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Dolphins' skies are sunny just 1 year after '07 'embarrassment'

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Don Shula remembers the well-meaning but oh-so-condescending condolences during the 2007 season.

The Miami Dolphins were a disaster. And when Shula conducted his public business, folks would sidle up and confess their seemingly heartfelt distress to the man who wasn't even the team's coach.
Yet he was. And always will be.

Perhaps more than any other person in the history of the franchise, Shula looms as the definitive Mr. Dolphin. He was the coach from 1970 to 1995, led Miami to the league's first and only unblemished season while bringing home two Super Bowl trophies and entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997.

But then came 1-15 in 2007, and when one is that associated with a franchise — Shula holds the largely ceremonial team post of vice chairman — the painfully visible deterioration of a lifetime's worth of labor and love stings.

"It was an embarrassment, it really was," Shula said of the hapless 2007 club during a recent telephone conversation. "It was hard on all Dolphins fans and certainly on former Dolphins coaches.

"That's why last season's turnaround was so refreshing."

He refers to the team's stunning 2008 resurrection, complete with an 11-5 mark and an AFC East title.


There were many reasons for the turnaround, from new football operations CEO Bill Parcells to wunderkind general manager Jeff Ireland to new coach Tony Sparano to new quarterback Chad Pennington.

Shula listens to the aforementioned litany and chuckles.

"I think you've got to give Brett Favre a lot of credit, too," he says. "If all that stuff with him hadn't happened, we don't have Pennington.
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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/dolphins/2009-07-14-organization-report_N.htm
 
Although, listening to some on this site, we have a FO that keeps making blunders and we are going right back in the toilet.

FL is a funny place, sunny one minute and storming the next, then 5 minutes later its raining with sun shine...
 
FinsFan_In_Iraq said:
Although, listening to some on this site, we have a FO that keeps making blunders and we are going right back in the toilet.

FL is a funny place, sunny one minute and storming the next, then 5 minutes later its raining with sun shine...
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:lol: Very good comparison
 
I miss the Ole JAW roaming the sidelines, he brought out the BEST in all his players.
 
Im all about cautious optimism. I remember people annointing us with a future super bowl after Saban year one. I dont see Parcells as this magic superbowl man that many do. He is obviously a good mind but he hasnt won a superbowl in about 2 decades. Some want to act like he can do no wrong, I dont see anyone saying that everything he is doing is wrong. Who knows maybe last season was alot of luck because it was pure luck that Pennington was available. Luck is part of the game also.
 
dlockz said:
Im all about cautious optimism. I remember people annointing us with a future super bowl after Saban year one. I dont see Parcells as this magic superbowl man that many do. He is obviously a good mind but he hasnt won a superbowl in about 2 decades. Some want to act like he can do no wrong, I dont see anyone saying that everything he is doing is wrong. Who knows maybe last season was alot of luck because it was pure luck that Pennington was available. Luck is part of the game also.
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I agree with you on this one.
I expect a bit of a slide for the team this year if history repeats itself as that has been the norm in the past on Parcells watch.
BUT perhaps we should not be so generous in regards to giving Parcells so much slack this year as he is "buying the groceries" for the phins unlike many of the past teams he was associated with. So with Bill P coaches, GM and players in place more this year than last year shouldn't we expect better result even with the tough schedule? That was Bill's excuse right?
Honestly as long as the team plays tough I will be happy. When that happens your team is always in the games. That why I loved the Marinio years even when the team was not always winning we were almost in every game! That is fun to watch too.
 
dlockz said:
Im all about cautious optimism. I remember people annointing us with a future super bowl after Saban year one. I dont see Parcells as this magic superbowl man that many do. He is obviously a good mind but he hasnt won a superbowl in about 2 decades. Some want to act like he can do no wrong, I dont see anyone saying that everything he is doing is wrong. Who knows maybe last season was alot of luck because it was pure luck that Pennington was available. Luck is part of the game also.
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I'm not sure, I might be wrong about this, but last I checked, Bill P. is not coaching this team, I think Sparano is..so it doesn't matter what Bill hasn't done the past 2 decades other than he still recognize talent and know how to put a good organization together, it's up to Sparano and his coaches to get the players to play and execute, and it's their jobs to win a SB.. It's bill's job to run a good football organization..
 
MDFINFAN said:
I'm not sure, I might be wrong about this, but last I checked, Bill P. is not coaching this team, I think Sparano is..so it doesn't matter what Bill hasn't done the past 2 decades other than he still recognize talent and know how to put a good organization together, it's up to Sparano and his coaches to get the players to play and execute, and it's their jobs to win a SB.. It's bill's job to run a good football organization..
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well I can rephrase that he has not built a superbowl winner in 2 decades lol
 
phintim said:
That why I loved the Marinio years even when the team was not always winning we were almost in every game! That is fun to watch too.
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WOW, NOT to me!!. The most painful experience being a football fan is the being ALMOST good enough. I would rather have to go through a 1-15 season once in awhile rather than go through 9 straight season of always being just above average.

Those 9-7, 10-6 seasons will kill ya over time. You are always picking later in the draft and can never get good enough to get over the hump. Marino was fun to watch but it was some of the most disappointing years of being a fan that I have went through in any sport. Then again maybe being a UNC basketball fan has spoiled me. But to me ya need to get a ring every once in awhile, or you are just another one of the losers.
 
The only good thing about that 1-15 season was being at the game we finally won. That **** was fun and exciting. It was like the biggest reliefs ever I felt like we had won the super bowl or some ****. Considering I have never been to a championship game it was one of the best games I have ever been too
 
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