Posted on Tue, Oct. 19, 2004

 

IN MY OPINION

 

Dolphins dive to whole new level of bad

 

DAN LE BATARD

 

dlebatard@herald.com

 

The 2004 Miami Dolphins might very well be the worst pro team in the history of South Florida sports.

 

When you combine expectations and bad feelings and fan hostility and national jokes and the fundamental inability to win a single game, has there ever been a team in this region that feels as sick-to-your-stomach bad as this one?

 

Maybe the 108-loss Marlins that lurched from dismantled ruin immediately after winning the World Series.

 

Maybe.

 

But that's the beginning and end of your list.

 

Go ahead. Check the histories of the Dolphins, Marlins, Heat and Panthers. You might find teams that were about this awful in expansion years, but those always came wrapped in feel-good and excited crowds and a promise of better times soon. A different feeling surrounded those losers. It's called hope.

 

And, besides, even the expansion Heat team that began 0-17 in 1988 didn't lose as large a percentage of its schedule to start its season as these 0-6 Dolphins.

 

Yes, the 2004 Dolphins make you miss Pat Cummings and his too-tight shorts.

 

These Dolphins are an unprecedented kind of bad. They are the worst team in franchise history and the sorriest team in professional football right now. So there is nothing in the past this bad and nothing in the present this bad. And, given all the traded draft picks and the coach's stubborn insistence of sinking his career here with anchor Jay Fiedler, you can't see the future from here, either.

 

Don't you have to start A.J. Feeley or Sage Rosenfels now? Please? Aren't you obligated, with players literally quitting all around you, to let go of this season and see what the future quarterback might look like? Or are you going to keep starting Fiedler to see if you can climb all the way to the rarefied air of a glorious 3-13? When the New York Yankees score more in a single playoff game than the Dolphins have in any one game this season?

 

It took this team all of six games to represent the most profound failure career Dolphins such as Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor have ever known.

 

Plus, as an added bonus, every couple of months another Dolphin quits. Not quits, as in ''I'm just going to cash it in from here because there is no reason to try hard any more.'' Quits, as in 'Keep your freakin' paychecks. I'm leaving. No amount of money is worth this kind of suffering.''

 

Dan Marino, Ricky Williams, Chidi Ahanotu. People who make their living in this savage an environment don't quit. Where else in this league can you find even one example of this, never mind three?

 

SO WHAT NOW?

 

Firing the coach and general manager at this point wouldn't improve the product immediately -- that never works midseason in this sport -- but it might actually make fans feel better. That's the only reason to do it right now and might represent the only way to make fans feel better, seeing as how winning doesn't seem to be one of the options.

 

Those fans filled with bloodlust about the way this product has been run into the ground do have a voice but can only exercise it by not going to the home games, being loud with their silence. Wayne Huizenga is a bottom-line businessman, and he will hear you if there are only 20,000 fans in his place for the game against the Rams.

 

NOT ALL ON COACHES

 

But let's be clear that any criticism of coaching as the sole reason for this debacle is a vast oversimplification. Take, for example, the first score of Sunday's loss to the Bills.

 

That wasn't merely an OK or good call by offensive coordinator Chris Foerster. That was a perfect call. There is nothing he could have called that would have been wiser or safer or better. He knew what the Bills were going to do, predicted it flawlessly, and countered with the single smartest thing in the playbook.

 

And Buffalo somehow led, 7-0, at the end of the transaction.

 

Foerster called a screen pass to the flooded side where the Bills were blitzing. If Fiedler throws a safe, easy dump pass, fullback Rob Konrad literally had the blocking to go 80 yards without being touched if he wasn't caught from behind. But the wind and Fiedler's limitations worked against him and, next thing you know, there are a bunch of Bills celebrating in the wrong end zone.

 

That's how it happens with this bunch.

 

Maybe the worst professional team South Florida has ever seen.

 

Don't you have to start A.J. Feeley or Sage Rosenfels now? Please? Aren't you obligated, with players literally quitting all around you, to let go of this season and see what the future quarterback might look like? Or are you going to keep starting Fiedler to see if you can climb all the way to the rarefied air of a glorious 3-13? When the New York Yankees score more in a single playoff game than the Dolphins have in any one game this season?

 

Good point and what I've been thinking since he named Fielder the starter again.

 

Article

considering some people (even on this very site) thought the fins would win 11, then yes, this years dolphins are the worst team in so fla history

 

unlike the expansion heat and firesaled marlins, these guys were actually built with expectations to win

considering some people (even on this very site) thought the fins would win 11, then yes, this years dolphins are the worst team in so fla history

 

unlike the expansion heat and firesaled marlins, these guys were actually built with expectations to win

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The "experts" didn't expect anything for the Fins after the Ricky debacle and Boston's injury.

The 1998 Marlins.

1998 Marlins just because they were world champion the year before.

Well if you consider Tampa south florida... the Yucs, the again UCF this year is 0-6 and espn considers them the worst team in d-I.

Well if you consider Tampa south florida... the Yucs, the again UCF this year is 0-6 and espn considers them the worst team in d-I.

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Even though USF is there, there is no way that Tampa Bay should be considered South Florida.

 

The Heat and Marlin terrible teams were kinda expected. I mean, the Dolphins still sell out every game, and they are still the talk of the town so this has to be it. Who was talking about the 98 Marlins?

Well if you consider Tampa south florida... the Yucs, the again UCF this year is 0-6 and espn considers them the worst team in d-I.

596669[/snapback]

Even though USF is there, there is no way that Tampa Bay should be considered South Florida.

 

The Heat and Marlin terrible teams were kinda expected. I mean, the Dolphins still sell out every game, and they are still the talk of the town so this has to be it. Who was talking about the 98 Marlins?

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The days of sell outs will be soon forgotten. Next year will be the year I purchase my Dolphins season tickets, it will be the first time since the OB that I will be able to sit in the lower level with season tickets.

 

LeBatard is absolutly right, this Dolphins team is the worst ever in South Florida history. The 98 Marlins were bad, but it wasnt like they were trying to win, Huipinga destroyed the team, and even the expansion teams were better than this years Dolphins.

Huipinga :lol

if Le Bastard ever takes another shot at Dan Marino,I'll personally go to the Miami Herald and take a flamethrower to that place...

2004 Dolphins, no doubt

if Le Bastard ever takes another shot at Dan Marino,I'll personally go to the Miami Herald and take a flamethrower to that place...

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GTA doesnt come out until the 25th

if Le Bastard ever takes another shot at Dan Marino,I'll personally go to the Miami Herald and take a flamethrower to that place...

598026[/snapback]

 

 

 

GTA doesnt come out until the 25th

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fyi its the 26th

if Le Bastard ever takes another shot at Dan Marino,I'll personally go to the Miami Herald and take a flamethrower to that place...

598026[/snapback]

 

 

 

GTA doesnt come out until the 25th

598439[/snapback]

fyi its the 26th

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FYI BITCH, THE 25th!

 

The 26th is the OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE, but if a store gets em in on the 25th, like all the gamestops and eb's, WE CAN SELL EM. SO BOYAKA

1998 Florida Marlins

'72 dolphins. :o

These Dolphins...because they sold the fans that they were trying to win.

 

Those Marlins and Heat teams were building.

* cues "celebration" song *

 

:plain :plain :plain