Aqua Man
Scout Team
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2004
- Messages
- 980
- Reaction score
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For the entirety of my 40+ years of Dolphin fandom, the Dolphins have always been considered weak in cold weather and it’s an issue that’s stretched across many different regimes and countless different players. Even Dan Marino, who grew up a cold weather QB, led the Dolphins to a subpar record in cold weather games.
I’m not even sure how much of it can be put on coaching as the job of an NFL coaching staff is to try and prepare their players to have a schematic advantage each week as opposed to fretting over the temperature. Obviously, paying attention to what conditions will be like, bringing the right equipment, and adjusting your game plan accordingly plays into it but whether or not a player is a dog who isn’t gonna let the weather affect his play is something that’s pretty much out of the coaches hands, IMO. If anything, you could try and put it on the GM for drafting the wrong kind of guys, but I’m honestly not sure how much even that plays into it.
Over the past 4 decades, there’s been so many different iterations of this team with so many different players- some who played college in cold weather cities and some who did not, yet all of those teams seemed to be at their worst when the weather was at its coldest.
The only common denominator in all of this? All of these teams were based out of Miami. During the same span of time, we’ve also seen plenty of Dolphin teams that have played some of their best football on their home field when temps were at their hottest, forcing out of towners to wilt in the extreme heat. Maybe these guys being based in Miami, living, training, and practicing in the Miami heat and humidity is something that programs them and their bodies beyond their control? I won’t pretend to know if that’s the answer, but there’s sure a lot of evidence that would seem to validate that line of thinking.
Honestly, I doubt it will ever change because I’ve never seen it be any different. If a SB run ever happens for Miami again, I 100% believe it will be because they have a team that’s good enough to get the #1 seed in the AFC and guarantee themselves nothing but games in Miami. Even for that to happen, I’m sure that team would have to have a fortunate regular season schedule that keeps them out of multiple cold weather show downs. When nobody can seem to come up with an answer in 40+ years, it leads me to believe that there probably isn’t one.
I’m not even sure how much of it can be put on coaching as the job of an NFL coaching staff is to try and prepare their players to have a schematic advantage each week as opposed to fretting over the temperature. Obviously, paying attention to what conditions will be like, bringing the right equipment, and adjusting your game plan accordingly plays into it but whether or not a player is a dog who isn’t gonna let the weather affect his play is something that’s pretty much out of the coaches hands, IMO. If anything, you could try and put it on the GM for drafting the wrong kind of guys, but I’m honestly not sure how much even that plays into it.
Over the past 4 decades, there’s been so many different iterations of this team with so many different players- some who played college in cold weather cities and some who did not, yet all of those teams seemed to be at their worst when the weather was at its coldest.
The only common denominator in all of this? All of these teams were based out of Miami. During the same span of time, we’ve also seen plenty of Dolphin teams that have played some of their best football on their home field when temps were at their hottest, forcing out of towners to wilt in the extreme heat. Maybe these guys being based in Miami, living, training, and practicing in the Miami heat and humidity is something that programs them and their bodies beyond their control? I won’t pretend to know if that’s the answer, but there’s sure a lot of evidence that would seem to validate that line of thinking.
Honestly, I doubt it will ever change because I’ve never seen it be any different. If a SB run ever happens for Miami again, I 100% believe it will be because they have a team that’s good enough to get the #1 seed in the AFC and guarantee themselves nothing but games in Miami. Even for that to happen, I’m sure that team would have to have a fortunate regular season schedule that keeps them out of multiple cold weather show downs. When nobody can seem to come up with an answer in 40+ years, it leads me to believe that there probably isn’t one.
