The Five Stages of Grief and Further Depressing Historical Lousiness

[tggeorge]

Preface with I'm 35 and can at least remember the tail end of Marino's career. He is why I became a football fan, a fins fan, and a loyal one.

I believe my current stage of grief is depression, and hopefully soon I'll make it to acceptance, lol.

Well combing this site and being frustrated as a fan last night, I came across further depressing historical information. Since 2000 (basically the post-Marino era), we are tied for 30th place in playoff wins (with ONE) in the last twenty+ years. Yes, that's right, tied with Cleveland and WFT and even getting beaten out by the Jags with 3!

We are basically bottom of the barrel in appearances with 5 total playoff games played since 2000; two of which were played in 2000 when our last playoff with occurred. Thankfully I remember it at the age of 14 with Lamar Smith running in an OT TD against the colts, only to get beat down against Oakland the following week. If you would've told that 14 year old boy that that was the last playoff win he'd see well into his 30's with kids, he'd laugh and never believe it and maybe cry a little.

Wife being an Eagles fan, she keeps saying it'll get better...easy for her to say, in the same time frame the Eagles have seen 26 playoff games and have seen 14 of them be wins! the EAGLES!! I always thought we were better than that, but not even close! My adult football fandom has been mired and defined by subpar teams and mediocrity. And to be honest, I always thought, yea this will turn around and we'll sustain some success, but the last 20 years has shown, there is no guarantee of a turnaround or of sustainable success, which is why depression has set in. Truly thought it was a given that one day I'd see success and a Super Bowl, but it is truly not a foregone conclusion in any capacity.

Maybe I'll find acceptance of this fact one day, and finish my cycle of grief.

 

[Miami 13]

Preface with I'm 35 and can at least remember the tail end of Marino's career. He is why I became a football fan, a fins fan, and a loyal one.

I believe my current stage of grief is depression, and hopefully soon I'll make it to acceptance, lol.

Well combing this site and being frustrated as a fan last night, I came across further depressing historical information. Since 2000 (basically the post-Marino era), we are tied for 30th place in playoff wins (with ONE) in the last twenty+ years. Yes, that's right, tied with Cleveland and WFT and even getting beaten out by the Jags with 3!

We are basically bottom of the barrel in appearances with 5 total playoff games played since 2000; two of which were played in 2000 when our last playoff with occurred. Thankfully I remember it at the age of 14 with Lamar Smith running in an OT TD against the colts, only to get beat down against Oakland the following week. If you would've told that 14 year old boy that that was the last playoff win he'd see well into his 30's with kids, he'd laugh and never believe it and maybe cry a little.

Wife being an Eagles fan, she keeps saying it'll get better...easy for her to say, in the same time frame the Eagles have seen 26 playoff games and have seen 14 of them be wins! the EAGLES!! I always thought we were better than that, but not even close! My adult football fandom has been mired and defined by subpar teams and mediocrity. And to be honest, I always thought, yea this will turn around and we'll sustain some success, but the last 20 years has shown, there is no guarantee of a turnaround or of sustainable success, which is why depression has set in. Truly thought it was a given that one day I'd see success and a Super Bowl, but it is truly not a foregone conclusion in any capacity.

Maybe I'll find acceptance of this fact one day, and finish my cycle of grief.

I absolutely DESPISE this saying from fans of other, better teams. I hear it every single year living in New England from Pats/Sox fans. Oh I had to wait 50 years blah blah blah. I always say yeah what does that do for me? It doesn’t mean anything. Doesn’t mean Miami will
Become good just due to time passing.

I’m about to be 33 and I’m actually accepting I may never see this team win a Playoff game. Just win a ****ing Playoff game! How pathetic is that? That’s all I want right now.

 

[Jimi]

I had finally hit acceptance and then these assholios had to go and give me false hope with the 7 game streak. Back to depression…

 

[emoticon]

Preface with I'm 35 and can at least remember the tail end of Marino's career. He is why I became a football fan, a fins fan, and a loyal one.

I believe my current stage of grief is depression, and hopefully soon I'll make it to acceptance, lol.

Well combing this site and being frustrated as a fan last night, I came across further depressing historical information. Since 2000 (basically the post-Marino era), we are tied for 30th place in playoff wins (with ONE) in the last twenty+ years. Yes, that's right, tied with Cleveland and WFT and even getting beaten out by the Jags with 3!

We are basically bottom of the barrel in appearances with 5 total playoff games played since 2000; two of which were played in 2000 when our last playoff with occurred. Thankfully I remember it at the age of 14 with Lamar Smith running in an OT TD against the colts, only to get beat down against Oakland the following week. If you would've told that 14 year old boy that that was the last playoff win he'd see well into his 30's with kids, he'd laugh and never believe it and maybe cry a little.

Wife being an Eagles fan, she keeps saying it'll get better...easy for her to say, in the same time frame the Eagles have seen 26 playoff games and have seen 14 of them be wins! the EAGLES!! I always thought we were better than that, but not even close! My adult football fandom has been mired and defined by subpar teams and mediocrity. And to be honest, I always thought, yea this will turn around and we'll sustain some success, but the last 20 years has shown, there is no guarantee of a turnaround or of sustainable success, which is why depression has set in. Truly thought it was a given that one day I'd see success and a Super Bowl, but it is truly not a foregone conclusion in any capacity.

Maybe I'll find acceptance of this fact one day, and finish my cycle of grief.

The Dolphins last made the superbowl when I was 19. I'm now 56.
Only the Lions and Bengals have gone longer without a playoff win. The Bengals used to make the playoffs every year but somehow found a way to lose. At least they made it. This should be their year though.

 

[tggeorge]

I absolutely DESPISE this saying from fans of other, better teams. I hear it every single year living in New England from Pats/Sox fans. Oh I had to wait 50 years blah blah blah. I always say yeah what does that do for me? It doesn’t mean anything. Doesn’t mean Miami will
Become good just due to time passing.

I’m about to be 33 and I’m actually accepting I may never see this team win a Playoff game. Just win a ****ing Playoff game! How pathetic is that? That’s all I want right now.

Yea she never quite understands why I get so down when they come up short every year. Well it's because we've made the playoffs FOUR times in 21 tries!

It's said but just making it to the playoffs is feels like winning the super bowl; that's just how rare a PO berth is for us. And between last year and this year we could've seen two but ultimately 0!

It's heart wrenching but also why, in 2016, I immediately bought tickets to the steelers PO game and went because it's a once a decade things for us. Which is such a sad reality and something we didn't have to go thru pre year 2000.

Just in time for me to be adult enough to care and follow it more closely and have expendable income but for a team that is just so lousy yearly.

 

[Durango2020]

I stopped taking the Dolphins too seriously and I think most people should. I still have expectations and will be upset at their lack thereof, however I cannot put myself in a position where their incompetence will put me into a depressed state.
I have accepted that I may never see them in the Superbowl at this point.
Now that the Dolphins are eliminated it will open some time to spend on other activities. Having said that I still expect better from this team in the future and personnel should be held accountable.

 

[tggeorge]

I stopped taking the Dolphins too seriously and I think most people should. I still have expectations and will be upset at their lack thereof, however I cannot put myself in a position where their incompetence will put me into a depressed state.
I have accepted that I may never see them in the Superbowl at this point.
Now that the Dolphins are eliminated it will open some time to spend on other activities. Having said that I still expect better from this team in the future and personnel should be held accountable.

The depression comment is a bit tongue in cheek, not truly depressed. But damn I just can't believe how consistently bad they've been over my adult life. Like I feel like you almost need to try hard to be this bad. Like how have they not even accidentally had some success over the last 20 years! It's baffling and always thought I would see a Super Bowl before I died. But there's certainly no reason now to think I will.

 

[Danny]

I could add to this but what's the point? For those fans(of any team) that say, "my team will win the SB one day"......here's the bad news......there are 32 teams in the NFL so if a different team was to win the SB every year then at least one team would have to wait 32 years from now to win the SB.....again, this is if no team wins it more than once so as you can see, it is very possible we'll never see this team win a SB again. I saw them win but I was just a kid so it'd mean so much more now but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Adam Strange]

Wife being an Eagles fan, she keeps saying it'll get better...easy for her to say, in the same time frame the Eagles have seen 26 playoff games and have seen 14 of them be wins! the EAGLES!!

In the same time frame, the Eagles went to two Super Bowls and won one of them. They were also in the conference championship game often since 2000. Dolphins haven't been in a conference championship in almost 20 years and haven't been to a Super Bowl in over 35 years.

 

[tggeorge]

I could add to this but what's the point? For those fans(of any team) that say, "my team will win the SB one day"......here's the bad news......there are 32 teams in the NFL so if a different team was to win the SB every year then at least one team would have to wait 32 years from now to win the SB.....again, this is if no team wins it more than once so as you can see, it is very possible we'll never see this team win a SB again. I saw them win but I was just a kid so it'd mean so much more now but I'm not holding my breath.

Damnnnn...as a kid with Marino, I just always assumed a SB was definitely going to happen. Like silly childhood me was like yea, this is guarateed and something every fan gets to see. After Marino retired, I found it understandable to have to rebuild but we still found success shortly after. Again playing into the theme of Miami is always going to be succesful. Sadly, I'm accepting it; that I may never get to see a Super Bowl win, which was always something I thought was promised.

 

[BigNastyFish]

I'm just not into "suffering" as a fan of a sports (big business) franchise.

And it's certainly not healthy to invest emotional capital into the Miami Dolphins franchise

while Ross the Clown is at the top of the pyramid. The collective fortune of this team

sunk dramatically the day he acquired it -- and it's never recovered.

Odds are pretty overwhelming at this point -- it is what it is. A poorly run bottom-end franchise.

Last, call me greedy but being a "fan" should be fun. When its not fun anymore

then you really need to ask WHY it still has your attention?

Good luck recovering!

BNF

 

[ChitownPhins28]

Stephen Ross should be forced at gunpoint to read every fkn post in this thread.

 

[SabanHater]

The only thing we get to look forward to these days is the draft… and they somehow managed to even take that away from us. Ehh… they would of f@cked up the #14 pick anyway… Watch SF make a deep run in the playoffs.

 

[The Bopkin]

I'm just not into "suffering" as a fan of a sports (big business) franchise.

And it's certainly not healthy to invest emotional capital into the Miami Dolphins franchise

while Ross the Clown is at the top of the pyramid. The collective fortune of this team

sunk dramatically the day he acquired it -- and it's never recovered.

Odds are pretty overwhelming at this point -- it is what it is. A poorly run bottom-end franchise.

Last, call me greedy but being a "fan" should be fun. When its not fun anymore

then you really need to ask WHY it still has your attention?

Good luck recovering!

BNF

Really good perspective.
I remember being younger, and my spirits would rise and fall with how the Fins did- seasonally, and weekly.
Now, I need about half an hour to decompress after a loss, then I'm back to being me.
It makes me sad to have to de-invest in this team because I love the team, have since 1975- but my sanity/mental health just has to come first.
Don't know how I'll deal moving forward- this season was so weird. But I'll find other things to occupy my mind. Will probably step back emotionally from football; watch less of the playoffs, study less for the draft. Depending on who ends up playing, I might not watch the Super Bowl. I stopped watching it when New England was in it three years straight.
Physically separating helps me to emotionally separate.

 

[kevphin]