Let's talk about the heat | Page 7 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Let's talk about the heat

If northern teams don't like it, petition the league for a realignment. Old rivalries don't mean jack, you can always make new ones against new teams. Miami should be in a south division...nothing else makes sense.
Been saying this for years. At most 2 other AFCE teams plan in the heat in Miami. Miami usually has to go play in the cold at least twice per season.
 
This is a fair take. I hate it, like you acknowledged many would, but it’s fair.

Either every game should be in an identical, climate-controlled, hermetically sealed chamber, or this talking point should die.

I’m part of the “this talking point should die” contingent. Part of being a great football team is being able to win in different climates. That’s part of what makes football great.
The weather was what makes it great.

Then ticket prices and prices happened. And anymore you are taking a freaking second mortgagee to attend games.

I get it I do the traditionalist inside me that played many awesome snow games, but then I became a consumer

I don’t want to drop 1K on a game to sit there in below Zero weather to watch two high powered offenses in a 6-3 shootout caused by the weather.
 
I kinda wish they did. I was there and had to take my glasses off. Couldn't see a damn thing all game and froze my balls off.

That game was also bullshit because the Titans were coming off a mini bye and the fins had a short week plus travel. The Titans just looked better rested.
Sorry for your loss.
 
It's just sour grapes because a team that came into the season with Super Bowl expectations got beat by a team that hasn't been them in 7 tries. They are just butt-hurt they lost and are looking for excuses.
It's really nothing more than that.
Was the butt-hurt related to the punt. Lol
 
The nature of offensive/defensive play is that you'll sub more on defense than offense. Defensive lineman will shuffle in and out, offensive lineman won't unless they are hurt.

The Bills' offense was on the field for some long drives. I know we blitzed a lot, but you would think at some point the Bills would have tried to force a chunk play. It was the perfect storm: our defense couldn't get off the field BUT the Bills didn't take advantage by actually scoring.
But you are not subbing out the LBs and DBs as much. The offense can easily sub RBs, TEs, and WRs. I also think the DL expends more energy than the OL. Evens out.
 
The weather was what makes it great.

Then ticket prices and prices happened. And anymore you are taking a freaking second mortgagee to attend games.

I get it I do the traditionalist inside me that played many awesome snow games, but then I became a consumer

I don’t want to drop 1K on a game to sit there in below Zero weather to watch two high powered offenses in a 6-3 shootout caused by the weather.
Yeah so you'll pay 4 K to sit inside... Go buy a jacket or something... JFC! Whats next! they should play on foam mats?
 
If northern teams don't like it, petition the league for a realignment. Old rivalries don't mean jack, you can always make new ones against new teams. Miami should be in a south division...nothing else makes sense.
Exactly. I've argued this for decades, including numerous times here. There should be a geographical realignment with Miami relocated to a division with Tampa Bay, Jacksonville and either Atlanta, Carolina or New Orleans.

That set up would quickly stand out as vastly more interesting and college-like than the patchwork division we're in now. Driving back and forth within the same state totally changes the dynamic of those road games and the pride factor. There were already glimpses of that way back into original NASL, when the Ft. Lauderdale vs. Tampa Bay rivalry was so intense that Rick Weaver on WIOD would become louder and more emotional during those broadcasts than at any point during Dolphin games. Weaver conceded one time that he was so furious he stood up and nearly fell out of the booth when Rodney Marsh of the Rowdies suckered the referees into yet another pivotal penalty kick by intentionally tripping himself in the box by wrapping his right foot inside and around his left ankle.

Heck, there was also a huge regional rivalry with Miami Jai-Alai and other major frontons like Dania and Ft. Pierce and Tampa, during the heyday of that sport. Fans would venture from one city to another during the annual (?) competitions between the best players at each fronton, battling for the title as champion fronton in the state. That was so big the sports talk shows covered it along with extensive articles in the Miami News.

I've just never understood how the regional aspect is downplayed in favor of preserving the AFL heritage, especially since I'm old enough to remember the 1970s and the Colts as by far our biggest rival. Not many people prefer to acknowledge that now. They joined the AFC as result of the merger and immediately overwhelmed the Jets, Bills and Patriots as our biggest rival. That's how quickly things can change. There was tremendous animosity from Colts fans based on Shula departing. They felt vindicated when Don McCafferty quickly won a title, after Shula had failed twice in championship games. That entire decade was Colts as easily our biggest rival, except briefly during 1973 and 1974 when the Colts declined simultaneous with the upsurge of Buffalo and O.J. Simpson.

This topic goes back a long way. I'll tell you why the Dolphins organization opposed it. Tampa Bay during the early years of its franchise took every game against the Dolphins as like a pride factor civil war. Those games were incredibly intense and physical even during preseason. In 1978 Bob Griese suffered a serious knee injury during a preseason game at Tampa. Joe Robbie was livid. Griese was toward the end of his career but had the breakthrough 1977 season while wearing glasses. Miami had high expectations entering 1978, given the Delvin Williams trade, etc., then Robbie thought everything was jeopardized via that preseason injury to Griese, who missed part of the season.

Robbie made it known at that point he would oppose geographical realignment.
 
It wasn’t enough that someone seemed to call imaginary timeouts allowing all kinds of time to pass by for rest?

I don’t know about y'all but in my living room we couldn’t figure out what was going on. “Did someone call a timeout? Why is no one being charged a TO? Why is gameplay not continuing?”

I remember such a conversation happening twice.
 
As a resident, we considered yesterday almost fall-like. It was not that humid or that hot, to be honest. Our defense was out there for those two crazy long Bills drives that took sixteen minutes of possession by Allen and the offense and they got 3 points to show for it. We literally wore their offense out keeping them on the field. The Bills are a really good team. A lot of their injuries were on defense but they barely played. I loved our quick strike offense but every time I was thinking oh man that poor defense has to go out already, we need to run more. Great win with major playoff implications down the line.
That's what got me. It wasn't even that bad on Sunday. My aunt turns 80 next month. She cut the grass in her front yard that day.

Humidity never bothers me. I played sports all day long as a kid in Miami. These days it still doesn't bother me. Maybe having a pool helps. I'll play golf in the afternoon then come home and do 50 laps in the pool.

The furnace-like heat of Las Vegas, that's an entirely different matter. Dry heat my flat ass. Those 115 degree summers were absolutely intolerable. Fortunately I only had to stick around during the summer 3 times in 24 years. But I remember how miserable each one of them was. There's no variety whatsoever. That's the maddening aspect. No dependable late afternoon clouds and showers. It's nothing but one tortuous and same excruciating blast furnace day after another. I think I played golf twice during those 3 summers combined. And no regrets.

Screw the Bills. If you want to read a tale about true life and death experiences involving oppressive heat, find the website devoted to the Death Valley Germans, and the author's long quest to decipher the route they took and ultimately what happened to them.

Great read but it requires hour after hour.

That's the only time I've been truly scared about heat, while driving through Death Valley and similar remote desert areas during summer and by myself.
 
So all I'm hearing this morning is how the heat was an unfair advantage for the Dolphins. That if it wasn't so hot the bills would have won. Perhaps true, but let's dig into this a little.

Yesterday was hot, sure. Yet last year vs the bills we had a temp of 87 with a heat index at 97. The year before, temp of 90 with a heat index of 102. The bills won those games and I don't recall players going down every 2 minutes due to the heat. I also don't recall bills fans wanting to call OSHA (which is pathetic, let's be honest)

So what changed? Well, the bills roster is fairly consistent (at least at key positions) over the last few years. Coaching staff is the same. So it's not as if they didn't know the heat was something to deal with.

That means, in my humble opinion, they just didn't prepare properly for this game. Perhaps some of them went out drinking this week. That certainly doesn't help. Perhaps they didn't drink enough pre game or in the first quarter. Perhaps they should have traveled down sooner like the pats did to get used to it (although research shows it takes a few weeks to get acclimated to a new climate). Regardless, that's on them. That's not the heat. That's like the Fins going to buffalo in December and not wearing cold gear or having coats and heaters on the sidelines.

So yesterday the Fins won a tough divisional game against a good team. Yep, the bills are still very good at football. However, so are the Fins. It'll be interesting to see how the season plays out, but one thing is for sure - the failure to manage heat properly was on the bills staff.
The Dolphins have been playing games in the heat and humidity of September since 1966 and now suddenly because the big bad Bills lost, it suddenly is an issue.

Well the fans in Buffalo and the fans of any other teams coming to Miami early in the season better get use to dealing with the heat and humidity. Because with global warming, it isn’t going to get any cooler for games in September in Miami.
 
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