DKphin
Club Member
[video=youtube_share;kBxVaifI1NY]https://youtu.be/kBxVaifI1NY[/video]
Blast from the Past: Video of the Dolphins selecting Marino
- Thread starter DKphin
- Start date
jlfin
old pro
Tommy vigorito was Wes Welker and Julian Edelman before Welker and Edelman existed.
Marino and I are the same age and I was in college watching that draft. I remember that watching segment with Zimmerman acting apoplectic over the Marino pick. I got a chuckle out of that and going down memory lane.
Marino and I are the same age and I was in college watching that draft. I remember that watching segment with Zimmerman acting apoplectic over the Marino pick. I got a chuckle out of that and going down memory lane.
The first round was so long in those days. It took 4 or 5 hours. Plus the starting time was very early on a weekday. That's why the commentators don't have as much energy as today and everybody seems a bit lethargic. I remember almost being asleep by the time the Dolphins made that pick. I wanted Tony Hunter, the tight end from Notre Dame, and after he went much earlier I lost some interest. More than 30 years later I suppose I could pretend I nailed every pick. I've seen that from others. No, I wanted Tony Hunter. The Bills picked him two spots before they selected Jim Kelly, so I wasn't alone in the poor call.
We didn't have cable. So I watched the draft at the home of a couple I knew. They both left for work before I arrived. I bought them some bottlles of wine as a thank you. It felt so awkward being in that strange house during the draft. Everything was so immaculate. I felt like I shouldn't touch anything.
There is a missing clip from this coverage. Paul Zimmerman didn't like Marino partially because he always listened to guys he respected, and one of them was Bobby Beathard, who didn't like Marino's release. Somewhere in the coverage Zimmerman quoted Beathard saying that Marino, "pushes the ball." That meant instead of throwing it normally. I realize it sounds ridiculous now but that's the way the unique release was viewed.
Of course, when you throw 23 interceptions as a senior after a similar number as a junior, the knocks don't sound as silly as three decades later given how his career unfolded, especially early career.
The drug rumors were indeed out there. I've mentioned many times that two of my good friends growing up in southwest Miami were sons of Dolphin assistant coaches. One of those sons told a gathering of old neighborhood buddies, including myself, a week or two before the draft that the scouting services were concerned about drug usage by Marino. I remember being very surprised, and my other friends expressed the same thing. Once we heard that we knew Marino would not be drafted nearly as high as conventional wisdom allowed. I guarantee the ESPN commentators heard those reports also. In those days it wasn't considered proper to interject rumors that weren't in the mainstream media.
We didn't have cable. So I watched the draft at the home of a couple I knew. They both left for work before I arrived. I bought them some bottlles of wine as a thank you. It felt so awkward being in that strange house during the draft. Everything was so immaculate. I felt like I shouldn't touch anything.
There is a missing clip from this coverage. Paul Zimmerman didn't like Marino partially because he always listened to guys he respected, and one of them was Bobby Beathard, who didn't like Marino's release. Somewhere in the coverage Zimmerman quoted Beathard saying that Marino, "pushes the ball." That meant instead of throwing it normally. I realize it sounds ridiculous now but that's the way the unique release was viewed.
Of course, when you throw 23 interceptions as a senior after a similar number as a junior, the knocks don't sound as silly as three decades later given how his career unfolded, especially early career.
The drug rumors were indeed out there. I've mentioned many times that two of my good friends growing up in southwest Miami were sons of Dolphin assistant coaches. One of those sons told a gathering of old neighborhood buddies, including myself, a week or two before the draft that the scouting services were concerned about drug usage by Marino. I remember being very surprised, and my other friends expressed the same thing. Once we heard that we knew Marino would not be drafted nearly as high as conventional wisdom allowed. I guarantee the ESPN commentators heard those reports also. In those days it wasn't considered proper to interject rumors that weren't in the mainstream media.