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Tannehill and Philbin dine with Dolphins legends

Daytona Fin

Daytona Fin

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Laughs spilled. Stories flowed. Don Shula mentioned his 21 interceptions as a player, prompting Bob Griese to say, "The passing game wasn't developed back then."

Dan Marino crossed his arms over his chest and flexed his jaw to imitate Shula on a sideline in the Orange Bowl pondering what to do on a fourth-and-goal play.

"He said, 'What would you do?' and I said, 'Throw the ball!' " Marino said, noting he did for a touchdown.

A couple hours into a private, steaks-all-around dinner for six at Shula's Steak House in Miami Lakes, where the genuine Shula sat beside Dolphins coach Joe Philbin, the former quarterback Griese looked beside him at the current one, Ryan Tannehill.

"I just want to say how much I appreciate you getting sacked 58 times last season," Griese said.

"What?" Tannehill said.

"Yeah, you did me a favor by taking me out of the record books," Griese said. "You broke my [Dolphins] record of being sacked 54 times back in 1968."


That brought some smiles at the dinner of Dolphins coaches and quarterbacks, past and present, greats and hopes, that team president Tom Garfinkel organized in May and attended, too.
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"Once you make the Hall of Fame, they don't talk about your failures anymore," Griese said. "But we all had failures. I sure did. One of them was those sacks. One was our losing record my first three years in the league.

"I had plenty of failures. Anyone who accomplished anything failed at some point in getting there."

For a Dolphins era trying to find its footing under Philbin and Tannehill, it was something to consider, these legends discussing failure and success. Marino talked of putting in extra time with his new receivers, Mark Duper and Mark Clayton, after practices.

"Duper would say I could never out-throw him because he was so fast, so I'd go out there and try to out-throw him," Marino said.
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"Build me a pocket, and I'll stay in it,'' Griese told Shula. "I wasn't running because I wanted to. I was running for my life."

Shula needed three new offensive line starters in 1970. That's a scaled-down version of the five the Dolphins will start with this season. But the challenge was similar.

"One thing I mentioned to Joe was I only had two offensive line coaches in my entire 33 years as a head coach," Shula said. "Monte Clark and John Sandusky were great coaches. And our teaching didn't vary. That continuity was important."
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On the other side of the table, the quarterbacks occasionally lapsed into the intricacies of craft. How to lead offenses. How to read defenses. What the world is like from the view only they know.

"Ryan is going into his third year, and I said, 'It took me a couple of years to learn how to go through progressions of a pass play,' " Griese said. "When you have four or five guys downfield, you read deep to short on most plays.

"If the coverage allows, you want the deep receiver running, say, a post. But if a defender is there in the middle of the field, you come back and look at the square-in under the post. If linebackers are dropping there, you come back to the short, outlet pass.

"And one of the things I learned early on, I said, was when you're at the line of scrimmage, remind yourself who your outlet is. If the play goes to hell in a handbasket quickly, you can throw to him."

Griese chuckled at himself. "We were allowed to inflict our knowledge on them."

"A good night, a lot of fun," Tannehill said.
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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...miami-dolphins-0810-20140809,0,1909557.column
 
great story but im sure I read this weeks ago as well lol
 
Note that this dinner was intiated by the new CEO, Tom Garfinkel, who is pretty impressive.
 
I like how Marino couldn't really relate to Tanny because, early on, he simply didn't struggle with anything. Griese's career path was/is very similar to Tanny's and I hope it continues to be (cough, super bowls)
 
spiral said:
I like how Marino couldn't really relate to Tanny because, early on, he simply didn't struggle with anything. Griese's career path was/is very similar to Tanny's and I hope it continues to be (cough, super bowls)
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Here's hoping!
 
spiral said:
I like how Marino couldn't really relate to Tanny because, early on, he simply didn't struggle with anything. Griese's career path was/is very similar to Tanny's and I hope it continues to be (cough, super bowls)
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cept winning the big one.
 
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