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Dan Marino

dolfan_101

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Please post your most memorable memories of the man/myth/legend him self... These stories never get old and this has been a miserable off-season, I love to hear stories from the people who had the honor to see him play before my day...
 
Too many big throws, and "last second" heroics to mention.....the "fake spike" throw for a TD was better than alot of the long passes though, given the circumstance. But, sadly, most of my memories of the "Marino era" are of me going "ape$hit" crazy, pacing the floor and pulling my hair out watching them lose a playoff game. They had no running game to milk the clock, or the "D" couldn't hold the lead because the were sucking wind from being on the field for 40+ min. because the O didn't ever sustain long drives.:(
 
One thing that will always stick with me was the last time i went to gillette in 02, (obviously before the dynasty really took off) was a pats fan, upon seeing my marino jersey, yelled in my direction "marino still sucks". Had to hand it to him it was pretty funny. Before Brady those guys were so envious...and now how the tables have turned. I can't wait for when its my turn to tell some random pats fan "brady still sucks" since that will mean he is long since retired.
 
I am ready to have some recent memories from say, last weeks game.
 
dan made 3rd and 15 a fun play. usually resulted in a rocket across the middle to an airborne mark clayton for 18.

marino destroyed defensive coordinators
 
I think the most fun of watching Marino ....

He played on a lot of average teams ... but Marino was so good ... there was ALWAYS a chance of winning, every single Sunday!!

I always go to Sports Bars not living in Miami ... the fans from every good team we played ... ALWAYS showed up nervous, & worried the entire game as we'd often get the lead at some time ... and often beat some of the best teams in the NFL.

Marino was the guy the other team worried about EVERY Sunday.
 
I was too young to watch him. I'm only 18 so he retired when I was like 6 years old. Anyways, he signed my football when I was a little kid and I've been a Dolphin fan ever since.
 
Marino didn't just elevate average teams; by himself he carried several flat-out awful teams to mediocrity. The Dolphins defense from 1986-1989 was as bad as it's ever been and the team's worst record (and only losing season during Marino's career) was 6-10 in 1988. Compare that to the Dolphins 20 years later with five losing seasons since 2003.

There are too many great memories of Marino to list, but I'll restrict myself to the two which I personally witnessed:

1) Down 16-3 after three quarters in the 1990 AFC wildcard game against the Chiefs-- Marino leads the comeback with 2 fourth quarter touchdowns, culminating with an 85 yard drive with less than 3 minutes on the clock. Marino fires a laser to Clayton for a 12 yard TD to win the game.

2) Opening game of the 1994 season, at home against the Patriots-- Marino is 23/42 for 473 yards and 5 touchdowns, including a 35 yard toss to Fryar on 4th and 10 to win the game.
 
One of my favorite games was the 1984 regular season finale at the orange bowl. The Fins were 13-2 going into the final game against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday night football. In those days Dallas had Tony Dorsett and Danny White coached by the legendary Tom Landry.
Shula vs Landry, Danny White vs Dan Marino. Sounds pretty good eh?
Dandy Don Meredith, Howard Cosell in the booth.
I was at the game. I was sitting in the nose bleed section of the south sideline of the Orange bowl. The stadium was built with the seats similar to aluminum bleachers, so when everyone started stomping their feet, the stands were literally rocking!
The stadium was so loud, the the Fins were penalized because of the stadium noise. The Dallas players could not hear the QB at the line of scrimmage! After a penalty, Dallas again complained to the refs, who went over to Shula to try to calm things down...that just got the fans going even more! Finally Shula came out onto the field...godlike...and waved his arms and the crowd took it down a couple of notches. Talk about home field advantage...the Orange Bowl was unbelievable!
Ok...the score was tied at 21, Miami had the ball around mid field, I think it was third and long. Marino dropped back and the pocket around him was immediately under the blitz. The pocket started collapsing, I could not see Marino with all the lineman closing in. He was still in there. Suddenly from the pile of lineman the ball came out almost vertically maybe 75* trajectory. Looking down field I saw mark Duper beginning to get some separation from the DB on a fly pattern on the right side line. The ball had a very high arcing trajectory that was perfect and he hit Duper in full stride right on his outstretched hands and he scored the winning TD. Just amazing.
Like Mad Dog used to say, it was a privilege to watch Marino throw his lightning bolts!!
 
Too many big throws, and "last second" heroics to mention.....the "fake spike" throw for a TD was better than alot of the long passes though, given the circumstance. But, sadly, most of my memories of the "Marino era" are of me going "ape$hit" crazy, pacing the floor and pulling my hair out watching them lose a playoff game. They had no running game to milk the clock, or the "D" couldn't hold the lead because the were sucking wind from being on the field for 40+ min. because the O didn't ever sustain long drives.:(

The fake spike is it for me. Every completion during the MNF gave vs. Bears in 1985 in defense of the record was classic. Last second TD pass vs. ATL in '95 was great for me when watching amongst a bunch of Falcon fans up here in the ATL. Just too many to list but those are a few.
 
I think the most fun of watching Marino ....

He played on a lot of average teams ... but Marino was so good ... there was ALWAYS a chance of winning, every single Sunday!!

I always go to Sports Bars not living in Miami ... the fans from every good team we played ... ALWAYS showed up nervous, & worried the entire game as we'd often get the lead at some time ... and often beat some of the best teams in the NFL.

Marino was the guy the other team worried about EVERY Sunday.

Marino put pure fear in opposing fans' minds. He was simply the greatest ever. I refuse to believe otherwise regardless of who won hom many champs or any opposing stat.
 
Marino didn't just elevate average teams; by himself he carried several flat-out awful teams to mediocrity. The Dolphins defense from 1986-1989 was as bad as it's ever been and the team's worst record (and only losing season during Marino's career) was 6-10 in 1988. Compare that to the Dolphins 20 years later with five losing seasons since 2003.

There are too many great memories of Marino to list, but I'll restrict myself to the two which I personally witnessed:

1) Down 16-3 after three quarters in the 1990 AFC wildcard game against the Chiefs-- Marino leads the comeback with 2 fourth quarter touchdowns, culminating with an 85 yard drive with less than 3 minutes on the clock. Marino fires a laser to Clayton for a 12 yard TD to win the game.

2) Opening game of the 1994 season, at home against the Patriots-- Marino is 23/42 for 473 yards and 5 touchdowns, including a 35 yard toss to Fryar on 4th and 10 to win the game.
I watched both those games on TV,and was beside myself with pure happiness,especially the game against the Pats. He'd gotten hurt the season before with an achilles tendon tear,and to see him back out there just carving up the Pats defense was a blast to watch.
 
I have a ton of memories but the two that are constantly brought to my memory are times when I shed a tear. My family tells stories of me crying as a little dude after the Super Bowl loss. I inherited my Fin fanness from my dad who followed Shula to Miami.

The Second was when I was in college playing baseball on our spring break trip to Texas. My hotel roommate woke me up and told me my boy was retiring. I got up and watched the press conference and will admit as a 21 year I shed a tear. I will never forget that day. And oddly I don't remember a lot of them. LOL.

As great as a career the guy had it was sorta sad. I personally am upset that he never reached the top. As a competitive athelete and understanding the diffuculty of not getting to your #1 goal of sport I can only imagine the difficulty he has with it.
 
Whenever the fins were playing nearby (Cleveland, Cincy, Buffalo, Pitts, Indy) I would always make every attempt to go. I was at the Indy game when he broke Tarkenton's record with the throw to Byars. I still have the Gameday program and my ticket stub.

I was also, unfortunately, at the Browns game when he went down with the achilles. Phucking Browns fans everywhere were cheering. I got into it with a couple Browns fans and my buddy had to pull me away from them. I was so heated I could have taken on 10 of them. I was so phucking mad and supercharged. Although we got the ultimate redemption in that game when Scott Mitchell came in to torch the Brownies, I remember walking back to the car super depressed, fearing it would be Dan's last game. I remember that walk like it was yesterday.

On a side note, I was also at the Shula v Shula Sunday night game in Cincy. What a blast that was.
 
Marino didn't just elevate average teams; by himself he carried several flat-out awful teams to mediocrity. The Dolphins defense from 1986-1989 was as bad as it's ever been and the team's worst record (and only losing season during Marino's career) was 6-10 in 1988. Compare that to the Dolphins 20 years later with five losing seasons since 2003.

There are too many great memories of Marino to list, but I'll restrict myself to the two which I personally witnessed:

1) Down 16-3 after three quarters in the 1990 AFC wildcard game against the Chiefs-- Marino leads the comeback with 2 fourth quarter touchdowns, culminating with an 85 yard drive with less than 3 minutes on the clock. Marino fires a laser to Clayton for a 12 yard TD to win the game.

2) Opening game of the 1994 season, at home against the Patriots-- Marino is 23/42 for 473 yards and 5 touchdowns, including a 35 yard toss to Fryar on 4th and 10 to win the game.


I was at that Chiefs playoff game also. It was the first time I went to a Dolphins game in Miami. It was awesome.
 
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