Will Miami Dolphins' selection of Ryan Tannehill in first-round of 2012 NFL Draft result in Dolphin season ticket holders calling a timeout, too, and total number of subscriber tickets getting below 30,000 for first time since pre-Don Shula? Yes.

The Jason Taylor "Thank you" sign going up on U.S. 441/N.W. 2nd Avenue, Miami Gardens, FL. The area that my friends and I in NMB in the '70's always just called "around Norland," which was everything from I-95 north to the Broward county line, back when the county line really meant something. Long before there was a city called Miami Gardens. December 30, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

The workers pinch here, and pull there... the fabric ads are so much easier to put up than the old-fashioned ones requiring experienced painters. But then I'm old-fashioned, having grown-up, like my two sisters, with the sight of the iconic motorized Coppertone billboard -with the black terrier puppy pulling the Coppertone girl's bikini bottom down to expose her tan line- at the I-95/Golden Glades Interchange/Cloverleaf exit on N.W. 167th Street greeting us every time we returned from trips elsewhere in South Florida -or out-of-state. For my sisters and I, that amazing Coppertone sign was always the sign that we were finally home. http://www.pbase.com/image/77098090
And the perfect landmark for directions, since it was impossible to miss.
December 30, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved

I was never a big fan of Jason Taylor's, per se, like many other devout Dol-fans, as I have noted a time or two here before, but this was a very classy thing to do.

December 30, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved


Rather than my going on-and-on after 1 a.m. about the myriad problems associated with the Dolphins selecting Texas A&M QB Ryan Tannehill with their eight pick in the NFL draft's first- round about five hours ago, with the idea of keeping him in cold storage for the next year or so, instead of selecting a proven play-maker who can immediately help them win more games this year -I suggested Quinton Coples, who wound-up being drafted at #16 by the Jets- I will ask you this simple question.


Given whom the team has chosen to draft with their first-round selection, a player who will likely not play significantly this year, do you believe the number of Dolphin season tickets will actually go below 30,000 before Ryan Tannehill ever starts three games in a row as a pro?  
Until three months ago, I would never have imagined I'd be saying this, but I now believe the correct answer to that question is YES.


As i stated here recently, I believe that the Dolphins will only sell-out two home ballgames this year, the Jets and the Patriots, which is good news I suppose for the Hurricanes' ticket office.


I also have a very bad feeling that some people in South Florida will be receiving a letter EXACTLY like this one very soon from Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, with only the dates and names changed from the one I received last year.


Yes, it's really starting to feel a lot like IU football circa 2009 around here with the Dolphins, and you know that is NOT a good thing.


-----


Dolphin Delusions: from my email inbox of July 26, 2011 

BACK TO FOOTBALL |

Dear David, Welcome back to football! We are ecstatic that we can now turn our attention to the 2011 season that lies ahead. I want to assure you - as both a fan and as the owner of the Dolphins - that we share the same goal. We  want to bring a Super Bowl Championship back to South Florida. That's always been my commitment. I feel even stronger about it now. You deserve nothing less. Our coaches and players are eager to kick off the 2011 campaign in a big way. Thanks to the hard work of Jeff Ireland and our football staff, we were able to infuse our squad with a potent combination of speed, power and athleticism during the 2011 NFL Draft. With Coach Sparano's relentless dedication leading the way, we will build a smart, tough and disciplined team. We will continue to be active and aggressive in our ongoing effort to assemble a strong, championship caliber team. Thank you for all you do for the Miami Dolphins. I am proud and honored to be a part of this storied franchise and appreciate your loyal support of our team. I look forward to seeing you at Sun Life Stadium in 2011. Go Dolphins! Sincerely, Steve Ross

This message was transmitted on behalf of:
Miami Dolphins Sales and Marketing
347 Don Shula Drive
Miami Gardens, FL 33056

-----
http://www.agilitynut.com/roadside.html

7 Days for the Miami Dolphins to end or add to their reputation for terrible NFL Draft selections. A last chance for sanity and common sense for long-suffering Dol-fans? We want Quinton Coples, DE from North Carolina

DE Quinton Coples on ESPN Sport Science with John Brenkus, April 8, 2012.
http://youtu.be/n6JO299HD4w

7 Days for the Miami Dolphins to end or add to their reputation for terrible NFL Draft selections. A last chance for sanity and common sense for long-suffering Dol-fans? We want Quinton Coples, DE from North Carolina.

Knowing that "only victory would suffice they produced a performance short on ambition, low on energy and looked and acted like a team that knew the game was up." 


And he's NOT describing the Miami Dolphins of the past dozen years!


No, BBC Sports chief football writer Phil McNulty was actually describing the flat tire on the road that has been City -Manchester City- of late.

But admit it, his spare and unwavering description reads like the true story of almost every upsetting Dolphins loss of the 21st Century, doesn't it?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2012/04/citys_horse_bolts_as_balotelli.html

(I subscribe to Phil's blog about the Premier League and all thing England National Team, et al.)


Rhetorical question of the week:

Q: Dave, will you be mocking the majority of the 2012 NFL Mock Drafts that have the Dolphins "overdrafting" and drafting Aggies QB Ryan Tannehill? 

A: Wish I could, but sadly, I DO think the Dolphins will likely screw this up, too -if only out of habit!


Bleacher Report
Ryan Tannehill and Overdrafting Quarterbacks: An NFL Epidemic
By Dan Hope, April 14, 2012

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1145779-ryan-tannehill-and-overdrafting-quarterbacks-an-nfl-epidemic


Here's what longtime Dolphin fans know from first-hand experience, year-after-year.

Continuing the pattern that has seemingly existed since Joe Thomas left the Dolphins for the Baltimore Colts in the mid-1970's and drafted Bert Jones, Roger Carr, Lydell Mitchell and a host of very talented and exciting players to watch, thereby depriving Don Shula of a savvy partner in planning the Dolphins' future, this year's NFL Draft -starting at 8 p.m. on Thursday April 26th- will likely feature at least 8-10 players who are drafted AFTER the Dolphins first-round selection at #8 who will have more to do with their respective teams winning in 2012 than whomever the Dolphins select with the pick.

That is, unless they inexplicably wind-up with a chance to get their hands on future All-Pro RB Trent Richardson or the player we want.

To me, that particular scenario is likely unless the Browns beat the Dolphins to the overdraft punch and select Texas A& M QB Ryan Tannehill with their pick at #4, in which case they will also probably try to move up via a trade with a team with their #22 first-round pick for the 5th-7th selection, so they can get whatever WR St. Louis doesn't draft, either Oklahoma State's Justin Blackmon or Notre Dame's Michael Floyd, so that Browns QB Colt McCoy will have a game-breaker to thrown to.

The Dolphins have floundered on the field and off for the past decade, and like Los Angeles  Dodger fans and their genuine, deep-seated animosity towards soon-to-be-former owner Frank McCourt, which explains why they are NOT using the parking lots that he still owns and a "record number of Dodger fans took public transportation" on Opening Day, to their dismay, Dolphin fans wake-up each morning with a buffoonish villain of an owner of their own in billionaire Stephen Ross,.


As has been written elsewhere in South Florida a million times the past few years, Ross
STILL seems far too fixated on extraneous matters fans don't care about, even if female Miami-area TV reporters do.
Frankly, most troubling of all, despite his recent PR moves to reach out to Dolphin season ticket holders, Ross seems genuinely unable to learn from his own past mistakes.


Yes, the very same upsetting personality trait that I complain about with great specificity on this blog with respect to how the City of Hallandale Beach, Broward County and the Sunshine State are, seemingly, regularly mis-managed in a world where serious decisions with lasting ramifications need to be made by serious, hard-working people who are focused on both the short-term and long-term.
We don't expect perfection, really, we don't.


But we don't think it's unreasonable to keep the financial and policy screw-ups to a bare minimum, to not actually be the rule rather than the exception, and not keep stepping into the same pot-hole over-and-over, like it was just put there.


Except here, at the city, county and state level, people in charge seem to studiously avoid solutions with a demonstrated track record of working in other multiple cities, counties or states, and instead, lamely insist that there's a unique quality here -too warm, too poor, too Hispanic, too car-loving, too many Homeless, too-something- that rules out using  those solutions here, so instead, elected leaders form task forces where they appoint friends and cronies, many of whom have serious self-evident conflict-of-interests, and we end up re-inventing the wheel.
It's so f-ing frustrating!


Watching Dolphins owner Ross is the same thing, exasperating in the extreme, and unlike many of what is now an army of critics, I actually want Ross to improve as an owner, not just keep screwing-up because it's such a great conversation starter around South Florida that instantly produces shaking heads in people.


Dolphin season ticket sales are at the lowest point they've been in in roughly thirty years, and with what can only be described as an ugly home schedule in an area where something being an "event" is not only well known but common knowledge, even among kids, I believe only the Jets and Patriots home games are likely to sell-out.


Consider this home slate and you'll see why I'm right:

NFL Week 2, Sept. 16: vs. Oakland, 1 p.m.

Week 3, Sept. 23: vs. New York Jets, 1 p.m.

Week 6, Oct. 14: vs. St. Louis, 1 p.m.

Week 9, Nov. 4: at Indianapolis, 1 p.m.

Week 10, Nov. 11: vs. Tennessee, 1 p.m.

Week 12, Nov. 25: vs. Seattle, 1 p.m.

Week 13, Dec. 2: vs. New England, 1 p.m.

Week 15, Dec. 16: vs. Jacksonville, 1 p.m.

Week 16, Dec. 23: vs. Buffalo, 1 p.m.

That means it's probably even-money that six games will NOT be televised in South Florida, this season, which perhaps helps the Hurricanes sell some game tickets to folks who believe Al Golden is selling.


The fact that all Dolphin home games are at 1 p.m., when the South Florida sun will bake you just as soon as look at you, will not help the Dolphins and Ross one bit.


In my opinion, the Dolphins should draft someone with playmaker ability who will play a lot in his first year and could blossom opposite Cameron Wake -UNC DE Quinton Coples, #90, who is 6' 6", 291 pounds, was First Team All-ACC, 24 sacks in 4 years. 

For those of you who question his desire, seems that I recall that Dan Marino's senior year wasn't so great, either, but unlike Marino's final year, the Tar Heels' head coach, Butch Davis, was fired just a few weeks before the season started, a lot of starting players were suspended for multiple games, so, the season was essentially over before it ever started.

DE Quinton Coples NFL Pro Day Highlights
http://youtu.be/QQmysrkRd3o

http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thedailydolphin/2012/04/19/si-draft-expert-tony-pauline-defends-quinton-coples-against-his-critics/

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1146309-todd-mcshay-2012-nfl-mock-draft-analysis-for-each-pick/

Palm Beach Post

Brian Billick, Mike Golic agree: Miami Dolphins shouldn’t draft Ryan Tannehill just for the sake of taking a QB

by Ben Volin, April 12, 2012

http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thedailydolphin/2012/04/12/brian-billick-mike-golic-agree-miami-dolphins-shouldnt-draft-ryan-tannehill-just-for-the-sake-of-taking-a-qb/

As regular readers of the blog know, I was at the Dolphins HQ in Davie in 2007 when they passed on selecting Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn at pick #9, after he had already been ignored by his hometown Browns with the #3 pick, and instead drafted Ohio State WR Ted Ginn, Jr., now with the 49ers, which caused the huge crowd of fans in the 'bubble' to explode in anger.

Above, the surprised look says it all. Brady Quinn at the 2007 NFL Draft HQ in NYC when Ted Ginn, Jr.'s name was formally announced. This is prior to Quinn dating U.S. Olympic gymnast captain Alicia Sacramone, whose moxie and spirit have long made her a personal favorite of yours truly. Screenshot by Mario J. Bermudez.

I was actually standing less than 15 feet from Dolphin broadcasters Jimmy Cefalo and the late Jim Mandich and their WQAM producers while they were doing their LIVE coverage of the NFL Draft, and when that announcement was made -and listening to them via my Walkman- when the cascade of boos reached a crescendo, it literally drowned-out what I was listening to.

The public's mood did not improve when then-Dolphins first-year head coach Cam Cameron came out and addressed the public on why the organization had chosen to make that decision.

As always, to quote myself in my last sentence of my 2011 pre-NFL Draft post of April 28th, 2011, where I called on the Dolphins to draft Arkansas QB Ryan Mallette, 

That's not a chill, that's a Draft: With Dolphin fans at emotional nadir, will team continue frustrating at NFL Draft? Pick Mallett!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/thats-not-chill-thats-draft-with.html
"The past is prologue."


Just saying, that's NOT good news for long-suffering Dolphin fans.


Ever since the Super Bowl ended, surprisingly from my p.o.v. with a Giants win over the Patriots, I've had a Google Alert for 2012 NFL mock drafts.
As you might imagine, though it started off with a trickle, for weeks it's been a veritable torrent, and I've looked at most of the citations.


Of all of these, though, as far as a Dolphins-related mock draft, the best I've seen thus far is the one done by the Palm Beach Post, and mostly Ben Volin and Brian Biggane, and not just because they agree with me on drafting Quinton Coples.


http://www.nfl.com/videos/auto/09000d5d8280330b/On-the-Beat-Dolphins-No-8


http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thedailydolphin/2012/04/10/the-palm-beach-posts-2012-nfl-mock-draft/


Tannehill definitely makes more sense for Kansas City at #11, backing-up Matt Cassell and Brady Quinn.

Kansas City Star Video Star NFL correspondent Adam Teicher on Chiefs draft choices. 

http://videos.kansascity.com/vmix_hosted_apps/p/media?id=undefined

-----

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2012

http://bleacherreport.com/2012-nfl-draft

http://www.youtube.com/user/usnikefootball

http://www.miamidolphins.com/

Dolphins' new Nike merchandise is here: 

http://shop.dolphins.com/Miami-Dolphins-Nike-NFL-Gear-Merchandise-_-848882224_PG.html?sourceid=906x75nfllaunch04112

Three weeks before 2012 NFL Draft, NFL & Nike host marketing bonanza for release of Nike's Elite 51 line of football uniforms, sportswear & training apparel

Wall Street Journal Digital Network video: NFL and Nike Unveil New Team Jerseys at Brooklyn Navy Yard. April 3, 2012.

Three weeks before 2012 NFL Draft, NFL & Nike host marketing bonanza for release of Nike's Elite 51 line of football uniforms, sportswear & training apparel.

Above, MarketWatch correspondent Andria Cheng reports from the NFL marketing bonanza that fans have been buzzing about for months as the NFL's contract shifts from Reebok to Nike.

She speaks to Brian Orakpo of the Redskins and Alex Smith of the 49ers about the new line of official uniforms, shoes and gloves, and speaks to Nike Brand president Charlie Denson about the new line of NFL-themed consumer sportswear and training line of apparel. 

Costs for near-replica of lighter, non-water-absorbent Elite 51 line of NFL game jerseys are approximately $250, with the intermediate line of fitted shirts, with centered team logo, going for about $100 a piece, $15 more than the current price point of Reebok's. 

Denson expects most of the merchandise to be on retail store shelves by NFL Draft of April 26th. Projected wholesale sales of $750 million? We'll see. 

http://youtu.be/G9qwUwF0sE8

FYI: New Era has the field hat contract.

USNikeFootball video: How we work: Nike + the Seattle Seahawks. April 3, 2012

Nike Football Design Director Todd Van Horne and Seattle Seahawks Equipment Manager Eric Kennedy discuss the collaboration between Nike and Seahawk players and staff to get the most innovative products on the players. Seahawk strong safety Kam Chancellor wants the lightest uniform possible given how he's expected to keep up with the opponent's fastest players on the field.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlCWM4bCCP8&feature=colike

See also:

Bloomberg TV video: Mark Crumpton of Bloomberg TV's "Bottom Line" tal;ks to Denson and . NFL Uniforms, Tebow Merchandise. April 3, 2012.

http://youtu.be/-0Pckgv_XL4

NFL, Nike roll out new uniforms for all 32 teams

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8280d110/article/nfl-nike-roll-out-new-uniforms-for-all-32-teams

NFL.com's photo gallery of new uniforms: 

http://www.nfl.com/photos/09000d5d8280d850?module=HP11_hot_topics#id:09000d5d8280d924

Dolphins' Karlos Dansbv wearing new uniform: http://www.nfl.com/photos/09000d5d8280d850?module=HP11_hot_topics#id:09000d5d8280d8db

Dolphins' new Nike merchandise is here: 

http://shop.dolphins.com/Miami-Dolphins-Nike-NFL-Gear-Merchandise-_-848882224_PG.html?sourceid=906x75nfllaunch04112

----

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2012

http://www.youtube.com/user/usnikefootball

http://www.seahawks.com/team/roster/Kam-Chancellor/d8609aa5-f05a-4353-87d9-794d9cf8abbf

http://www.miamidolphins.com/

It only SEEMS like forever! 38 very long & wistful years since Super Bowl success for Dolphins. What's next for beleaguered Dolfans?

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.

Sports Illustrated January 21, 1974

Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota

Larry Csonka

It's why you play the game.

For more on this longstanding wistfulness, see my Super Bowl blog post from last year, 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

Finally at the weekend when the NFL really means NOT FOR LONG; 1970's NFL intros for ABC, CBC and NBC broadcasts

1973 NBC Sports NFL broadcast theme

http://youtu.be/nv-datkQYUU

Yes, those were the days...

In those dark teen years of the early-to-mid Seventies, many years before consumer VCRs existed and became commonplace -and were soon taken for granted in no time by kids who grew-up thinking that you'd always been able to see something from television a second time, on your own schedule- I can recall that the Monday after the first NFL weekend of the year, my friends and I at J.F.K. Junior High in North Miami Beach spent time trying to properly identify the order of the identifiable NFL players during this quick-cutting video montage of NBC's.


And frankly, wonder whether or not ABC would be updating their intro -yet again- that night for Monday Night Football, which, in retrospect, they actually changed less than they did the 'third man' in the booth after popular Don Meredith left to pursue entertainment options in Hollywood. 



1984 ad for Safeway's Super Store -They've got a sale on VCRs, only $369; I guess the savings gets passed on to you! -LOL!
http://youtu.be/T6mD2bZc9w8

The VCR format fight: VHS vs. Beta TV commercial for NEC, 1984
http://youtu.be/FnaL50cwh-Q


The three American TV network's football themes gripped my friends and I from the start, and quickly became embedded in our young brains, which perhaps best explains why when you see them again on YouTube, you're struck by the fact that not just for my friends and I, but for millions of other sports fans alive then who watched them, they still remain preferable to anything on the air now, esp on ESPN or Fox-TV.
And they say as much in the YouTube comments, too.


When my friends and I at JFK got together at lunch, P.E. or after school, and it turned out that someone hadn't been paying close attention to the fact that the first establishing shot of the NBC intro was one from the the defending NFL champion Dolphins locker room... well, you suddenly weren't such an NFL expert after all.

Yes, we did not grade our friends' NFL prowess on a Bell Curve.
It was always sink-or-swim.


How many players in the three videos I've posted can you name?
(And how many of what would now be considered illegal hits?)


To name but a few: Danny Abramowicz -fades from his gold-colored Saints pants to the gold of the NBC text- Larry Little, Larry Csonka, Joe Namath, Essex Johnson, Ken Stabler, Cliff Branch, Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, Tommy Casanova, Walter Payton, Craig Morton, Willie Brown... 


And the player who is seen the longest in the NBC intro at the top is Dolphins All-Pro guard Bob Kuechenberg, who hits his own helmet at the end to show that he's strapped up and ready to play.

CBS Sports "NFL Today" intro from the 1970's
http://youtu.be/tUUMMlGPeMA

1971 ABC Monday Night Football intro for Baltimore Colts at Minnesota Vikings, with a Johnny Unitas pre-game interview  with Howard Cosell. 

http://youtu.be/Kr_fa-hR3zY

For those of you too young to know or remember, the Baltimore Colts were the defending NFL champs in 1971, having won Super Bowl V nine months before in Miami, beating the Dallas Cowboys 16-13 on the last play of the game. The very talented Minnesota Vikings had lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the previous Super Bowl, which is why Howard Cosell is so clearly animated about the match-up in what was then the second year of ABC's Monday Night Football.

This is one of the best quality videos of 1970's NFL football that I've seen in years, and includes TV commercials.

On 40th anniversary, NFL Network revisits "NFL's Longest Game" in a special tonight at 6 p.m. on Dolphins-Chiefs classic for the ages

SUDDEN DEATH AT KANSAS CITY

Above, capturing THE moment of one of the most amazing NFL games ever played, the moment the Miami Dolphins beat the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in double-overtime at Municipal Stadium, December 25, 1971, as "Miami's Garo Yepremian Ends the Longest Game"; the placekick holder is Karl Noonan. 
Sports Illustrated of January 3, 1972.
And only one of the most joyous days of my life!


Must-see TV! 
Today on the 40th Anniversary of NFL's "Longest Game" between the Dolphins and Chiefs, a divisional playoff game I remember like it was yesterday, the NFL Network will air a special commemorative program at 6 pm tonight, with old NBC-TV footage from the ballgame, and, apparently, sideline conversations, which I can only imagine will be augmented by NFL Films footage.


Teaser alert: watch out for Marv Fleming, #80, in the end zone on this next play. 
Just saying...


As of today, Sunday morning at 1 a.m., according to DirecTV's on-screen schedule, there is no scheduled encore of this program scheduled, so make sure you have your DVR/VCR's at the ready.
But if you know how many times they will run a special program over-and-over, they'll do it -eventually.


Two short sneak peeks of the one-hour program are here; sorry, no embedding possible because that's how the NFL rolls. 
You have to go to their sites so that way you have to see the advertising of their partners.
Sort of makes you wonder if they've never heard of blogs, since they can load the ads into the video if they want.  

(Code Red head's-up to Google and Blogger: Blogger is NOT one of the NFL Network's listed "SHARE" partners. Why?) 


http://www.nfl.com/videos/auto/09000d5d82558093/Remembering-The-Longest-Game-Ever 


http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d825454f4/The-Longest-Game-Ever-sneak-peek 


In that afternoon game on Christmas Day 40-years ago today -the Christmas where my family finally got into the 20th Century and bought more than just a half-way decent stereo system- the pressure from the game got to be so much for my father.
He had to walk out of our apt. in North Miami Beach and pace out in the hallway, refusing to watch with me and my mother and two sisters as Garo attempted his winning 37-yard field-goal.


Less than an hour after the game, my family and I and tens of thousands of other Dolfans from all over South Florida had driven out to Miami International Airport to greet the team on their Eastern Airlines charter.
We had lived in South Florida for three years by then and I heard South Florida yell that day like I'd never heard it before.

One of the most joyous times of my life!!!



Chiefs running back and return man Ed Podolak's performance that day was one of the greatest individual football performances that I ever saw in my life, ranking at the top with there with watching a very sick Bob Griese go from Mercy Hospital to throwing some long bombs to Paul Warfield, in-person at the Orange Bowl, in a 1971 MNF comeback win against Pittsburgh; watching O.J. Simpson make one amazing move after another against the Dolphins, in-person at the Orange Bowl in the mid-'70's; Bert Jones, Roger Carr and the Baltimore Colts throttle a good Dolphins team at the Orange Bowl, showing amazing athletic ability and speed at the ballgame in 1975 where the stadium was used as footage for the film, Black Sunday that had a story-line involving Middle East terrorism and the Goodyear blimp possibly crashing into a stadium during the Super Bowl; and finally, in 1981 up in Bloomington at Memorial Stadium, seeing Marcus Allen personally destroy IU with 274 yards rushing, the year he won -and earned!- the Heisman Trophy.


As one of the many Dolphin fans who purchased the record albums that WIOD put out after the 1971 season and the 1972 Perfect Season, I have listened to that call by Rick Weaver about a thousand times.
"Noonan to hold..."


They were stolen from my apt. while I was attending IU, along with my high school ring,  my beautiful blue satin NMB Soccer Florida State Champs jacket, my NMB letterman patch for gymnastics for being the manager of the Women's team that won the 1979 State championships at a meet I ran and coordinated at NMB, easily one of the lowest days in my life, to say nothing of the money that got stolen.
It was like I was having my identity stolen before it was the thing to do on the Internet...  


And who would steal THOSE two Dolphin albums?
That's what made me think it was personal -the items stolen versus what was left behind.


By the way, I still have all my Dolphin PRO game programs, starting from the first game I went to in December of 1970 against Buffalo, a 45-3 win that clinched a playoff spot, their first ever, to the last Dolphin game I saw before leaving for college at IU in August of 1979.
Plus, I also have the various pro football annuals like Street & Smith and Athlon, great for reading on car trips to North Carolina seven months after this ballgame, still smarting from the Super Bowl loss to the Cowboys and seeing Roger Staubach on the face of every guide cover.
I probably have about 100 of the programs and guides in total.


And to think, about 25-years ago, I almost sold them -my precious memories!
Thank goodness I didn't!

Oops, they did it AGAIN! 25-day old Miami Herald story still #5 Breaking News story on Herald's Broward homepage. Congrats to Jay Ducassi!

Miami Herald vending machine in front of Denny's restaurant, Hallandale Beach, FL.
July 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

October 9, 2011 screen grab at 8: 45 p.m. by South Beach Hoosier.

Examine the headline in the lower-left corner above on the Miami Herald's Broward homepage -the fifth of eight headline links: Blackout of Miami Dolphins game averted.

(I have the entire article at bottom.)

October 9, 2011 screen grab at 8: 45 p.m. by South Beach Hoosier.

Blackout of Miami Dolphins game averted

The problem?

It was news on September 15th, not so much 25 days later, and is certainly NOT Breaking News NOW.

Well, at least it wouldn't considered as such at most reputable newspapers in this country, much less, ones of the Herald's purported circulation size.

But once again, the Herald is replicating the very problem I highlighted a few months ago in three separate blog posts.

In May, they notably ran a month-old political story about Donald Trump and had that listed on their Breaking News page FOUR WEEKS later, even after he'd already announced he wouldn't be running for president.

Sometimes, the Herald listed that Trump story as among the top-three Breaking News stories in South Florida.

Really.

See my three blog posts to refresh your memory on that reality check on the Herald's continuing bad judgment in peddling old stories as new or recent ones:

a.) May 16, 2011 Answer: It's about Donald Trump. Question: Why is a month-old story still on Miami Herald's Broward homepage under 'Breaking News'? Blame Jay Ducassi

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/answer-its-about-donald-trump-question.html

b.) May 18, 2011 Donald Trump Redux is further proof of the Miami Herald's gross incompetency and fundamentally-flawed idea of (and coverage of) Broward County in 2011.

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/donald-trump-redux-is-further-proof-of.html

c.) July 21, 2011 Miami Herald grave robbers at it again! Herald's threadbare Broward homepage runs 15-day old story as Breaking News to fill-up space!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/miami-herald-grave-robbers-at-it-again.html

How does something that stupid happen?

And then happen again? And again?

Ask Jay Ducassi, the Herald's Local & State editor.

October 9, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Ducassi's the same person who bears the lion's share of responsibility for turning that section of the Herald into a never-ending series of embarrassment for Broward readers looking for news about the world they live in.

But down at Herald HQ at One Herald Plaza, Broward County is considered terra incognita, forever getting short-shrift, even though it represents 45% of the two-county population.

They don't care.

In most newspapers in this country, no matter small, Sunday's local section is usually full of stories and columns that are supposed to capture your attention and really make you think.

Pieces they've made a concerted effort to publish on Sunday to get the highest number of eyeballs reading them on the most-read newspaper day of the week.

It will come as no surprise to those of you living here that the Herald is NOT one of them, and hasn't been for years.

Guess who's responsible?

Today, with six pages of editorial in section B comprising the Local & State section, there is one story about Broward County issues, news or personalities actually written by Herald reporters or columnists in the newspaper.

One story.

And you know in advance that it isn't columnist Myriam Marquez, because if you had a dollar for all the things that she's written since joining the Herald years ago from the Orlando Sentinel that were of particular interest to Broward readers, you STILL couldn't buy the $5 foot long sub at Subways.

As I've stated previously, Marquez's column should be re-titled "South of the Border" and drop all the pretense that she's a general interest columnist the way we've all come to understand that concept, because what she's largely interested in 99% of the time, is solely what transpires between the Herald HQ on Biscayne Bay, west over to Westchester, Calle Ocho, Doral and Sweetwater, and then south towards Havana and Latin America,

The proof is in the pudding -her own columns.

Seriously, why in the year 2011 does McClatchy Company's Miami Herald STILL NOT have even one Broward-centric columnist?

Or even one smart, locally-based conservative columnist, even if that means hiring someone from out-of-state and and moving them here to be a voice for a perspective that's currently completely lacking?

Or an Education blog that runs real stories and tidbits, not just largely press releases from the School Board...

It's simple -they don't want to.

October 9, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

And this absence of Broward-related stories is far from an infrequent occurrence on Sundays.

Give the devil his due, though, Jay Ducassi is nothing if not consistent.

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http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/15/2409135/sunday-dolphins-blackout-averted.html

Posted on Thursday, 09.15.11

MIAMI DOLPHINS

Blackout of Miami Dolphins game averted

BY CRAIG DAVIS

SUN SENTINEL

It apparently took a cooperative effort between the Miami Dolphins and several sponsors to ensure that the 13-year streak of regular-season games on local television continues Sunday. The game against the Houston Texans will be broadcast throughout South Florida at 4:15 p.m. Sunday on CBS4 in Miami, the station confirmed.

The Dolphins have not made a formal announcement, but season-ticket holders reported receiving an automated phone call from Dolphins CEO Mike Dee stating that sponsors bought up the remaining tickets to avert a blackout. There reportedly were about 10,000 tickets remaining early Thursday.

The NFL's blackout policy, established in 1973, requires games be sold out 72 hours in advance or they are blacked out on stations with signals reaching within 75 miles of the game.

Sunday will mark the 103rd consecutive regular-season game on local television since an Oct. 18, 1998 game against the St. Louis Rams failed to sell out. However, two playoff games were blacked out since then: Jan. 13, 2002 against Baltimore and Dec. 30, 2000 against Indianapolis.

LA Dodgers questions great & small: wither McCourt, padding of attendance; Alyssa Milano's +1 is most heartening Dodger news; McCourt = Steven Ross

Above, thru thick and thin, actress & activist Alyssa Milano remains TRUE BLUE!

Los Angles Times

Dodgers Blog

Will we ever know had badly Dodgers' attendance is down?

By Steve Dilbeck

July 29, 2011 | 9:16 am

Oh, we know it’s down. Have evidence that it’s way down.

But the published numbers don’t tell the full story; not even close.

Buoyed by a pair of 50,000-plus bobblehead crowds (for Andre Ethier and Fernando Valenzuela), the Dodgers are averaging 36,623 per game.

That’s 8,102 fewer fans than last season, and actually better than the 9,319 it was down earlier this season. The Dodgers' total attendance is off 453,694 for the season...

Read the rest of the post at:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dodgers/2011/07/will-we-ever-know-had-badly-dodgers-attendance-is-down.html

The above is not the Ghost of Christmas Past, but rather The Ghost of the Dolphins' Future.

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FYI: Fox owned the LA Dodgers from 1998 to 2004, and also owns the the sole national broadcast rights as well as the broadcast rights to 14 MLB teams on its regional sports channels -including the Florida Marlins- most of which I watch on DirecTV.

New York Times

TV’s Supporting Role in Dodgers’ Drama

By Richard Sandomir

July 3, 2011

The fight for control of the Los Angeles Dodgers that reached United States Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on Tuesday pits Frank McCourt, an owner desperate to keep his team, against Commissioner Bud Selig, who believes that McCourt has turned the iconic team into a financial wreck.

But away from the legal battle is the story of a long relationship between the Dodgers and Fox Sports, which underscores the rising value of sports television rights and what a media giant will do to keep them.

In the case of the Dodgers and Fox, it is a tale of mutual self-interest in which each side has taken turns at being the alpha male: the team knows it is valuable but needs money; Fox needs the team and has the cash.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/sports/baseball/dodgers-plight-highlights-influence-of-tv-in-sports.html

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Los Angeles Times

Frank McCourt has worn out his welcome

With Frank McCourt, the solution to his Dodgers dilemma is always somewhere over the rainbow. But fans aren't buying the loaves-and-fishes spiel. If he knew enough to exit quickly, he might earn some gratitude, but never forgiveness.

By Bill Dwyre, Times columnist

August 5, 2011, 2:14 p.m.

The most stunning aspect of the current Dodgers situation is not the greed of Frank McCourt, but the blind stubbornness.

Now, he is planning to sue his lawyers and projecting that, just maybe, the proceeds of that might be enough to pay off debts and get out of trouble. That's similar to his stance that, if he is just allowed to make his $1.7-billion-to-$3-billion deal with Fox, he'll be free and clear.

With McCourt, the solution is always somewhere just over the rainbow. He turned a Boston parking lot into ownership of the Dodgers and now wants us to believe he can keep them by multiplying loaves and fishes. He is a huckster's huckster, a poster boy for the buy-now-and-pay-later.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dwyre-frank-mccourt-20110806,0,5892585.column

Long before financially self-serving LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's antics finally kept devoted Dodger fans away from Dodger Stadium this year in droves, after he fired Davey Johnson as Orioles manager in the off-season after he was named AL Manager of the Year for 1997, after getting the Orioles to the '97 AL Championship Series against the Cleveland Indians, Oriole fans were loathing Peter Angelos and Co. and refusing to come to Camden Yards -my home away from home for most of the 1990's- and fork over one cent to him, preferring instead to watch all the games on cable channel HTS (Home Team Sports, now MASN) at home or sports bars.

Under current Dolphins owner Steven Ross, the Dolphins have morphed into the worst on-field aspects of the Detroit Lions and the worst off-field aspects of Frank McCourt's tenure as Dodgers owner.

Ross is an acute embarrassment to the teams most loyal fans -like me- and seems NOT to have learned a whit since becoming owner, continuing the Dolphins era of complete insignificance.

Dolphins use outside agency to chase season ticket holders

Posted by Mike Florio on August 6, 2011, 5:46 PM EDT

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/08/06/dolphins-use-collection-agency-to-chase-season-ticket-holders/

Touch by Alyssa Milano Miami Dolphins Women's Sleeveless Top

Orange you glad that I decided to add this one?

Although it hurts her to see her Dodgers so often used as a punchline this season, on her always amusing posterous website, one of my favorites, actress Alyssa Milano, is having the best year of all among celebrity Dodger faithful.

Check out the photo at the link, one I sent out to sports media friends within just minutes of her posting it.

#Dodgers I Love L.A. (picture)-->, from late July 2011

http://alyssamilano.posterous.com/dodgers-i-love-la-picture

Like bambino-to-be, like mother...

Above, Los Angeles Dodgers Royal Women's Primary Logo Tri Blend Long Sleeve Layered T-Shirt- by Alyssa Milano

I've written about or referenced Alyssa on the blog several times, the most popular post on her being this one form Sept. 18, 2010 titled, Proof positive that no photo of Alyssa Milano is without its magnetic CHARM. Not that we EVER doubted it!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/proof-positive-that-no-photo-of-alyssa.html

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http://alyssamilano.posterous.com/

2012 Spring Touch collection: http://alyssa.com/?p=2569

http://www.fansedge.com/

http://www.fandalia.com/

http://alyssa.com/

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-columnist-bdwyre,0,7769040.columnist