Suffering Dolfans can find hope in successes of Cavaliers, Cubs | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Suffering Dolfans can find hope in successes of Cavaliers, Cubs

DKphin

DKphin

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Wednesday wasn’t about LeBron as much as it was about an oft-maligned city and its starving fans, who had earned the day even more with their long suffering. Clevelanders had last cheered a major sports championship when the Browns won a pre-Super Bowl NFL title in 1964, which was four years before James’ mother was born. No city in American had waited longer to feel that feeling again.

[h=4]We lose sight of it sometimes — that sports is about the fans, first and always. It’s about the people in the cities that adopt and love the teams, generation to generation, decade after decade, years flying until you stop to realize you have given so much of your whole life to those teams you call yours.[/h]

Everything else changes. The franchise’s owners and coaches and players come and go. New stadiums and arenas are built. Uniforms evolve. Heroes retire or are traded; even the greatest athletes are replaceable. Only the fans are indispensable, the one constant, the lifeblood of it all. The fans, who are innately loyal even as they gripe. The fans, whose default feeling is to believe even as they are always let down. The fans, whose emotional investment in their team over time far exceeds the money spent on tickets, parking, replica jerseys or $8 beers.
Our own lives change, too. Loved ones pass away. Children grow. We have health issues. Change jobs. But there is always next season! There is always our team. Even if we move across the country, we can take our team with us.
This brings us to the team visiting Miami to face the Marlins for four games starting Thursday night: the Chicago Cubs.

[h=4]This could be the year that ends American professional sports’ two longest and most infamous droughts, first with Cleveland celebrating the end of any one city’s longest wait for another championship, and now with the Cubs angling to end any one team’s or fandom’s longest drought.[/h]

The Cubs are the best team in baseball, clearly. They are the favorites to win the World Series, a feat Cubs fans last celebrated in 1908. Nobody is alive who saw it happen. They were the “Tinker to Evers to Chance” Cubbies. Teddy Roosevelt was president. Ford unveiled the Model T that year. Fewer than 1 in 10 American homes had a telephone.
Dare Cubs fans dream that this year might finally be the “next year” of which their fathers and granddads always spoke? Or are they too superstitious by now to think it?
We are reminded again who counts most in sports.
Most every city has its believers who’ve been waiting, and waiting, to see their faith redeemed.

Here, in Miami, the Dolphins are a month away from training camp with a new head coach in Adam Gase, a retooled roster and high hopes for quarterback Ryan Tannehill. This season isn’t about the latest team, though. It is about that team in the context of the franchise timeline, and of what Dolfans have endured. This will be the 43rd season since the Dolphins last won a Super Bowl in 1973. That is no Cubs-ian drought, but is longer than most, and unreasonably so. It swirls around the franchise like the dirt cloud that would never leave Pig-Pen in the Peanuts comic strip.
If the Dolphins beat long odds and actually won the next Super Bowl, the triumph would not belong to owner Stephen Ross or Tannehill, not mostly. The triumph would belong to South Florida diehards who remember Flipper leaping in that Orange Bowl end-zone tank, and Larry Csonka’s bull runs, the No-Name Defense, the Killer B’s, Dan Marino to the Marks Brothers, Jason Taylor on the sack, and Zach Thomas fighting tears after the latest loss. The triumph will mostly belong to those Dolfans who have grown old waiting for the next Miami Super Bowl parade but never quite gave up hope it would happen.
Despite the Dolphins drought, Miami has had it pretty good overall as a sports town.

[h=4]If you include the Big Four team sports of NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL, plus major-college football, Miami is one of only two markets in the U.S., along with New York, to have cheered a national champion in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s — five consecutive decades. Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles have not. Chicago has not, unless you include Notre Dame football, which is about 95 miles away by car.[/h]

Miami in fact has had at least two major champions every decade: Dolphins twice in the 1970s; Hurricanes three times in the ’80s, Marlins and UM in the ’90s; UM, Marlins and Heat in the 2000s, and Heat twice this decade. Since the 1980s we’ve not waited longer than six years between major championship parades.
Only Dolphins fans truly are long suffering in this market, but perhaps there is a positive omen to be seen in Cleveland ending its 52-year civic drought and now in Cubs fans hoping to party like it’s 1908.
It could be the year in sports of patience finally finding its reward for Cubs fans as it did in Cleveland. Dare Dolfans dream, too?
If not, well, there’s always next year.
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http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/greg-cote/article85430742.html
 
Only problem is Miami doesn't have a LeBron James type talent anywhere on the team.

Once we have on generational type player or players on the roster Miami will be average to above average.
 
Phinatic8u said:
Only problem is Miami doesn't have a LeBron James type talent anywhere on the team.

Once we have on generational type player or players on the roster Miami will be average to above average.
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NBA is a whole different world compared to the NFL. One guy isn't going to make the difference.
 
Coaching matters a lot in football. A lot.

We had a bad coach. We don't know what we have yet in Gase. We're going to find out.
 
DuderinoN703 said:
NBA is a whole different world compared to the NFL. One guy isn't going to make the difference.
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Yes they can. Denver was going no where but once they got Manning, they went to two Superbowls.
 
Nobody is alive who saw it happen
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So maybe when everyone is dead who saw the 1972 teams we will win it again. Whew! For a second there I was actually worried... :D
 
psfign said:
:bobdole:

Denver had a top 3 defense in '14 and THE BEST defense last year..
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So you're saying that one player does not make a difference? What if Brady was on the Dolphins?
 
yoge said:
So you're saying that one player does not make a difference? What if Brady was on the Dolphins?
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What ifs and buts were apples and nuts. Arguing 'what if's' is non-sense. There is no winning those arguments.

But I will answer your Q and say yes that any player can make a difference, but your Manning argument is horrid as the defense carried those teams.

However, this is still completely different than basketball where one person can carry the entire team for the entire game. Not even Brady does that.
 
Anything is possible. IF our veterans stay healthy and play up to their ability in the front 7, if Howard is a good NFL player and if Maxwell has a bounce back season then our D can be very stout.
if our o line improves (can't imagine it doesn't) and Ajayi and Parker stay healthy then our O should be very formidable.
If Gase is a good NFL head coach then we could be good sooner than later.

See how many IFs I just wrote? Lol.
Like I said, anything is possible, but this team needs to prove it on the field before I expect anything.
 
I would have a hard time trying to compare the NBA as it is a 5 man sport and one guy can make a huge difference. As with most other sports/franchises, it starts from the top. You won't have continued success until the top dogs start making the right moves.

The Cubs have turned it around thanks to Theo Epstein and the moves he has made. Signing Joe Madden and having great success in talent acquisition.
 
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