If it’s true you can’t correct a problem until you recognize one exists, this past week represented an awakening for the Dolphins and their fans.
The malaise lingering over this team has never been a secret, but only now, amid this intoxicating six-game winning streak, are we getting a full view not only of how right things are today, but how wrong they were in the past. So before getting into the many feel-good aspects of this Dolphins season, it’s necessary to examine exactly what Adam Gase signed up for.
“Nonsense,” he said, describing the culture that had been allowed to fester in the locker room, manifesting itself in players being late to meetings, loafing in practice and getting fined for violating team rules. It was so obvious to the rookie coach, he made it Priority 1 when he took the job.
Knowing Gase yanked the lid off the problems, players seconded him. Think back to the many times the Dolphins bemoaned not playing a “complete game.” Right tackle Ja’Wuan James said on those days, finger-pointing was occurring on the sideline between offense and defense.
“You could tell it’s like, ‘Ah, man, damn. They’re not doing nothing today’ kind of thing,” James said.
It’s an attitude that promotes losing, and losing is what Cameron Wake has experienced in bucketloads since joining the Dolphins in 2009. Wake has never been to the playoffs, never even enjoyed a winning season. For a Pro Bowl player so meticulous that his strict diet is legendary on the team, seeing teammates with a lax attitude was tough to digest.
“Sure, 100 percent,” Wake said. “For me, if you want to ruin your life or you want to do something that doesn’t affect anybody else, knock yourself out. But this game is different. This is not tennis or boxing where whatever you do is only on your dime or on your own. If you mess up or you don’t follow through, it affects me, it affects him (pointing around the locker room), it affects him, it affects everybody.
“So the disappointment not only is for you and your career and hopefully your family, but it affects me as well. If you don’t do something right, WE lose. … So it has been frustrating, for sure.”
Along comes Gase, telling his team it needed to grow up. Imagine that: The youngest coach in the league, 38, injecting a few hundred CCs of maturity into guys only slightly younger than he is. With it, he found that delicate balance between being respected and being a players’ coach (many players use the word “love” when discussing him).
morons
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