Hey, Dolphins fans, how loyal are you? This is the question floating around Dolphins’ Twitter. It got me thinking; we’ve been through a lot as a fanbase, so let’s take a walk down memory lane.
Can you still hear the echo of Dan Marino’s touchdown passes at Joe Robbie Stadium/Pro Player Park/Pro Player Stadium? Of course, you can. He’s our goat! Since Marino’s departure, our journey has been more like navigating a Florida hurricane than cruising the Miami shoreline.
In the golden era of Marino, the Dolphins’ future was as bright as the Florida sun. But since his retirement in 1999, the Dolphins have been mostly irrelevant. The Dolphins have had more quarterbacks than Miami has cafecito walk-up windows.
Remember Jay Fiedler? He tried to fill Marino’s shoes with some success but was still a middle-of-the-road quarterback. And then there was Daunte Culpepper, arguably the biggest mistake in the history of the franchise. We could’ve had Drew Brees.
But we didn’t just stop at those two. We’ve had a veritable conga line of quarterbacks over the years: Scott Mitchell, Damon Huard, Brian Griese, A.J. Feeley, Gus Frerotte, Joey Harrington, Cleo Lemon, Trent Green, John Beck, Chad Pennington, Chad Henne, Tyler Thigpen, Matt Moore, Ryan Tannehill, Jay Cutler, Brock Osweiler, and Ryan Fitzpatrick. But none got anywhere close to recapturing the Marino magic. We’re not going to get into the menagerie of incompetent head coaches we’ve suffered through. Ok, just kidding, let’s list them; Jimmy Johnson (1996-1999), Dave Wannstedt (2000-2004), Nick Saban (2005-2006), Cam Cameron (2007), Tony Sparano (2008-2011), Joe Philbin (2012-2015), Adam Gase (2016-2018), and Brian Flores (2019-2021).
Despite this, we’ve kept our fins up, and it looks like we might finally get rewarded for our loyalty.
Look at our current roster, and you’ll see promise. Tua Tagovailoa, our beacon of hope, has the potential to be the league MVP. He might not be Marino (yet), but he’s got that same competitive spirit. And let’s not forget about our elite secondary led by Xavien Howard, Jalen Ramsey, and the snowman Jevon Holland. Not to mention our superstar head coach, Mike McDaniel.
It’s easy to be a fan when your team is always in the Super Bowl conversation like we used to be. But it takes true loyalty to stick around when the waters get choppy. And we’ve certainly seen our share of rough seas over the past 20+ years.
So let’s enjoy this ride for the next couple of years. The Dolphins are fielding the best roster they’ve had in two decades. We finally have the heir apparent to Dan Marino in Tua, assuming he can stay healthy. We have the fastest skill position players on offense in the league and elite talent at corner, safety, defensive line, and defensive coordinator. I have a feeling your loyalty is going to pay off after all these years. Fins Up!
The only real threats to my loyalty is the BS with Brady. Losing draft pics for meddling with him was idiotic. Let him fade away, just like his old team and their fans.
And stop this playing in Europe garbage–was going to roady to the Fins Chiefs game…until they put it in Franfurt. And not even in October!?!
Now excuse me while I go rip the DirectTV dish off my roof.
LoL…yea that tampering this was pretty frustrating. And I feel you 100% on that Europe thing. That game should be played in KC.