Manny Fernandez is somehow more respected now than he was then, at least in relation to the other starters on the defense. He was a very good player but not close to Bill Stanfill's level week to week. Many of the linebackers like Mike Kolen and Doug Swift who you never hear about anymore were considered on Fernandez's level, the second tier types on that defense behind the true stars like Anderson, Scott, Buoniconti and Stanfill. The reason he didn't win that Super Bowl MVP award is very simple: Nobody was hyping him entering the game. No reason to. He was a 2nd team all conference type at best, and even that was debatable. He owes his ongoing reputation to that one game. Dick Schaap was hardly the only one who didn't realize how special Fernandez had played. The word spread later.
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BTW, Nat Moore's comment about wanting to sign a Cuban player is laughable. It's ridiculous how much anachronistic rationale is out there. The El Miami Herald didn't print its first issue until 1975 and didn't fully expand until 1977. That demonstrates more than anything that it was not close to a multicultural or bilingual area in 1968 when Fernandez joined the team. The topic never came up. My teachers didn't speak Spanish and there weren't Spanish surnames in my classes. I still have the class lists from my elementary school years. There was one local Spanish TV channel, station 23. I remember when it debuted in the late '60s. You would see that all over the country in major cities, one or two small UHF channels devoted to the small but emerging Spanish community.
How would Nat Moore know anyway? I watched him playing junior college basketball at Dade South in the early '70s. He was a scrappy little guard. Popular player among the 200 or so who would attend those games. We had no idea he would return to football. He didn't get drafted until 1974.
If Moore heard anything regarding Fernandez' signing from someone currently or recently in the organization, they are spreading a theme they want to believe, not something that happened in real time. Those late '60s expansion Dolphins were a struggling misfit group. You might as well claim Wahoo McDaniel was signed to appeal to the Indian and wrestling segments.
