Usually in professional sports a franchise's management won't deliberately come out before the season even begins and make it clear that they plan to "tank" their team by (1) finishing poorly in order to garner top draft picks and (2) trading away any current players of any value for future draft picks. When done this way, like with the baseball Miami Marlins in 2018 or the football Dolphins this year, the effect is like team management giving the finger to its fans while expecting them to continue shelling out the big bucks for tickets, TV subscriptions and merchandise. At first it looked as if the Dolphins were going to deliberately let themselves be humiliated in their quest to be absolutely the worst NFL team ever to hit the field. But over the past few weeks, although they continued to lose, Miami under their first year head coach Brian Flores showed a lot of spunk in games against Washington, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, nearly winning the first and leading late in the other two. In spite of their management's tactics the coaches and players WANT to win. And last Sunday at home they beat the New York Jets, a team that had hired for its head coach Adam Gase, whom the Dolphins had fired last year and despite its initial high hopes for the 2019 season now find themselves sharing a 1-7 record with Miami...and in last place in the division for having lost to them. But if I were Dolphins management I wouldn't start panicking yet...there are at least three top quarterback prospects that will be entering the upcoming draft, enough to spread among the very worst teams in the league. What they don't seem to get, though, is that along with raw talent it is very crucial that a franchise establish a tradition and reputation for a disciplined, tough, and winning approach to the game...that's worth a couple of places in the draft hierarchy, in my opinion. So, using a term from the sport of golf whereby a player gets a free swing after "muffing" one, I'm giving the Miami Dolphins a Mulligan...may they use it well as I continue to root for them. Meanwhile, it looks like we'll be seeing other teams like the Jets and the Cincinnati Bengals joining Miami's management...but not its players and coaches...in the tanking strategy now that their seasons have been torn to tatters. By the way, the Cleveland Browns, a recent repeat tank act, were supposedly going to set their division on fire this year with their top pick at quarterback and other acquisitions...they're now at 2-6 with only one more win than Miami: how's that strategy worked for them?
One other thing: the Baltimore Ravens, which humiliated Miami 59-10 in the season's opening game, knocked the New England Patriots...43-0 winners over the Dolphins in the second week...out of the undefeated ranks by beating them 37-20 Sunday evening. That leaves the San Francisco 49ers as the last remaining undefeated team in the NFL this year. May the Seattle Seahawks perform the needed task of defeating them next week so that the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the only team that went through an entire season and playoffs with a perfect record, once again will be able to celebrate their unique status in pro football history and break out that champagne...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment