Another day, another Vegas line giving the Miami Dolphins not much of a chance to do very well this coming season. Que the Dolphins’s mob freaking out at how much of an injustice it is that Vegas and the rest of the world are against the Dolphins as if the Dolphins don’t give them plenty of reasons to do just that. I’ve been a big time fan of the Dolphins for a torturous 26 years and I’ll never turn my back on them. Like that family member who can’t ever get their life on track and every once in a while seems to have their head on straight only to end up letting everyone down, I will always follow this team into the dark. But, I also know that more often than not that this team will in fact let me and others down. This is why most of the analysts, Vegas, all of the billion of twitter fantasy football blogs and anybody else with a medium of talking about the NFL will typically rail against the Dolphins. Miami doesn’t give people many good reasons to think anything different. As humans in 2018, we’re predominately an I’ll believe it when I see it people, and Miami just hasn’t shown anything consistent besides inconsistency. But we, the big time Dolphins’s fans see and analyze many moves that the rest of the country chalk up as being nearly insignificant moves. Moves such as Albert Wilson. The rest of the country doesn’t think much of Miami signing Albert Wilson. Understandable due to him not doing much in Kansas City. But we, the big time Dolphins fans, look at him as a quality replacement to Landry who has bigger play potential due to his speed. I happen to think Wilson has a great chance to turn some heads in the league given that it appears he will have more opportunities than he has had in the past. That’s how fandom works. We do a very good job of spinning all moves in our brains into being genius moves before anything has even happened yet. But the majority of non-Dolphins fans look at a move like that real quick and say “Oh Wilson, from KC? Yeah, he’ll be average.”

So when I see that Miami is tied with the Jets, Browns and only the Cardinals have worse odds to make the playoffs, I’m cool with all that. There are a few reasons why I enjoy this spot. First, I love living under the radar. Not many better mentalities out there than going out there with no expectations where nobody thinks much of you. Gives you the element of surprise. Worked for UMBC(the #16 seed that beat #1 ranked Virginia in the NCAA tournament) the Saints when they won the title(thanks to one Dr. who changed the world and lives forever) and even for this past years Super Bowl champions post Wentz. Average Joes even went out there and turned the sports world upside down once upon a time. When teams don’t think much of an opponent at this level it doesn’t take much to shock the world. Secondly, in the last 20 some years, being under the radar has worked well for Miami. In 2008, Miami was tied for the 3rd worst odds to win the Super Bowl before the season started and they made the Playoffs. Why were their odds so bad? Because they went 1-15 the year before. Makes sense right? In 2016 where Miami made the playoffs in Gase’s first year, they were around around 7-8 worse chance to make the playoffs before the year started. Yet, both these times, Miami proved most people wrong and made the playoffs only to get completely dismantled. On the contrary, in 1998, I remember Miami was getting picked by many analysts, Vegas, and a future billion twitter fantasy football bloggers that they were stacked and were going to be in the Super Bowl. They got to the playoffs, but no appearance in the Super Bowl. Point is, nobody knows much of anything until the teams go out there and actually play games and even then, many don’t know what’s going on. Lastly, who doesn’t love an us against the world mantra?

I personally don’t believe Miami is a bottom dweller like many “professionals” think due to all the moves they made in free agency, the draft and that their QB, who once did well is back. But, I’m also not going to pencil this team into the playoffs due to losing many talented albeit “bad attitude guys”, their QB who hasn’t played in a year and a half is back, and the fact they typically fall somewhere in the middle. Am I riding the fence? You bet your ass I am. Miami has always been the classic ride the fence team. About 7 plays generally a year make Miami either a 7 win team or a 9-10 win team. That’s who they’ve been, so I’ll just predict that will happen again.

 

I know this blog isn’t going to curtail many from losing their minds and yell that the media hates the Dolphins. You do you. If that makes you happy, go for it. But, if you want to live in the world where everyone is overlooking you and the Dolphins giving you and them the chance to rise up and pull the rug out from everyone, that’s where I’ll be. I’ll be the guy holding a Genny Cream Ale. We can share one. Cheers to playing possum

PS– The picture I used for this blog was from a guy named Josh Baumgard. If you see him, tell him nice picture

PPS– How great would it be to hit a royal flush where the Ace has a Dolphins logo on it? Pretty damn great with a side of confusion is the answer

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