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

A reminder as the NFL Draft approaches... 36 years and counting for a 3rd Super Bowl Trophy. Answer: C.J. Spiller

36 years and counting for a 3rd Super Bowl Trophy...

"It's why you play the game!"
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


Green Bay Coach Vince Lombardi; December 21, 1962
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/
It's located near the French and German Embassies on Reservoir Road.

Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota

Larry Csonka, January 21, 1974

Miami All The Way

Bob Griese, January 22, 1973

1972 Miami Dolphins team photo at The Orange Bowl

The same color photo of the 17-0 Undefeated Team that for six 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
Briscoe Quad 427-A for two very eventful years at IU, the latter.
1980-'81 being the year we beat North Carolina for the NCAA title.
I placed the photo right below my 8' x 11' b&w glossy of the Miami
Herald's All-County Gymnastics team that I got from the Herald
Sports Dept. That was a tremendously talented team that featured
many friends of mine from all over Dade County -like the late Dee
Leutner of Hialeah Miami Lakes, my charming, sweet friend and
future Georgia GymDog, who sat next to me when we took the SATs
in the NMB cafeteria, and smiled at me and said "Good luck" right
before we opened the test- as well as my own talented friends and
classmates at North Miami Beach High, like Lisa Martin, Karen
Ginsberg and Linda Zobler -the best of the best.

Last year, it was a Hoosier who led the way to the Lombardi Trophy...

Above, former IU Hoosier and Saints 2008 Number Two
Draft Pick Tracy Porter makes the play of the game and
intercepts Peyton Manning and scores a TD against the
Colts during Super Bowl XLIV in Miami, leading the Saints
to their first Super Bowl 31-17, Feb. 7, 2010.

With the 11th pick in this year's Draft, if he's still available,
as Charley Casserly expects him to be as of late Wedesday
night, the Dolphins should take dynamic Clemson RB
C.J. Spiller, the single-most exciting player I've seen
in years and who consistently made big plays when
big plays needed to be made.

Almost single-handedly last year, Spiller defeated the
Hurricanes in a way that showed how woebegone the
Miami defense and special teams had become, as he
seemingly toyed with them time and again.





If he has already been selected, they should select a player
who most approaches Bears Hall of Famer Mike Singletary,
a player who had zeal, smarts and intuition, and who plays
all-out on every play and won't tolerate slacking in his
teammates.
That would likely be Texas LB Sergio Kindle.

The lack of mental and physical toughness in the Dolphins
defense the past ten years has been one of the most galling
aspects of their decline into mediocrity for longtime Dolphin
fans like me, who have lived long enough to know what a
solid defense actually looks like.
It's NOT what we have now.

Their inability to consistently pass rush, tackle and field
opportunistic ball-hawks just leaves you dumbfounded at times.
It's nice to beat the Patriots once a year, but one good game
does not a season make.

With their second round pick, if he's available -and Spiller
has gone elsewhere- the Dolphins ought to select Stanford
RB and Heisman Trophy runner-up Toby Gerhart before
the Patriots snap him up.

At New England, Gerhart would become the latest
Dolphin-killer as he becomes the player who always
leads the Patriots to late-game victories, year-after-year,
with his versatility: powerful goal-line plunges, scampers
down the sidelines on draw plays, or swing passes where
he -shocker!- beats Dolphins' LBs, and you're screaming
at your TV even before he scores a TD to kill the Dolphins
once again.
Made worse because we could've taken him.

I suppose it's worth reminding you here given recent news
that I've never been a Jason Taylor fan, and wanted him
gone years ago when he could still demand something in a
trade.

I remind you how lacking he was in leadership at the very
end of Cam Cameron's painful one and only year as head
coach, when some leadership was needed and yet from
most accounts, Taylor sat by and did nothing when defensive
teammates cursed-out coaches on plane flights, including
Cameron, and played out-of-control during games,
as if they didn't know their assignments.
Or simply didn't care anymore.

His coddled status irked me to no end and probably did him
no favors with Bill Parcells, either.

But what really irked me about him was the clueless rhetoric
down here on sports talk radio about him and Canton, as
real NFL fans around the country who know their history
know that Taylor was simply not as good or dominant as
former Bears great Richard Dent, a Super Bowl MVP,
who twenty years later, unbelievably, is still NOT in the
Pro Football Hall of Fame, even though he should've gotten
in MANY years ago.

If a dominant player of his era like Dent, who dominated
good-to-great offensive teams like the 49ers, Redskins and
Giants is STILL not in all these years later, Jason Taylor
ought to make himself comfortable, as he's in for a very,
very long wait -IF he ever gets in, which I think is unlikely.

South Beach Hoosier Trivia:
My first Dolphin game at the Orange Bowl came in December
of 1970, aged 9, a 45-3 win over Buffalo that propelled them
into their first ever playoff appearance.