Just joking. It's really not quite that bad. I'm using the title more for amusement rather than anything else. In fact, I look forward to more amusement and laughs on this site in the next coming year because the content on this site was noticeably deteriorating and getting away from football. It's my first year posting but I have been reading the site on and off for three years. During the season, this place is awesome. Fans are pumped, you get good analysis from guys who were at the game and it's great to read fellow Miami Dolphins fans discuss the game.
The draft is usually just as exciting. The last 2 years have had some top notch analysis and contributed to a good discussion on the draft. And then the Spectre came....
Actually the Spectre seems to have come right around the time a Mr. Nick Saban was leaving. The board was getting cranky around that time. I was checking Finnheaven often to see the latest on Saban. I couldn't believe he was going. The Herald, Sun-sentinel and all the local press didn't see it coming. They were the last ones to figure it out. Sure, they may have been mentioning things here and there but they never actually broke the story until many other sources had figured things out. Salguero and Marvez missed it. J Cole wouldn't have missed it. He may not have broken the story but he would have followed it more closely and addressed it more carefully. It wasn't the best moment of sports reporting in S Florida's history.
The Saban incident lit the board up, figuratively and literally. The sheer volume of threads on the subject matter was crazy, and the tone was getting ugly. People eventually moved off the subject and focussed on the off-season with FA and the draft fast approaching but the foulness lingered.
Difference of opinion used to be a strength of this site. I loved reading the discussions of past draft years. There was good healthy debate on the merits of Benson, Brown and Cadillac. I expected people to have their favorites and was happy to read such diversity of opinion expressed, even if it meant tolerating the occasional 'out there' ideas. The year after wasn't quite as good as the former but it still had some good insight. I was really looking forward to this year as I thought there was some really interesting choices for Miami but was soon disappointed with what I was getting from Finnheaven. I decided to take the leap and jump into the fray. I am now questioning that decision.
No team wants a quarterback controversy. It often leads to no good. But having now seen the perils of fans having a 'Who do we select quarterback' controversy, I can say with certainty it can be just as ugly, and ultimately just as destructive.
I took the leap because I couldn't believe what I was reading on these message boards and by normally reliable sources. Brady Quinn was being hailed as the next great quarterback. He was being compared to Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. At first, I thought "Poor kid. He doesn't deserve this. But that soon disapeared when he began primping for the camera and sounding like his biggest fan. And the vast majority of the media and fans on this site swallowed it whole. Compared to the message boards from other fan websites for other teams, this site stood out as being overly pro Brady Quinn. The Raiders were pretty down on him, as were the Browns. Most other teams were pretty hard on him as well. In fact, the Raiders site got pretty scary. When someone defended Quinn, they would get grilled. Until I visited an Oakland Raiders message board, I never knew such insults existed. It made sense though. Brady Quinn is anathema to everything about Oakland. Their fans don't like a quarterbabck with a million dollar smile. They prefer them toothless. Some of the stuff they were saying about Quinn was over the top but I did agree that he wasn't even on the same page as Jamarcus Russell, and should not have been considered as their choice.
The Brady Bunch started out with a few posters here and there saying they thought he was a solid pick but a tidal wave of support was starting to mount. I started noticing some very odd things on the site. Brady Quinn wasn't just being discussed as a good quarterback, he was being discussed as a saviour. The perfect fit for Cameron's offense. A verifiable uberman that could do no wrong. He had the poise of Tom Brady and the work ethic of Peyton Manning. He was going to take us to the promised land.
How could this be? I've watched enough football over the years and followed the media and forums to know that there will always be disagreements but I can't remember being so way off what the majority were saying. The media hype was pretty bad but it was expected. After all, we're talking about a Notre Dame quarterback. They always get hyped. But the more I watched Quinn, the more I was convinced that this guy was nothing special, and yet the mythology on this site started to grow.
People started making claims about the guy that were getting over the top. When the few fans who disagreed expressed their opinion, they were summarily dismissed. They were either ridiculed or asked to defend their positions with facts, as if they had a monopoly on the definitive truth. For the most part, those who thought Quinn was not going to be good, tried to clarify the subject but were only greeted by more hostile responses and strange claims. The opinion was overwhelming but it seemed to be headed by a troika of posters, who I later learned were known as the draft gurus of this site. Their support for Quinn was strong but I found it uncritical. There were threads talking about his stats that were strange and questionable. One poster, a guy who said he had a lot of experience with stats, pointed out fairly innocently that the stats were used incorrectly. People buried that poor guy. Others came up with discussions about Quinn's inabilty to win what are percieved as big games, and they got slammed. One poster wrote a piece using Occam as his motif. I was very excited as I am a big fan of Occam. It started out ok but I soon realised a major flaw in the argument. Occam's razor was never intended to be used as a predicting tool or based on events that had yet to occur. Occam was an empricist, maybe the staunchest. The princicple of Occam's razor is that we should use the simplest method of explaining a result and base this on known quantities. The poster was explaing a future event. He was talking about things that had yet to occur. Occam's razor is a principle, not a theory. To confuse them is to make a significant mistake. It goes against everything Occam's razor states. However, the majority of responders thought it was a great read. They accepted all of the logic in the argument even though it was fundamentally flawed.
The back and forth went on and on, usually ending up with posts and sometimes entire threads disapearing. It seemed the fury that was ignited by the Nick Saban incident was exorcising itself in full form, and manifesting itself in an all out civil war among Dolphin fans. I myself am guilty of getting caught up in things draft day and crossed the line by making a personal attack against one guy and received a warning for it. I unfortunately had to miss the draft live because of work but I recorded it. When I found out we didn’t take Quinn I was elated. I had been reading so much hype in the media and on this site I was starting to think it was a possibility. I was so happy that Randy and Cam obviously had the same doubts about Brady Quinn that I did. It was also interesting that a good portion of the league obviously felt the same way. If Brady Quinn was a legitimate franchise QB he never would have slipped so far. I just couldn’t help myself with the ‘I told you so’ comments. The responses to my posts were more evidence of denial and things got ugly. The thread got pretty nasty and the mods did the right thing by taking out some posts.
The denial wasn’t restricted to a few fans though. At the end of the night I was checking what the media reaction was and I couldn’t believe how hard we were getting slammed. I found it pathetic. The media, who had initially created the story, who created Brady Quinn as the hero of their story, now couldn’t accept that they got things wrong. Cote called it a "Personal foul against fans", Lebartrad said "fans of this team turned what was supposed to be a celebration Saturday into a funeral."
But what was even weirder was the reaction by fans at the practice facility. It was unbelievable. I think fans have the right to be critical and boo but there should be good reason. Cam and Randy didn’t believe Quinn was worth the ninth. It was shown that their opinion of Quinn was actually pretty much in line with other GM’s, specifically that Brady Quinn was not that good. As Cameron would say later, "You can take a guy who's accurate and make him more accurate". I think that this statement was pretty telling. We can conclude that Brady Quinn’s accuracy was a concern for Randy and Cam. They had Beck rated higher and he didn’t get picked until 40. Brady Quinn may turn out to be a franchise player one day but most of the NFL GM’S felt that the odds were against him. Randy and Mueller thought it was too big of a risk to take him at nine. If Cameron and Randy, two of the best quarterback evaluators in the game have decided that Quinn wasn’t worth the pick at nine, I think we should be paying attention. We at least should be giving them the benefit of the doubt, not booing them.
The state of Dolfan Nation has become the subject of much discussion on the internet. We are being talked about for all the wrong reasons. We should be talking about how Randy and Cam make a prudent decision that was confirmed by most NFL GM’s. Only the Browns showed any real interest in Quinn and even they waited until 22. We should be talking about who we drafted, not some guy that the media and fans built up.
I realise that Quinn will forever be talked about in the context of the Dolphins but only time will tell what that conversation will look like. For now, I will be hoping the Spectre moves on and we can focuss on cheering for Miami kicking the Bills, Jets, Pats and the rest of the league's butts and I hope that the media and Dolfans will look at future drafts a little more critically, and with more civility. I know I will.
The draft is usually just as exciting. The last 2 years have had some top notch analysis and contributed to a good discussion on the draft. And then the Spectre came....
Actually the Spectre seems to have come right around the time a Mr. Nick Saban was leaving. The board was getting cranky around that time. I was checking Finnheaven often to see the latest on Saban. I couldn't believe he was going. The Herald, Sun-sentinel and all the local press didn't see it coming. They were the last ones to figure it out. Sure, they may have been mentioning things here and there but they never actually broke the story until many other sources had figured things out. Salguero and Marvez missed it. J Cole wouldn't have missed it. He may not have broken the story but he would have followed it more closely and addressed it more carefully. It wasn't the best moment of sports reporting in S Florida's history.
The Saban incident lit the board up, figuratively and literally. The sheer volume of threads on the subject matter was crazy, and the tone was getting ugly. People eventually moved off the subject and focussed on the off-season with FA and the draft fast approaching but the foulness lingered.
Difference of opinion used to be a strength of this site. I loved reading the discussions of past draft years. There was good healthy debate on the merits of Benson, Brown and Cadillac. I expected people to have their favorites and was happy to read such diversity of opinion expressed, even if it meant tolerating the occasional 'out there' ideas. The year after wasn't quite as good as the former but it still had some good insight. I was really looking forward to this year as I thought there was some really interesting choices for Miami but was soon disappointed with what I was getting from Finnheaven. I decided to take the leap and jump into the fray. I am now questioning that decision.
No team wants a quarterback controversy. It often leads to no good. But having now seen the perils of fans having a 'Who do we select quarterback' controversy, I can say with certainty it can be just as ugly, and ultimately just as destructive.
I took the leap because I couldn't believe what I was reading on these message boards and by normally reliable sources. Brady Quinn was being hailed as the next great quarterback. He was being compared to Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. At first, I thought "Poor kid. He doesn't deserve this. But that soon disapeared when he began primping for the camera and sounding like his biggest fan. And the vast majority of the media and fans on this site swallowed it whole. Compared to the message boards from other fan websites for other teams, this site stood out as being overly pro Brady Quinn. The Raiders were pretty down on him, as were the Browns. Most other teams were pretty hard on him as well. In fact, the Raiders site got pretty scary. When someone defended Quinn, they would get grilled. Until I visited an Oakland Raiders message board, I never knew such insults existed. It made sense though. Brady Quinn is anathema to everything about Oakland. Their fans don't like a quarterbabck with a million dollar smile. They prefer them toothless. Some of the stuff they were saying about Quinn was over the top but I did agree that he wasn't even on the same page as Jamarcus Russell, and should not have been considered as their choice.
The Brady Bunch started out with a few posters here and there saying they thought he was a solid pick but a tidal wave of support was starting to mount. I started noticing some very odd things on the site. Brady Quinn wasn't just being discussed as a good quarterback, he was being discussed as a saviour. The perfect fit for Cameron's offense. A verifiable uberman that could do no wrong. He had the poise of Tom Brady and the work ethic of Peyton Manning. He was going to take us to the promised land.
How could this be? I've watched enough football over the years and followed the media and forums to know that there will always be disagreements but I can't remember being so way off what the majority were saying. The media hype was pretty bad but it was expected. After all, we're talking about a Notre Dame quarterback. They always get hyped. But the more I watched Quinn, the more I was convinced that this guy was nothing special, and yet the mythology on this site started to grow.
People started making claims about the guy that were getting over the top. When the few fans who disagreed expressed their opinion, they were summarily dismissed. They were either ridiculed or asked to defend their positions with facts, as if they had a monopoly on the definitive truth. For the most part, those who thought Quinn was not going to be good, tried to clarify the subject but were only greeted by more hostile responses and strange claims. The opinion was overwhelming but it seemed to be headed by a troika of posters, who I later learned were known as the draft gurus of this site. Their support for Quinn was strong but I found it uncritical. There were threads talking about his stats that were strange and questionable. One poster, a guy who said he had a lot of experience with stats, pointed out fairly innocently that the stats were used incorrectly. People buried that poor guy. Others came up with discussions about Quinn's inabilty to win what are percieved as big games, and they got slammed. One poster wrote a piece using Occam as his motif. I was very excited as I am a big fan of Occam. It started out ok but I soon realised a major flaw in the argument. Occam's razor was never intended to be used as a predicting tool or based on events that had yet to occur. Occam was an empricist, maybe the staunchest. The princicple of Occam's razor is that we should use the simplest method of explaining a result and base this on known quantities. The poster was explaing a future event. He was talking about things that had yet to occur. Occam's razor is a principle, not a theory. To confuse them is to make a significant mistake. It goes against everything Occam's razor states. However, the majority of responders thought it was a great read. They accepted all of the logic in the argument even though it was fundamentally flawed.
The back and forth went on and on, usually ending up with posts and sometimes entire threads disapearing. It seemed the fury that was ignited by the Nick Saban incident was exorcising itself in full form, and manifesting itself in an all out civil war among Dolphin fans. I myself am guilty of getting caught up in things draft day and crossed the line by making a personal attack against one guy and received a warning for it. I unfortunately had to miss the draft live because of work but I recorded it. When I found out we didn’t take Quinn I was elated. I had been reading so much hype in the media and on this site I was starting to think it was a possibility. I was so happy that Randy and Cam obviously had the same doubts about Brady Quinn that I did. It was also interesting that a good portion of the league obviously felt the same way. If Brady Quinn was a legitimate franchise QB he never would have slipped so far. I just couldn’t help myself with the ‘I told you so’ comments. The responses to my posts were more evidence of denial and things got ugly. The thread got pretty nasty and the mods did the right thing by taking out some posts.
The denial wasn’t restricted to a few fans though. At the end of the night I was checking what the media reaction was and I couldn’t believe how hard we were getting slammed. I found it pathetic. The media, who had initially created the story, who created Brady Quinn as the hero of their story, now couldn’t accept that they got things wrong. Cote called it a "Personal foul against fans", Lebartrad said "fans of this team turned what was supposed to be a celebration Saturday into a funeral."
But what was even weirder was the reaction by fans at the practice facility. It was unbelievable. I think fans have the right to be critical and boo but there should be good reason. Cam and Randy didn’t believe Quinn was worth the ninth. It was shown that their opinion of Quinn was actually pretty much in line with other GM’s, specifically that Brady Quinn was not that good. As Cameron would say later, "You can take a guy who's accurate and make him more accurate". I think that this statement was pretty telling. We can conclude that Brady Quinn’s accuracy was a concern for Randy and Cam. They had Beck rated higher and he didn’t get picked until 40. Brady Quinn may turn out to be a franchise player one day but most of the NFL GM’S felt that the odds were against him. Randy and Mueller thought it was too big of a risk to take him at nine. If Cameron and Randy, two of the best quarterback evaluators in the game have decided that Quinn wasn’t worth the pick at nine, I think we should be paying attention. We at least should be giving them the benefit of the doubt, not booing them.
The state of Dolfan Nation has become the subject of much discussion on the internet. We are being talked about for all the wrong reasons. We should be talking about how Randy and Cam make a prudent decision that was confirmed by most NFL GM’s. Only the Browns showed any real interest in Quinn and even they waited until 22. We should be talking about who we drafted, not some guy that the media and fans built up.
I realise that Quinn will forever be talked about in the context of the Dolphins but only time will tell what that conversation will look like. For now, I will be hoping the Spectre moves on and we can focuss on cheering for Miami kicking the Bills, Jets, Pats and the rest of the league's butts and I hope that the media and Dolfans will look at future drafts a little more critically, and with more civility. I know I will.
