Seriously, the Fangio back and forth had me wondering if the Phins were cursed!
It sounds crazy to wonder if the Miami Dolphins are cursed because this was a franchise that won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 70’s and is the only team in NFL history to complete a perfect season with a Super Bowl win. It’s been 50 years since the Dolphins last won the Super Bowl and 39 years since they last played in a Super Bowl in 1984. Dan Marino was fresh-faced back the… and so was I. The last time the Dolphins even won a playoff game was 23 years ago in 2000, which is a long, long time.
So, if this string of poor success isn’t a jink or a curse it’s heck of a losing streak!
I’m not writing any checks on the 2023 Season, but…
You know the story…
… The Dolphins had Dan Marino, one of the best QB’s of the 80’s and 90’s, and Legend Head Coach Don Shula and Miami only made the Super Bowl once in his second, epic record-breaking season. Even though we lost that Super Bowl to Joe Montana and the 49ers the future looked bright with a young phenom QB. There was supposed to be more Super Bowl appearances in our future, but we never made it back again.
Then after Marino retired, things got really bad. Since Marino retired, we’ve been through a carousel of different QB’s and Coaches with little success and lots of unbelievable bad luck along the way. In no particular order:
- The Dolphins traded a bounty for Ricky Williams, who finally gave Miami a running game for two seasons after we desperately needed one during Marino’s tenure. But as luck would have it Ricky decided he wanted to travel the world and smoke weed instead of playing football.
- The Dolphins had Nick Saban come in as head coach, one of the best college coaches of all time, but he had an ugly exit after two seasons early exit and his doctors messed up the Phins’ second chance to sign Drew Brees. Saban went with injured QB Daunte Culpepper instead, who played a couple of games before his career ended.
- We hired Bill Parcells as GM after a 1-15 season, but a disconnect between new owner Steven Ross led to him leaving after three seasons.
- Ross then had a botched attempt to land coach John Harbaugh while Tony Sparano was still the head coach, which lost them a lot of respect around the league.
- Then Miami hired ‘queasy’ Joe Philbin over Mike Tomlin and had the infamous bully scandal.
- Jeff Ireland asked Dez Bryant if his mom was a prostitute and traded up for Dion Jordan.
- Miami couldn’t find a GM willing to work with the franchise and hired Dennis Hickey because he was the only one willing to work here.
- Hired Mike Tannenbaum and crazy Adam Gase.
- Chased Deshaun Watson in an optics nightmare.
- Recently Miami had their former head Coach Brian Flores accuse them of racial discrimination, throwing games, and violate NFL rules by trying to meet with Tom Brady. As a result, the Dolphins lost their first-round pick in 2023 and their owner was suspended because of unprecedented tampering.
And there’s more:
They also had the chance to draft Justin Herbert and were even rumored to be leaning towards selecting him over Tua. Instead, they drafted Tua, who has been scrutinized more than any other player in the NFL over the last 3 years. Even though he finally turned the corner and played like a franchise QB this season, he suffered multiple devastating concussions and caused the Dolphins to be investigated for not properly adhering to concussion protocols. The Dolphins ended up falling apart at the end of the season from an 8-3 record only to pull off a victory in the last game to get a playoff spot. So, they finally make the playoffs but have to play that game with a third string QB, because oh, their second string QB was also injured!
Is long trend of ‘bad luck’ might be heading in another direction?
BUT the streak of ‘bad luck’ could end with the addition of Vic Fangio to become the next defensive coordinator and Zach Thomas finally making the Hall of Fame. Nothing is guaranteed, but it sure does appear to be bucking a long trend. Now, the best PPH bookie services are betting Zach would have gone to the Hall of Fame even if the ugly trend continued. BUT, but, but it’s sure does feel like the feel-good vibe amplifies the addition of Fangio. No?
Every trend breaks. Look no farther that the Boston Redsox. The Dolphins have had a gross overabundance of bad luck and poor decisions over a long time for ten franchises, much less one. Could this be the end of the suffering? Is the jink dead? Time will tell, but a playoff victory is a clear first step with a Super Bowl appearance and even better a Super Bowl win for a full exorcism! Hopefully, it doesn’t take another 50 years to happen!