Showing posts with label NFL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NFL. Show all posts

Friday, January 30, 2015

It only SEEMS like forever! 41 long & wistful years since Super Bowl success & Vince Lombardi Championship trophies for #Dolphins & #SoFL. I like the plucky #Patriots by at least 10 over the #Seahawks in Super Bowl 49 Sunday

"It's why you play the game!" -Herm Edwards

AboveVince Lombardi Championship Trophies from Miami Dolphin victories in Super Bowl VII and VIII, at Dolphins HQ, Davie, FL; April 2007 photo by Mario J. Bermudez 


The Sport of the \

The Sport of the '60's
Green Bay Coach Vince Lombardi; December 21, 1962


"...He stood for everything that was solid and successful in American sports. He remains for many, the very heart of pro football, pumping hard right now. Every year the winner of the Super Bowl is awarded the Vincent Lombardi Trophy. His legacy is the greatest prize the game can offer."
-John Facenda for NFL Films


Seven years later to the date of this cover, Lombardi coached his last game, a losing effort for the Redskins. Nine months later he'd be dead of intestinal cancer at age 57. The Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University is named for him.
See http://lombardi.georgetown.edu/

http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.aspx?PLAYER_ID=132


The first sports-related piece of clothing I ever had was a shirt that I wore in the Fall as a kid living in Memphis in the mid-sixties, age five or six, which my father had bought at a Dept. store. It was made with what I'd now call sweatshirt-quality cotton and was certainly far too heavy to wear in the oppressive summer heat that Memphis excelled in producing -with no sweat!

It was sort of an oatmeal/mustard combination of a color with green stripes on the shoulder, with a big green 5 on the front and back.
Yes, The Golden BoyPaul Hornung!
http://gretawire.blogs.foxnews.com/paul-hornung-5/

I wish I still had that shirt now!

Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota

Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota

Larry Csonka, January 21, 1974
Miami All The Way
Miami All The Way

Bob Griese, January 22, 1973


1972 Miami Dolphins team photo at The Orange Bowl
1972 Miami Dolphins team photo at The Orange Bowl 
This is identical to the photo of the 17-0 Undefeated Team that for six happy years, rested in a frame on top of my bedroom dresser at my home in North Miami Beach. There it stayed 'till that fateful day in August of 1979, when I began packing for my new life in Bloomington.
The photo made the trip to Bloomington intact, where it remained on my desk in my room, Briscoe Quad 427-A, for two very eventful years at IU, the latter being 1981, the year we beat North Carolina for the NCAA basketball title. 
I placed it right below my 8'' x 11'' b&w glossy of the Miami Herald's All-County Gymnastics team. That squad was a tremendous team that featured many talented friends of mine from all around Dade County, as well as my own talented friends and classmates at North Miami Beach High School, where my senior year, under the leadership of our beloved head coach, Peter Saponaro, we won the Florida state championship.

Even today, I can still name every player and coach on that amazing Dolphins team.


Building For The Super Bowl
Building For The Super Bowl

Miami Coach Don Shula, December 11, 1972As most of you regular readers to Hallandale Beach Blog know by now, the Dolphins' Perfect Season of 1972 was my first year as a Dolphins season ticket holder, and I was there for every single moment at the Orange Bowl: pre-season, regular season and playoff.
The most scared I ever was of the team losing was the Cleveland Browns divisional playoff game the day before Christmas, a 20-14 win. The tension was palpable.


What does everyone pictured on the magazine above have in common?
Correct, they're all inductees in the NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, located just 49 miles from my dad's hometown of Steubenville, Home of The Big Red, the part of Ohio where my paternal ancestors have lived for well over 200 years.
http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/
http://www.nfl.com/videos



I like the plucky New England Patriots by at least 10 over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 49 Sunday. 
http://www.nfl.com/

#Irrelevant #RealityCheck - How many current #Dolphins players were even alive when team last played in #SuperBowl XiX 30 years ago?

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Insufferable, butt-kissing Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross seems willing to repudiate own fans, give up '15 home game vs Jets and play it in London for slight hypothetical possibility of landing Super Bowl. Someday. Maybe. With the right breaks

ICYMI: Butt-kissing Dolphins owner Stephen Ross perfectly willing to repudiate own fans, give up '15 home game vs Jets and play it in London for slight hypothetical possibility of landing Super Bowl. Someday. Maybe. 
With the right breaks.




Miami Dolphins In Depth blog
Bad idea: Dolphins yield Jets home game in '15,
Armando Salguero,
November 7, 2014 9:24 a.m
  
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2014/11/i-like-the-idea-of-the-nfl-playing-games-in-london-i-even-like-the-idea-of-the-miami-dolphins-occassionally-doing-their-leag.html

There are many positive and negative things I'll never forget about my time living and working in the Washington D.C. area from 1988-2003.
One of those was that regardless of whether the Redskins were Super Bowl Champs, a very competitive team or just plain mediocre-to-awful -the Richie Pettibon years!- there was never any doubt in the mind of anyone I knew that the team genuinely was THE focus of the community's
hopes and dreams every Fall.

Just like you've heard/read/watched for decades back when CBS used to do NFC games and you could predict that before a big game against the Giants, we'd see a segment lauding Redskins fans and making the point that they had a direct connection with their fans that most NFL cities never have. (And still don't have.)
But it's true.



You didn't have to take a poll when I was living there to know that the Redskins genuinely were THE glue that held the community together, regardless of race, gender, political party, ideology or economic class.
I saw that for myself for years in tangible ways that even the South Florida I grew-up in during the Dolphins' heady era of dominance in the 1970's could never possibly replicate.

I know because I saw I witnessed it everyday in the Fall and Winter when I was on the Metro train on my way into work in the morning, esp. on Monday mornings after big Redskin wins or Friday afternoons before big games, and looked at the faces of the other commuters around me.
And even though I'd lived in Chicago when the Bears won the title in the mid-1980's, and knew well of their decades of suffering, especially when I was at IU, it was even more tangible than what I saw every morning in the Fall when I'd board an El train in Evanston down to The Loop.

It was noticeable at the hot dog stand on K Street with a Redskins pennant flying above it that played the Redskins fight song on an endless loop on their boombox on Friday afternoons. 
Noticeable precisely because it didn't surprise you,
You simply took it in stride.



Noticeable, too, at the CVS on Eye Street near the NY Times' Washington bureau, where I'd frequently run into the MPAA's Jack Valenti heading there mid-afternoon to solve a sugar or caffeine fix.
And while that weekend's weather forecast was always somewhat iffy, what wasn't iffy was knowing that once you walked into that CVS, that 99% of the employees had on a Redskin cap or skullcap.
You could take that to the bank!

So, that said, in 2007 when the Dolphins gave up a VERY RARE Dolphins home game against the NY Giants -the Giants being the team the Dolphins have played THE LEAST in the team's existence, with just 5 games prior to that one in 42 years- in order to appease the NFL execs on Park Avenue and play the game in London, like many Dophin fans, I watched the game with more than a little anger, since every single legit Dolphins fan my age or older -esp. ones like me who were actually from South Florida- knew EXACTLY what that home game represented.
A very rare opportunity: completely squandered.

And also understood what a major customer slap in the face that decision was to Dolphin fans, given the unique history and peculiar demographics of South Florida.
To Dolphin fans who had already been stuck with a listless, punchless team for many years at that point, it felt like once again a decision had been made NOT for what was best for the team or for the fans but for... something else.
Once again stabbed in the back, even as we nursed our cold beers and chowed down on finger foods and pizza throughout South Florida.

Well, Friday's blog post by the Miami Herald's Armando Salguero suggests that clueless, disconnected-to-reality Dolphins owner Stephen Ross has really learned nothing at all from history...
It looks like decisions are once again being made NOT for the benefit of the team that's on the field or for the fans in the stands but for something else entirely.
For his benefit.

Do you honestly think the Baltimore Ravens would give up a home game against the Steelers so that Baltimore maybe, perhaps, someday, possibly host the Super Bowl? 
Or that the Seattle Seahawks would give up a home game against the S.F. Forty Niners for the same remote possiblity? Nope.
Neither do I.

The prescient statue dedicated to FDR outside The National Archives' entrance on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington is very much to the point: "The past is prologue."
For most people, but apparently not Stephen Ross.

His insufferable ownership is just another burden for true Dolphin fans to bear who've already had to endure so many other indignities and embarrassments the past 15 years. 

To no tangible change for the better

Thursday, November 28, 2013

It's all over at halftime -Angie Harmon wins! THE house in America that I (we) should've gone to today for Thanksgiving is @Angie_Harmon's; @jasonsehorn, PicturesOfAngie, @Madamefigaro, #nfl, #pigskin


Angie Harmon on WhoSay: http://www.whosay.com/angieharmon


                     



@PicturesOfAngie
                                      
So at halftime of the first NFL game of the day this Thanksgiving, Packers at Lions, I think it's perfectly clear that we have a clear-cut winner.

THE house in America that I (we) should've gone to today for some delicious turkey, sweet cranberries, warm and friendly conversation, and some very informed football talk -via @jasonsehorn- for dessert is Casa Angie Harmon@Angie_Harmon, whom as I've written here on the blog so many times, we've always admired and adored for so many good reasons.
We thank the rest of you for participating, but we definitely have our winner!

But for those of you reading these words out in Hawaii, there's still some time for you to chew over these inspired recipes via nos amis @Madamefigaro: On mange bien!






Above, Angie on the cover of the September 2000 issue of Texas Monthly, the very-popular and critically-acclaimed magazine I frequently bought over the years at The News Room on the corner of K St. & Connecticut Avenue in Washington D.C., next to the Farragut North Metro station.
Back when I was living and working up there.

As it happens, I bought this particular copy, though, that sweltering first weekend of September 2000, after flying into DFW from DC for the wedding of my dear and oh-so-talented friend Shannon, in Sulphur Springs, TX, where her parents and sister had then-recently moved to from Hope, Arkansas.
Hope being where Shannon was born and grew-up and where more famously, Bill Clinton was born.
I bought it at the Walmart on the way to "dry" Sulphur Springs, where the cashiers looked like young Lynda Carters
Really :-)!

Shannon's mother knew Bill Clinton as a kid from across the street, of course, and Shannon had a wonderful photo of herself and BC on her desk for years at the Washington bureau of Nippon TV, at the National Press Building, from when she'd been in high school and was in Little Rock for some event while Clinton was governor of Arkansas. (Girls State?)
Shannon was a savvy and resourceful TV producer and sometimes on-air talent, thanks to her fluent Japanese that sometimes had her traveling across the globe following President Clinton or some other important story that Japan & Nippon TV were interested in.

Since I had roughly an hour drive ahead of me once I arrived in north Texas that Thursday afternoon, I stopped off at a Walmart along the way on I-30 so I could grab some soda, junk food and odds & ends for my hotel room, since with temps around and above 105 in the shade -if you could find some shade- I knew I'd need to keep my cold Coca Cola intake high for the duration.

The magazine rack with Angie's "Hey pardner" smile was one of the first things that I saw in the store and into my basket it went, toute-de-suite! 
And I still have it, too.

For those of you who may've forgotten, as well as those of you who are new to the blog, your faithful blogger -Dave- was born in San Antonio, and my mother's side of the family has been living in the beautiful Hill Country of Texas since 1855: Bandera.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Omar Kelly says before today's Dolphins loss to Panthers that IF Dolphins don't finish the season 9-7, they must be blown-up. Everyone. I agree, but thought that it needed to be blown-up BEFORE season started, when I wrote they'd likely finish 5-11; #boomgoesdynamite




Time for Steve Ross to start over if Dolphins don't finish 9-7
The Dolphins have fallen short of expectations so far, squandering close games. Will this troubling trend continue, spoiling Miami's playoff chances?
By Omar Kelly, Commentary
3:18 p.m. EST, November 21, 2013
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-omar-kelly-dolphins-1122-20131121,0,6544218.story
Accompanying video at:
http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=69016&sitesection=sesunsentinel&VID=25380114
South Florida Sun-Sentinel


Meanwhile, back in September...

SEPTEMBER 8, 2013
#Finally! 2013 NFL season is finally here! My counter-intuitive predictions for the 2013 Miami Dolphins season is they stumble to 5-11; Over-valued, under-performing players plus a very tough early schedule may well render Dolphins winless by Bye week in Week 6; USA Today, Dan Patrick and Peter King's Super Bowl picks; Say hello again to our old friend, NFL East Coast/Cowboys bias!; @nfl, @SI_PeterKing, #Lombardi
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/finally-2013-nfl-season-is-finally-here.html


Sunday, September 8, 2013

#Finally! 2013 NFL season is finally here! My counter-intuitive predictions for the 2013 Miami Dolphins season is they stumble to 5-11; Over-valued, under-performing players plus a very tough early schedule may well render Dolphins winless by Bye week in Week 6; USA Today, Dan Patrick and Peter King's Super Bowl picks; Say hello again to our old friend, NFL East Coast/Cowboys bias!; @nfl, @SI_PeterKing, #Lombardi

Above, the scene on August 6th at my table at the Panera Bread in Hallandale Beach, FL, while sipping my Hazelnut coffee and munching on my Everything bagel. August 6, 2013 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
The moment I spied this Miami Herald sports section with a cover photo showing Miami Dolphin QB Ryan Tannehill's poor footwork in throwing a pass -NOT properly planted, NOT properly using his hips to throw the ball, but instead, going with the sort of off-stride sidearm delivery you see from a shortstop moving to his right who fumbles the ball and who's then rushing a throw to try to catch a speedy runner at first- and then saw the a propos headline reading, "Critics pan Tannehill, Dolphins," I instantly knew this would be the photo that I used for my predictions for the 2013 Dolphins season.

Despite having a great arm, whether you call it a gun, a rifle or bazooka, last year Tannehill's consistently poor footwork (and plain awkwardness) and his failure to consistently follow through on his throws, led to far too many passes not being right where they need to be when his receivers were open, which is why I've chosen to use the photo at the top.

And since every fan and observer of the Dolphins has known that one of the big problems that has plagued their receiving corps for years has been their inability to create separation, when they DO have some separation, Tannehill needs to be MUCH MORE ACCURATE.

I saw far too many wasted opportunities last year in games when they were still competitive, but when you don't take advantage, those close games become two TD deficits.

Tannehill and the photo of him is the Dolphins in a nutshell from my vantage point -they have the obvious ability, but do they have the means and will to get noticeably better?
That's an open question.

The difference between a successful person and others isn't a lack of strength, a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will. #Lombardi
— Krysta Bear (@KrystaBear95) September 2, 2013

It's great to hear he's showing improvement in practice, but late in a close game, will Tannehill revert back to bad habits? 

Especially against a team whose defensive linemen consistently raises its hands at the line of scrimmage, as the Texans did so successfully last year, when Tannehill never adjusted, to the dismay of fans watching at home, who thought it seemed so obvious?

But instead of having Tannehill roll-out on some passes to break that pattern, they just kept doing the same thing that never worked, extending their record of futility against the Texans, a team they've never beaten in a regular season game, an embarrassing fact considering they were an expansion team. 

And so, that idea about Tannehill from a month ago has become reality today on the blog as the Dolphins start their 47th season in Cleveland against a rapidly-improving Browns team -a team with a new offensive-minded head coach with U-M ties, Rob Chudzinski - that unlike the Dolphins in my opinion, have multiple playmakers on both sides of the ball.



*My last post on the Dolphins was my August 25th one here titled, Happy Miami Dolphins Anniversary; For some, the Dolphins' glory is like faded photographs in an album, but to me, it is as fresh in my mind as anything else in my memory. I only wish the people running and coaching the team now cared as much as I and some others do, who know what it's like to see and appreciate a thing of beauty -perfection- up-close and personal; Sports Fan in Chief Obama Honors Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins at White House

To quote myself above:
99% of anyone you see or speak to who is 27 or younger has NEVER BEEN ALIVE when the Dolphins were playing in a Super Bowl game.Now that's some perspective that really says something profound.
For the Jets, that's people who are 44-years old or younger.
Just saying...





The Herald photo and the headline fit everything I knew and have seen -and what most honest and discerning Dolphin fans and I have NOT seen- during the off-season and the five preseason games, which this year, included the Hall of Fame game in Canton against the Cowboys, who will likely share many of the Dolphin problems this year, namely, unrealized and unrealistic expectations for big improvement.

As regular readers of the blog and those who know the powers of the NFL's East Coast/
Cowboys bias, being bad will NOT prevent the Cowboys from being on national TV more than they should and even more than some of the better teams.
That's just how the NFL rolls.

The Cowboys get on high-profile TV times because... well just because its what the NFL and madison Avenue have been doing by rote for years, so they do it by default, despite the facts that the Cowboys last won a playoff game when?

Based on looking at the Cowboys schedule, it looks to me like 7 of their 16 games will be nationally-televised games, par for the course of late.

Why do you suppose tonight's NBC game is the Giants vs. the Cowboys instead of the 49ers and Packers, even though there's more interest in the latter game and not the former?
The same reason the NFL doesn't, hypothetically, have a Giants at Oakland game as the second part of the ESPN Monday Night doubleheader to start the year off.

There is no equality among the NFL's 32 teams as far as the NFL's TV folks are concerned, there's merely the illusion of equality.
To think otherwise is to publicly declare yourself naive.

And so begins another year of irrelevance for the Miami Dolphins, to join all the ones that have come before the past 15 years.

Based on what I have seen, I think Jeff Fisher was right to turn down the Dolphins job last year and go with Rams, as in 2nd year of Joe Philbin head coaching experiment in Miami, it's entirely possible that lackadaisical Dolphins, poised for what I believe could be a yet another completely inconsequential season, may also be winless by their Bye in Week 6, and only 1-6 going into a nationally-televised Thursday night home game on Halloween Night against the offensive-minded Bengals that could well turn into rout in second-half.

With the Dolphins given an extra week to practice and play because of their Hall of Fame game and yet with little to show for that extra week in terms of Ryan Tannehill to Mike Wallace synergy in evidence, I am ready to say that I'm completely underwhelmed by almost every aspect of the team  and its coaching staff I have observed, save their rookie kicker, Caleb Sturgiswho could well be their MVP if that tells you anything.

For me at least, it's been like watching kids playing on 75-pound Optimist teams: I see lots of players whom I've never heard of and who never seem to get better or learn from their mistakes -just repeat them in new and more frustrating ways
(Yes, like the Miami Herald and the City of Hallandale Beach and Broward County and...)

How many plays per games are their #1 and #2 draft picks of the past 5 years actually playing? It's embarrassing!
Who moves up to #3 in the entire draft to select someone -Dion Jordan- who, it was speculated, might not even play the season-opener?
Guilty.

1 SEP 8  1:00 PM EDT * AT   BROWNS 
2 SEP 15  1:00PM EDT * AT   COLTS 
3 SEP 22  4:05PM EDT )   FALCONS 
4 SEP 30  8:40PM EDT + AT   SAINTS 
5 OCT 6  1:00PM EDT *   RAVENS 
6 BYE 
7 OCT 20  1:00PM EDT *   BILLS 
8 OCT 27  1:00PM EDT * AT   PATRIOTS 
9 OCT 31  8:25PM EDT ,   BENGALS 
10 NOV 11  8:40PM EST + AT   BUCCANEERS 
11 NOV 17  1:00PM EST *   CHARGERS 
12 NOV 24  1:00PM EST    PANTHERS 
13 DEC 1  1:00PM EST * AT   JETS 
14 DEC 8  1:00PM EST * AT   STEELERS 
15 DEC 15  1:00PM EST *   PATRIOTS 
16 DEC 22  1:00PM EST * AT   BILLS 
17 DEC 29  1:00PM EST *   JETS

In the Historical Dept., I honestly think this Dolphins season may be the one where they travel west less than any regular season since I first started following them in 1970, as the farthest west they go is New Orleans. Weird.


Postcards from training camp: Miami Dolphins Source:SI The MMQB editor-in-chief Peter King discusses the loss of tight end Dustin Keller and the role rookie Dion Jordan is expected to play for the Dolphin's defense.

Veteran Sports Illustrated writer and frequent Dan Patrick Show guest Peter King sees them as a 6-10 team, while CBS Sports/nfl.com writer Pat Kirwan sees the Dolphins as slightly better at 7-9.
My friends, I think in mid-November, we'll all be thinking that a 7-9 record would be nothing short of a small miracle, with 5-11 my actual prediction, but 4-12 a real strong possibility, too.
Peter King @SI_PeterKing https://twitter.com/SI_PeterKing

There's still room for big improvement, but I can't help but wonder if a terrible start -as I expect- will tap the emotional resolve of many of the younger players who seem not quite as intense as players and teams of the past.
Yes, consistently inconsistent effort and serial under-performance in the clutch have been the hallmark of the Dolphins since I returned to South Florida almost ten years ago from the Washington D.C. area, where I probably saw about 70% of their games.   

I'm not a big believer in cautious optimism for NFL football teams, because at this level, with teams so even, I believe there has to be something that your team does well consistently that you can draw strength from when you get behind against better-quality teams.
Unfortunately for the Dolphins, I see that being their kicking game.
That's why, unfortunately, a record of 5-11 sounds pretty accurate to me.


'GameDay': 2013 Bold Predictions 
Published: Sept. 4, 2013 at 11:25 p.m




USA TODAY Sports' 2013 NFL predictions 
Staff report, USA TODAY Sports
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2013/09/04/2013-staff-picks-season-predictions/2768317/


TheDanPatrickShow YouTube Channel video: Peter King on the Dan Patrick Show 9/3/13. Peter's Super Bowl prediction is Seattle vs. New England. Uploaded September 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/ayQPoUyVkU4


TheDanPatrickShow YouTube Channel video: Dan's Super Bowl Picks 9/4/13. 
Dan's prediction is Denver Broncos over Seattle Seahawks at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on February 2nd in Super Bowl XLVIII, which everyone I know -plus me-hopes is a snowstorm. Uploaded September 4, 2013. http://youtu.be/ziuas6ZKKeU

TheDanPatrickShow YouTube Channel video: Rich Eisen on the Dan Patrick Show 9/6/13. Uploaded September 6, 2013. http://youtu.be/zFDuJJW9_zI

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Happy Miami Dolphins Anniversary; For some, the Dolphins' glory is like faded photographs in an album, but to me, it is as fresh in my mind as anything else in my memory. I only wish the people running and coaching the team now cared as much as I and some others do, who know what it's like to see and appreciate a thing of beauty -perfection- up-close and personal; Sports Fan in Chief Obama Honors Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins at White House



Happy Miami Dolphins Anniversary; For some, the Dolphins' glory is like faded photographs in an album, but to me, it is as fresh in my mind as anything else in my memory. I only wish the people running and coaching the team now cared as much as I and some others do, who know what it's like to see and appreciate a thing of beauty -perfection- up-close and personal; Sports Fan in Chief Obama Honors Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins at White House



PBS NewsHour YouTube Channel video: Sports Fan in Chief Honors Champion 1972 Miami Dolphins. "More than 40 years since the 1972 Miami Dolphins made NFL history with their perfect season, coach Don Shula and his undefeated team were honored by President Barack Obama with a visit to the White House. Kwame Holman reports on the presidential tradition of following sports and Mr. Obama's dedication to his home teams." Uploaded August 20, 2013  http://youtu.be/wAAXkutt7as

The following is an edited version of a August 16th email I received from my NPR-listening mother, who now lives up in Polk County in Central Florida, and my response to her shortly thereafter, on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the Miami Dolphins being born in 1965. 
------

August 16, 2013


On this day in history, 1965, August 16 Danny Thomas and Joe Robbie received the approval of the Dolphins Franchise.   
At least that's what I think the announcer said this morning...or something very similar to the beginning of the Dolphin Football team.....they don't repeat these things.

Hugs,
MOM

I replied as follows:

But that's only half the story, of course.
Here's some of the rest...

You were fortunate enough to have a son who as a child loved to evangelize about the 
Dolphins and their players with perfect strangers -even while acknowledging the players shortcomings- and often talked what some thought was too much about the wonderful things that they could do so much better than other  teams in American cities that were much-larger,
more-influential and more important than Miami in the larger scheme of things.



SUDDEN DEATH AT KANSAS CITY

Sudden Death at Kansas City 

Miami's Garo Yepremian Ends the Longest Game; (kneeling) placekick holder Karl Noonan, January 3, 1972


KIICK AND CSONKA, MIAMI'S DYNAMIC DUO


Kiick and Csonka, Miami's Dynamic Duo 
Larry Csonka & Jim Kiick, August 7, 1972



BUILDING FOR THE SUPER BOWL
Building For The Super Bowl
Miami Coach Don Shula, December 11, 1972

IT'S MIAMI AND WASHINGTON

It's Miami and Washington 
Mercury Morris Speeds Past The Steelers, January 8, 1973


MIAMI ALL THE WAY

Miami All The Way 
Bob Griese, January 22, 1973



Wolfson Archive YouTube Channel video: Miami Dolphins Perfect 1972 Season Celebration and Superbowl Victory. Uploaded August 20, 2013. http://youtu.be/BxLG_exjIDQ

The Don Shula Show 17-0 Season January 15, 1973. Super Bowl VII Winners.  
conkyjoe YouTube Channel video:The Don Shula Show 17-0 Season January 15, 1973. Super Bowl VII Winners. Uploaded December 1, 2012. 

1970 Dolphins radio play-by-play announcer at WIOD and later Channel 10 sports director Joe Croghan was host until 1974 for what everyone simply called "the Shula show."
The guests the Monday night after the 14-7 Super Bowl victory over the Redskins were QB Bob Griese and DT Manny Fernandez.
But as usual, Coach Shula is the glue that holds it all together, which is why even today, he is still THE most-admired person in all of South Florida for most longtime South Florida residents, including me.

My family and I never missed the Don Shula Show and we could all mimic the show's intro voice-over by heart!
By the time this particular show aired, I think I'd been up since sometime Sunday morning! Just riding on adrenaline...
From the video uploader's comments, which are quite important for making sense of this for those of you who were NOT living here forty years ago,  "From January 15, 1973. The Dolphins first Super Bowl win with an unbeaten 17-0 season. Perfection. This is the only footage of this show in existence. It was recorded on a Sony B&W reel to reel VTR in the newsroom. No quad color tape machines were available because of commercial playback. Unbelievable nobody but me recorded this historic event. Sorry for the marginal audio track. No highlights are shown due to NFL rights restrictions. The show was produced by The Sandy Tinsley Ad Agency, Miami. Rick Shaw, voice over announcer. Sponsored by Holsom Bread and Eastern Airlines."
When the Dolphins were undefeated in 1972 and won their first NFL Championship, your son was at every home game, his first year as a season-ticket holder, his eyes like a video-camera remembering everything around him, which he would detail years later to anyone who was interested.


Once Upon a Time.. there was perfection in aqua and orange and white.

Just like our whole family has talked so many times over the years since when we all drove down to the Eastern Airlines tarmac and terminal of Miami International Airport early in the morning hours 42 years ago to greet the team returning from Kansas City, after their extremely-emotional double-overtime playoff win over the Chiefs on Christmas Day in 1971.
I was so exhausted and hoarse that I literally couldn't talk the next day.

And eyes like a video-camera remembering everything around him the following season when they won their second Vince Lombardi NFL Championship trophy.

PRO FOOTBALL, MIAMI IS ROUGH AND READY

Pro Football, Miami Is Rough And Ready 

Larry Csonka & Bob Griese, September 17, 1973


Over at NBC, one of the perks of consistently winning -attention- came to a whole crew of Dolphins in their NFL intro package, featuring mostly Dolphins guard Bob Kuechenberg getting dressed, and, in between video of other great players of that era, Larry Little, Vern Den Herder, Larry Csonka, Bob Griese and at 0:57, the late Jim Mandich., whose warm personality and honesty is still so greatly missed in South Florida by so many, more than two years after his untimely passing.

beaverstuffers YouTube Channel: NFL on NBC, opening (1973). Uploaded August 20, 2009. http://youtu.be/nv-datkQYUU

Yes, 1973, the last year the Dolphins really WERE the best team. Forty years.


Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota
Larry Csonka, January 21, 1974

And for a while at least, when people around the country thought of Miami, they thought of the Dolphins, never the most-talented team, but always the hardest-working team and a team of winners who demanded a lot of themselves and of each other.

Vince Lombardi Championship Trophies from Dolphin victories in Super Bowl VII and VIII.
April 2007 photo by Mario J. Bermudez taken at Miami Dolphins Headquarters, Davie, Florida.
It's why you play the game.

For more on this longstanding wistfulness, see my Super Bowl blog post of February 6, 2011,
"Lombardi. A certain magic still lingers in the very name. It speaks of duels in the snow and cold November mud..."; Packers will win by at least 8!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/lombardi-certain-magic-still-lingers-in.html

NEW LIFE IN THE WFL

New Life In The WFL 

Warfield, Csonka and Kiick of Memphis, July 28, 1975

THE DAY OF THE DOLPHINS


The Day Of The Dolphins 
Andra Franklin Plows Through The Chargers, January 24, 1983



ROOKIES ON THE RISE


Rookies On The Rise 
Dan Marino: Miami's Hot Quarterback, November 14, 1983



AIR RAID! MIAMI BOMBS WASHINGTON


Air Raid! Miami Bombs Washington 
Mark Clayton (burning Darryl Green) September 10, 1984



SUPER DUPER!

Super Duper!

Wide Receiver Mark Duper Of The Undefeated Dolphins, November 19, 1984


DANGEROUS DAN
Dangerous Dan
Dan Marino Passes Miami Into The Super Bowl, January 14, 1985

In mid-January of 1985, when your son was 24, he watched the Dolphins play the 49ers  in the Super Bowl at your apt. near The Falls, their second Super Bowl appearance in four years, and in only Dan Marino's 2nd-year.

Like all of South Florida, we were all quite confident that with Marino as our QB and with Don Shula as head coach, there would be many more such Super Bowl appearances in the next ten years, and the Dolphins would likely win their share of them.

But though we didn't know it at the time, after the game the Dolphins were, to be fair, largely toyed with by the 49ers in the second half, something fundamental was taking place.
A shift that for Dolphin fans like us, would NOT be a change for the better, not even a valuable learning experience.

We thought the team was getting better and building towards the future, but the reality was that we were actually falling like quicksand into a particular ring of football hell reserved for very entertaining NFL teams that never win in the clutch, no matter how big a lead they have.

Teams that score a lot of TDs quickly, but then promptly give them up even more quickly.
Teams that never make that one trade that they need to make to keep the door open and then knock the door down.

After Marino retired, theDolphins got older, more boring  and more irrelevant than ever, and changed coaches and QBs with great regularity until they were no longer considered one of the best-run sports teams in the country, they were no longer even the best-run team in Miami, having long ago lost that title to the University of Miami that played exciting AND winning football.

And now, today, 48 years to the day they became a team, the same day that Babe Ruth and
Elvis died on years apart, 99% of anyone you see or speak to who is under the age of 27 has NEVER BEEN ALIVE when the Dolphins were playing in a Super Bowl game.
Now that's some perspective that really says something profound.

Still, your son, ever the Dolphins evangelist, albeit in-spite of the team rather than because of any success or enjoyment from watching the team, keeps the spirit of a once-upon-a-time tradition of hard work, commitment to attention to details and a winning culture alive, however he can, even when he travels overseas.

Above, at Panera Bread, Hallandale Beach, FL in December of 2012
Photos above and below as seen at:

Which is why when a certain son of yours found himself in Sweden in January, it was only natural that he had extra Dolphins caps with him to help spread the word.

And thus, when a certain very talented and moxie-filled Swedish singer named Anni Bernhard came to record her new Full of Keys album in April for at least part of the recording session that week in a Swedish city that you've never heard of -Visby- she wore the Dolphins aqua cap proudly  when smiling for the camera, and even put that photo out on the Internet for all to see.

Pictured above, left-to-right, are Anni Bernhard (Full of Keys), sound engineer and co-producer Linus Larsson and Mats Jönsson, April 12, 2013, Sandvie Studios, Visby, Gotland, Sweden.

No, Anni was not ashamed to be seen wearing the aqua and orange.
Thanks to your son, the persuasive Dolphins evangelist.


Full Of Keys

Full Of Keys

@FullOfKeys

Stockholm, Sweden · fullofkeys.com


Love, Dave,
your son, the Dolphins evangelist


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As some of you know, from the time I went to my first Dolphins home game at the Orange Bowl in December of 1970, with my Dad, a 45-3 win over Buffalo that clinched a playoff position for the first time in team history, I missed less than a handful of home games -preseason, regular season and playoff- some because of my own sports games, until I left for Bloomington and college at IU in August of 1979.
And I have every Pro! game program from every game I went to, as well as the ticket stub.

I didn't see much losing because after a tough loss to the Jets in 1971, the Dolphins won a record 31 straight home games, regular season and post-season games, not losing until the opening season game in 1975 against the Raiders on a Monday Night Football classic that was back-and-forth with that great Raider team of so many future Hall-of-Famers.

That was the famous game within our family's history where after doing it for years, I somehow got on the wrong Metro Dade Orange Bowl Express bus to the Golden Glades stop in the Levitz Furniture showroom parking lot, because there was a back-up of buses along the street outside the Orange Bowl. 
(I think it was a small accident or something, so all the busses were slight out of queue.)

I always checked what the destination said on the front of the bus before boarding, even though the buses were always in the same place so that people would remember where to go.
But that night, something happened and... within ten minutes or so, I realized I was headed somewhere towards Kendall -the complete opposite direction.

In those pre-cell phone days, I had to call my Dad on a pay phone around 1:30 am. and have him drive from North Miami Beach to pick me up, after the bus finally dropped me off on the way at a well-lit area.
Talk about panicked, my dad had to go to work in a few hours and I had school in a few hours.
Only one of my biggest mistakes ever!