the Nike Invitational Camp.

"You got a good name," he was told. "That's a good football name."

Did he know David Overstreet?

Yes. Sort of.

After all, he was only 13 months old on the morning of June 25, 1984.

That's when a driver fell asleep. When a Mercedes struck a row of gas pumps, then exploded. When a man, just 25, was identified by the teeth he flashed in so many photos. When a wife took a call about her childhood sweetheart, the one who courted her by impersonating Michael Jackson on the school bus. When an NFL franchise tragically lost a player for the third time in four offseasons.

So, no, David Overstreet II didn't get to know his father as well as he would have wanted.

Neither did Dolphins fans.

**

David Overstreet made the Dolphins wait. They were willing. They knew his history.

"David was always a special athlete," says Lovie Smith, coach of the Chicago Bears.

Smith and David Overstreet were born four months apart, two big fish in a small country pond called Big Sandy. They won three state football titles before graduating together in a class of 34. In 1975, Big Sandy outscored opponents 824-15.

Overstreet's rushing statistics were equally staggering, considering the clock was running continuously and mercifully, in many second halves.

"Every time he touched the ball, the odds were that he would score," Smith says. "Not that he might score. You were surprised when he didn't."

No one was surprised when Oklahoma University's Barry Switzer chased Texas' latest gifted tailback. "I tried to recruit every damn one of them," Switzer says.

This one finished his career third on the state's all-time rushing list. Switzer viewed him as "a unique package," smart, coachable, personable and driven: "He knew where he was going."

Freshmen had contributed for Switzer before. But rarely one from a such a small school, and rarely at such a loaded position. Switzer already had future pros Sims, Kenny King and Elvis Peacock, yet there Overstreet was, ripping off runs against Ohio State in front of 88,000 Buckeyes.

At Oklahoma, Overstreet scored 16 touchdowns and gained 1,702 yards on a 5.8 average.

The Dolphins took him 13th overall in the 1981 NFL draft. After a contract dispute, he signed with the Montreal Alouettes to play with American stars Vince Ferragamo and Billy "White Shoes" Johnson. He led the CFL with 952 yards rushing, but also fumbled 16 times, including once in the playoffs. In 1982, he rushed for just 190 yards for the renamed Montreal Concordes before going on injured reserve.

He finally signed with the Dolphins in 1983, the same year Don Shula drafted quarterback Dan Marino. Yet, in a Sports Illustrated story, the Dolphins coach said that, for the upcoming season, "the keys are David Overstreet and Dan Johnson."

Why Overstreet?

"We've had 15-play, 80-yard drives," Shula continued, "but I'd like some 60-yard runs."

**

While defensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams, Lovie Smith attended a Missouri practice. Smith entered the stadium and heard a loud voice. No face. No number. Just someone acting like the life of the party. Smith turned to his own son. "Miles, that's Overstreet's son," he said.

Naturally, it was.

So Smith chuckles at the characterization by many former Dolphins, such as receiver Jimmy Cefalo, of Overstreet as "extraordinarily quiet."

"Oh no," Smith says. "Are we talking about the same guy?"

Maybe Overstreet was just selectively outgoing here. Mark Clayton saw the playful side. He was also an NFL rookie in 1983, and they lived in the same apartment complex.

Overstreet was always talking about the son he called "DayDay" and the daughter he dubbed "Fatty." Often, he talked about his skills. Like cooking. At one practice, Overstreet invited Clayton and Fulton Walker over for a culinary feast.

Everything was boxed. Nothing from scratch.

"My goodness, it was horrible," Clayton says. "I just had to let him know. 'You told me you could cook!' He said, 'I told you I could cook, I didn't say I was a good cook.'"

They went out to eat.

"Dude could run that ball, though," Clayton says. "I had watched him at Oklahoma, and I was really in awe. Couldn't catch a cold in 50 below. But, as a runner, he had what it

took."

After a slow start as a rookie, Overstreet rushed for 179 yards on 27 carries in the final two games.

"Every team is always looking for the big play, the guy who can hit the home run," former teammate Nat Moore says. "You saw that in him."

So did Shula:

"Just saw him having a great future with us."

So they never saw this coming. They had been through enough. In 1981, linebacker Rusty Chambers died in a car accident. In 1983, linebacker Larry Gordon collapsed and died while jogging. Now Overstreet.

"We were all so shocked," Cefalo says.

An autopsy showed Overstreet had a blood-alcohol level of .12, over the.10 legal limit. He was just seven miles from Tyler, driving back after a night with Sims. The former Sooners had been celebrating the news: that Overstreet would be a starter when Dolphins training camp opened.

Instead, several Dolphins served as pallbearers in what Clayton calls "a little country place." Two thousand people packed an auditorium designed to hold 600.

That was 25 years ago.

"Time flies," Shula says.

Not for everyone.

**

One day, while completing his career as an all-conference Missouri safety, David Overstreet II got a call from Switzer.

"I knew he had never seen father play," Switzer says.

So Switzer sent a DVD featuring footage of every game Overstreet played at Oklahoma, and quite a few interviews, too.

"He does sound like me," the son realized.

Dayetta Overstreet watched the video too, but not for long.

She couldn't stop screaming.

She was three years older than her brother. She was a Daddy's girl. She remembers everything, from watching her father's Montreal games to their house in Miami. She has post-traumatic stress disorder. She can't stop re-living the funeral. She can't stop replaying the last thing she heard her father say:

"Help your mother take care of your brother."

Dayetta's mother Johnnie Mae lives in Tyler, and suffers depression every June, even in years she's not recovering from her own car accident, as she has been lately. "Daddy was

her one and only love," Dayetta says.

Dayetta's son Quincis, 16, is a star prep safety in Dallas. Oklahoma, after missing out on David II, now wants her son. She wants her son to know about her father, his charitable deeds off the field as well as his exploits on it.

She still sees her father. In her brother.

"It is just so spooky," Dayetta says. "It is like looking at a ghost."

David Overstreet II owns a marketing company in San Antonio. Smith gave him a shot with the Bears, but he wasn't recovered from microfracture knee surgery. So he moved on. But he's never run from his legacy. In fourth grade, he read a poem at the Texas High School Hall of Fame in Waco, dedicated to a man he hardly knew.

"But my Mom always made sure that I knew what kind of person he was," he says. "That's why I always use David Overstreet II. That's who I am. I never want to tarnish that name. I talked to my fiancée about it, and there's no argument. When I have a son, he will be David Overstreet III."

A good football name.

Miami Dolphin Greg Camarillo shows injury no concern
By Omar Kelly South Florida Sun-Sentinel
August 29, 2009
Sometimes getting past season-ending injuries has more to do with the mind than the area of the body that was hurt.

That is the challenge for Dolphins receiver Greg Camarillo, who is 10 months into rehabilitating the left knee he injured in a Nov. 23 loss to the Patriots.

Camarillo has pushed the surgically repaired knee to its limit to get back onto the field, where he's working to regain his starting spot.

In one play during Thursday night's 10-6 exhibition victory over Tampa Bay, he showed off his toughness by turning an 8-yard out route into a 52-yard gain in the fourth quarter.

The run-after-catch moves proved to the former Stanford walk-on he's still in possession of the limited speed he did have, which helped him have 55 receptions for 613 yards and two touchdowns in 11 starts last season.

"It's been a long time since I'd been in the open field," Camarillo said. "It's been a long road back, and I'm still not there. But I'm getting there."

Camarillo said he didn't think about heading for sideline after making the catch. He has made a name for himself by turning those types of passes inside, going up field and fighting for extra yards.

"My knee is not an excuse. The way I play is the way I play," Camarillo said. "The game of football I play is a representation of me 100 percent, and I won't make any excuses or back down."

Even though the Dolphins are built to be a ball-control offense, coach Tony Sparano knows big plays such as Camarillo's and the 54-yarder by rookie receiver Brian Hartline are needed.

"It can't take us 15 plays to score every touchdown," Sparano said. "We have to be able to get some chunk yards."

Quarterback Chad Pennington, who missed a large portion of two seasons because of shoulder problems, admits the mental challenge is the toughest part of a comeback.

Pennington said in the early stages of his comebacks, every time he made certain throws, or got hit a certain way, he found himself subconsciously making sure "my shoulder stayed on my body."

That's why Pennington is confident Camarillo's big play will be good for his psyche.

"You could tell in his eyes when he was coming off the field he was pumped up about it, excited about it," Pennington said. "When you are going through a major injury, and in the recovery [stage], you've got to have plays like that to assure yourself, build the confidence. You know you can do it but your body has to prove itself to you that I can still do it."

These days all Camarillo is focused on is proving he deserves to remain a starter, holding off Davone Bess, who replaced his last season, and Hartline, who started his second consecutive exhibition game.

But Camarillo says the worst thing he could do is worry about the competition because it'll hinder his focus. He's aware the same can be said about the knee.

Andy Cohen: A Magical Night, An Important Night
10-13-09

Great Dolphins-Jets games? Put this one right up there, way high on the shelf with the best of them. But more than a great game, which it clearly was, this was a huge victory for the Miami Dolphins for many important reasons.

Huge because Chad Henne stepped forward and stepped up. Huge because Ted Ginn Jr. finally made the big play we have been waiting for. Huge because so many other players came to the forefront, from Anthony Fasano to Greg Camarillo, to Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams to an offensive line that seemed determined to keep Henne's jersey clean.

But, more than individuals, this was huge because it propelled the Dolphins back into the conversation in the AFC East. That 0-3 start now seems like so long ago. Reality now is a 2-0 record in the AFC East and a real sense that, if this team can build on what it did against the Jets, the possibilities are there for another successful season.

No, this is not anywhere close to a finished product. The defense has some legitimate concerns, the special teams needs significant improvement and there have been far too many penalties. But how can you not enjoy what the Dolphins accomplished on this magical night at Land Shark Stadium, how can you not savor this win the way Tony Sparano savored it running off the field, his arms raised high, saluting a wildly appreciative orange-clad crowd?

Come to think of it, for the first time in a while, I don't remember seeing many Jets fans in the stadium. I know they were there, but they were hidden by the orange and the cheers of the Dolphins faithful.

Lasting memories of a memorable game?

• **Henne hitting Ginn on that beautiful 53-yard bomb against the Jets top cornerback in Darrell Revis. Did any of us see that coming? The Jets certainly didn't.
• Ronnie Brown running the Wildcat so flawlessly and efficiently. This guy has now elevated his game to another level. And with six seconds left, Brown capped an unforgettable evening with a 2-yard burst up the middle. Did anyone really think he was going to be denied? Not Ronnie. Not on this night. Show me a team that boasts a player better suited to running the Wildcat. There are none.
• **Camarillo making two great third down catches on the game-winning drive. Didn't he just have reconstructive knee surgery less than a year ago? You wouldn't have known it. Were the catches better than the throws? Call it a dead heat. Both were magnificent.
• **Ricky Williams taking that screen pass and racing across the field for a 59-yard gain, out-running much of the Jets secondary in the process. At 31 years old, this guy continues to amaze me. He is the perfect complement for Brown, perhaps as good a one-two punch at running back as the Dolphins have had since the early 1970s.
• **The look of total joy as this football team left the field. The victory over the Buffalo the week before was nice. But this was validation in so many ways. The Dolphins were underdogs; the Jets and the Patriots were supposed to be the teams to beat in the AFC East. Now, it is wide open. Now, everything seems to have changed.
• **The sounds in the parking lot an hour after the game. Horns honking, fans cheering. It is one o'clock in the morning, but nobody seems to care.
• **Finally, and most importantly, the memory of this game that will remain most vivid was the play of Henne. While it is far too early to anoint Henne the next Dan Marino, how can you ignore the manner in which he guided the Dolphins on three second-half scoring drives, overcoming deficits each time?

Henne was brilliant. He was so poised, so accurate, that it was hard to believe this was only his second start. He showed zip. He showed touch. He showed a presence in the pocket against a complicated pass rush that screamed of a player who now belonged.

I have said for years that the Dolphins will not have truly turned things around until they find a quarterback who can lead them for years to come. They may very well have found that quarterback on Monday night. This was no fluke. Henne could have faltered so many times. Instead, he made plays. The throw to Ginn. The throws to Camarillo. A touchdown to Anthony Fasano. No sacks, no interceptions. Now, it is important for Henne to do it again, to show consistency and to prove that, when bad things happen – and they will – that he can overcome that with the same poise he showed against the Jets.

Where does this football team go from here? While some might disagree, I believe the bye comes at a great time. The first five games seemed like an eternity. The entire team needs to take a deep breath and re-charge their batteries. The coaches need to carefully examine the things that went wrong and build upon the things that went right.

There is a difficult three-game stretch awaiting after the bye: the Saints at home followed by road games against the Jets and Patriots. It will be midseason and the Dolphins better be in midseason form.

But that's for another day. For now, for today, there is a Monday night victory that deserves some enjoyment and many individual efforts that deserve our admiration.

The Dolphins saw a season on the verge of slipping away and did something about it. They added another chapter to a great rivalry, a chapter that saw a team and its players grow up in so many different ways. Only in the weeks to come will we truly find out the significance of this memorable Monday night.

December 17, 2009 -- JOE ROSE -- Sun-Sentinel
Miami Dolphins fullback Lousaka Polite is undoubtedly having a Pro Bowl season. I don't know what else to say.

He's knocking people down. He's getting first downs. He's a lead blocker on one of the top running games in the NFL. We need YOU to get out and vote on NFL.com to get him some well-deserved Pro Bowl votes. He's been that good.

I've never seen so many defenders blown up with his blocking. It's getting to the point where guys are diving to the ground when they see him coming. He's become such a critical part of the Dolphins' offense. He's 12-for-12 on third and fourth downs.

"I'm just happy I got another opportunity to get back in the league and get on a team where I fit in well," Polite said on the show this morning. "It was frustrating getting cut, but I still had such a desire to play I wasn't going to give up. . . . You appreciate things more when you're an underdog."

What stands out most to me is the block he had against Carolina when he hit their linebacker up high, and not only did he go down, but he didn't get back up. He said that was one of the best blocks he's ever had.

Polite also said his goal is to be a complete player, which he's quickly becoming. Man did he give Chad Henne a nice target as he was rolling out to get a first down by the goal line, setting up a touchdown.

"Anytime my number is called, whether it is a pass, run or block, I want to be reliable. The big plays come when you do all the little things."

Polite's name suits him. He's really a good guy and very humble.

The Dolphins signed Polite off waivers after the Chicago Bears cut him in training camp during the 2008 offseason. The former Pittsburgh standout broke in with the Dallas Cowboys and the current Dolphins regime of coach Tony Sparano, Vice President of Football Operations Bill Parcells and General Manager Jeff Ireland as an undrafted free agent in 2004.

Give those guys some credit as well.

Sunday, May 9, 2010 South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Jake Scott and Don Shula start again with a hug

Two Dolphins legends end feud, talk again after decades apart

By Dave Hyde

5:51 PM EDT, May 8, 2010

Shuler loss doesn't sit well

Posted by Judd Zulgad---Minneapolis Star Tribune

Last update: September 23, 2010 - 10:16 PM

The Vikings' decision to sign wide receiver Hank Baskett on Wednesday meant they had to trim a player from their 53-man roster.

It's likely the two position groups they considered were tight end (they had four) and defensive line (they had 10). Seventh-round tight end Mickey Shuler was placed on waivers and then the Vikings held their breath. The hope was Shuler would clear waivers at 3 p.m. today and then be signed to the practice squad.

It didn't happen.

The Dolphins, Giants and Colts all put in waiver claims on Shuler. He was awarded to the Dolphins because until the end of this month claims will be awarded based on the record a team had in 2009.

It sounds as if Vikings officials weren't happy at all about losing Shuler. It was a surprise when the Penn State product made the 53-man roster out of training camp but that showed just how much the Vikings thought about him. That show of faith probably didn't help the Vikings' cause when they tried to get him through waivers.

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see if the Vikings show any interest in reacquiring offensive tackle Patrick Brown, who was waived by the Jets on Thursday. Brown was let go by the Vikings in final cuts and coach Brad Childress said at the time he would have liked to have signed him to the practice squad.

If Brown passes through waivers and isn't put on a team's 53-man roster, there is a chance he could land back in Minnesota on the practice squad after all.

Jim Mandich, the ultimate Miami Dolphin, was a fighter until the end
by: Mike Berardino April 27th, 2011
The Miami Dolphins family and Dolfans in general had almost 15 months to prepare for Jim Mandich’s passing since he was diagnosed with bile-duct cancer in February 2010.

But that hasn’t made it any easier to accept the former player and broadcaster’s death Tuesday evening at age 62.

There is never a good time or a good way to lose a loved one, and make no mistake: That’s what Mandich was (and will always remain) to everyone that cares about the Dolphins or is associated with the team in any way.

Just pay a visit to his Facebook page to see what I mean.
Dave Hyde’s column in today’s Sun Sentinel also captures that sense of loss we’re all feeling today.

Just the fact that Mandich insisted on traveling to every Dolphins away game for his radio broadcast duties last season (2010) said so much about him. Even amid regular chemotherapy treatments, even when he clearly could have used some rest, he would get on that team charter and fly halfway across the country and back.

I’ll never forget stepping onto the  elevator with him at the team hotel in downtown Minneapolis last September. It was Saturday evening, and I was headed out to meet up with a group of fellow writers for dinner.

Jim looked tired.

A day or two earlier, Jim had made a special appearance as a guest on TheFinsiders.com and Finsiders Radio (940-AM). Sitting in with the hosts, I had asked him a rather convoluted question (had to eat up about 30 seconds of his time) about the Dolphins’ lack of production at tight end.

Jim answered it without missing a beat on the air, and now, standing there in the otherwise empty elevator, I thanked him for “putting up with my babbling” that day.

Professorial and kind, as always, Mandich smiled slightly from beneath his checkered, Ben Hogan-style flat cap.

“Nice night for a stroll, huh?” Jim said in that famous clipped voice, the one Dolfans loved to imitate.  

The doors opened and we stepped outside into the cold Midwestern air, the kind of air Mandich grew up smelling as a boy in northern Ohio and as a college star in Ann Arbor, Mich. The sun was setting and he was bundled up against the elements, but his head was held high and there was no mistaking the dignity he exuded or the sense of peace he maintained.

I said good night, turned left and headed to dinner.

Jim turned right and headed out for his evening stroll.

Walk on, Mad Dog.

Walk on.

Joe Robbie - the man behind the honored statue

By Staff Writer Dave Hyde on September 10, 2011

Who was Joe Robbie? Dolphins owner Steve Ross, CEO Mike Dee and the new-regime Dolphins take a lot of flak for some things they've done. But one thing they should be saluted for is how they've honored some of the team's tradition. Last year, they brought safety Jake Scott back into the fold after decades away to join the Ring of Honor. Now they're bringing former owner Joe Robbie's statue out of cold storage where it's sat under the stadium, for some reason, for several years as today's Sun-Sentinel story tells..

This tells you how unique Robbie remains even in death. How many people get two dedications of the same statue?

So who was Joe Robbie?

He's the greatest success story of American sports owners. How's that for an over-the-top line? But look why it's true. Robbie wasn't the son of a tycoon or someone who made a fortune outside sports. He was a Minneapolis lawyer who never made more than $27,000 a year, had 11 children to support and whose only window to pro football was as a Vikings season-ticket holder when he managed to buy the expansion AFL franchise in Miami in 1965.

The franchise fee was $7.5 million.

He put up $100,000 - everything he had, even signing over the mortgage to his home. Actor/producer Danny Thomas put up $25,000 more.

In other words, for $125,000, Robbie was in The Club. If he could somehow make the financing work.

"We've got a problem in Miami,'' Al Davis said when he became AFL commissioner six months after Robbie took over and he looked at the team's ledger sheet.

Through frugal means and a combative managerial style, Robbie made it work. He signed every check. He counted towels. He went through four business managers in the Dolphins first four years. Players raced each other to the bank with paychecks those first years because they weren't sure they'd all cash.

"He's running a $2 million operation like a fruit stand,'' Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams said of Robbie.

"The Man Who Fired Flipper,'' a Sports Illustrated cover story about Robbie read (It referred to an issue over who would pay for transportation costs of the famous dolphin to games, leading to the end of his attending games after the first season).

That offers perspective on Robbie's grand accomplishment: Six years after the Dolphins first game, they had the league's only undefeated season, were making an impressive amount of money - perhaps the most in the league, according to former team and NFL executive Jim Steeg - and Robbie was a rags-to-riches success story.

He was a controversial one, too. He drank heavily. He argued with media (and pretty much everyone else). He had the great sense to hire Don Shula, but then at the height of the glory years got in a shouting match with the coach at a team award's banquet. Shula ended the conversation with, "You ever raise your voice at me in public again, I'll knock you on your ass."

His life is remembered most for staggering achievement. When the Orange Bowl began falling apart and no one would build him a stadium, Robbie did the unthinkable again. He built his own stadium. Imagine that in a world where every sports owner gets a stadium built for them with public money.

That, of course, strained finances to the point his family sold a share of the franchise and stadium to H. Wayne Huizenga, which began the course to Huizenga buying the team.

At Robbie's funeral in 1990, long-time Dolphins guard Bob Kuechenberg delivered the eulogy. He quoted T.E. Lawrence, saying, "All men are dreamers but not all men dream equally." He praised Robbie's stadium as, "the true miracle in Miami." He also remembered Robbie for having, "the worst PR of anybody I've ever encountered."

"Kuechenberg finished: "It wasn't about public relations. It was about work. Joe did what wealthier men dared not to. He was not a Kennedy or a Rockefeller but a worker - against all odds."

That's the man whom the Dolphins will re-honor before Monday's game.

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