electrolyte
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Let's take a minute and remember the greatest QB of all time, Dan Marino.
Four times he threw for 30 or more touchdowns in a season, including two seasons of more than 40. He threw for five or more touchdowns in a game five times and led the NFL in passing yards six times. He had 13 games of 400 or more yards passing.
He also led the Dolphins to 37 fourth-quarter comebacks. Such memories.
When Dan retired, he knew he was a Dolphin or bust. You will never see Marino do a Brett Favre and play for the Jets. Marino, class act.
[youtube]4S0pz8qHpFY[/youtube]
The 1994 game vs the Patriots
[youtube]8Ki0j3GL2cY[/youtube]
Dolphins are losing, 4th and 5 on the Pats 35. Marino throws a TD to Irving Friar to win the game with 20 seconds left.
---------------
Top 5 Marino comebacks by Dave Hyrde
Number 1. The opener against New England in 1994. H. Wayne Huizenga's first game as owner. Legendary stuff. Coming off the season-ending Achilles injury in 1993, Marino looked awful in preseason. There even was talk of him being benched until ready. Then he comes out on a wet field and torches the Patriots for five touchdowns.
The fifth, to Fryar, is as big as any he threw. Fourth down. Ball at New England's 35. Just over three minutes left. The Dolphins needed 5 yards for a first down.
"Coach said to get the first down,'' Keith Jackson told Marino in the huddle.
Marino took the game instead.
He came to the line, saw Fryar locked in one-on-one coverage and threw a touchdown.
Here's how I started my column that day: He stayed on the field like a king surveying his dominion, hands on hips and feet apart, while his subjects filed by. Teammates tapped his helmet on their way to the locker room. Dolphin coaches smiled in wonder.
New England coach Bill Parcells made a detour through the mud, stuck out a hand and said, "Not bad for a guy on one ankle."
Dan Marino smiled at this, as he can forever about Sunday, the way anyone who recognizes artistry at work would. He didn't just return to action after 11 months off. He returned to his throne. He delivered the most remarkable game of his remarkable career.
He proved himself once again, by throwing for 473 yards and five touchdowns in an utter fan's delight of a game. He also beat everyone, from his Achilles' tendon gremlins to his overworked media critics to, foremost of all, Parcell's Patriots, 39-35."
Number 2. At Seattle, playoffs, 1999. Down by four points with less than nine minutes to play in what could have been his final game, Marino started at the Dolphins 15. On a third-and-17 play, he hits Tony Martin for 23. Later, on a third-and-10, he hits Oronde Gadsden for 24 yards and a first-and-goal from the 5. Dolphins win, 20-17..
Here's how I started my column: "This was the Dan Marino we were told so loudly in recent weeks did not exist anymore, could not exist, never would exist again in a Dolphins uniform.
The game was against him. The game plan was against him. The score, the noise, the third down, the long distance and too little time both on the scoreboard and more dramatically on his career all were against the Dolphins quarterback as he walked to the line in Sunday's fourth quarter.
He stood 3,000 miles from home, either eight minutes from retirement or 92 yards from victory, and he wasn't numbering any such nonsense.
Heroes never do. They're too busy.
"I was thinking about making one play," Marino said.
Number 3. The Clock Play. Marino comes to the line and hears Bernie Kosar in the radio in his helmet saying, "Go for the rookie!" That was New York Jets cornerback Aaron Glenn. Marino took the snap pretended to spike the ball, then lofted a touchdown to Mark Ingram -- their fourth of the game.
"Our whole defense just stopped," safety Bryan Washington said.
Here's how I started the column: "Until Sunday, it was just a well-traveled note stuck in the Dolphins playbook, by way of Cleveland, because it was at the Browns camp years ago that Bernie Kosar and Gary Danielson were tossing around X's and O's when the light bulb lit.
"What if...," Kosar said.
"Yeah, then...," Danielson said.
And there it was.
The Possum Play.
One for the ages, or the blooper films, or at least the final, frantic seconds of a Dolphins game years and careers later when the offense goes through the half-motions with the ball to be spiked by the quarterback to stop the clock .."
Number 4. 1992 opener against Cleveland. Could pick the 1986 playoff comeback against Cleveland. But, hey, it's the opener. In this one, the Dolphins were trailing by 17 with 13 minutes left. Marino leads two TD drives to win the game.
"A good birthday present to me,'' he says on his 31st.
Number 5. At Indy, 1999. Again, the final season. Maybe it was all the drama that year brought. Jimmy Johnson was on Marino. There was a lot of disappointment. A lot of questions about Marino, too.
So in what looked to be another December swoon, Marino threw for two touchdowns and 176 yards in the fourth quarter. On a fourth-and-10 with 34 seconds left, he threw for 48 yards to Gadsden to the Colts 2. He threw the TD to Gadsden from there.
"Grand larceny,'' defensive end Trace Armstrong called it.
Here's my (slightly exaggerated column: After maybe his finest moment, after perhaps his greatest comeback, after he beat the Colts, silenced a city and above all corked his coach's fat mouth, Dan Marino sat on a beige plastic chair, stuck his sore legs into his locker and laughed about the jump that goes forever like a rose petal into his scrapbook.
``Did I get off the ground?'' he asked.
He was told replays were inconclusive.
``Hey, I used to be able to jump,'' he said. ``In high school, I could dunk [a basketball]. I'll give you names to call. I've got witnesses.''
Marino turned his head to take in the locker-room scene, the shoulders having to turn with the head, the upper body following along, everything moving on a neck so stiff it could be stuck in cement. His back was welted red. His legs had no juice left.
He's 38, remember. But he played 28. And he jumped like 18 after that 2-yard touchdown pass to Oronde Gadsden delivered the most improbable of comebacks for the Dolphins after the most impossible of weeks ...
Four times he threw for 30 or more touchdowns in a season, including two seasons of more than 40. He threw for five or more touchdowns in a game five times and led the NFL in passing yards six times. He had 13 games of 400 or more yards passing.
He also led the Dolphins to 37 fourth-quarter comebacks. Such memories.
When Dan retired, he knew he was a Dolphin or bust. You will never see Marino do a Brett Favre and play for the Jets. Marino, class act.
[youtube]4S0pz8qHpFY[/youtube]
The 1994 game vs the Patriots
[youtube]8Ki0j3GL2cY[/youtube]
Dolphins are losing, 4th and 5 on the Pats 35. Marino throws a TD to Irving Friar to win the game with 20 seconds left.
---------------
Top 5 Marino comebacks by Dave Hyrde
Number 1. The opener against New England in 1994. H. Wayne Huizenga's first game as owner. Legendary stuff. Coming off the season-ending Achilles injury in 1993, Marino looked awful in preseason. There even was talk of him being benched until ready. Then he comes out on a wet field and torches the Patriots for five touchdowns.
The fifth, to Fryar, is as big as any he threw. Fourth down. Ball at New England's 35. Just over three minutes left. The Dolphins needed 5 yards for a first down.
"Coach said to get the first down,'' Keith Jackson told Marino in the huddle.
Marino took the game instead.
He came to the line, saw Fryar locked in one-on-one coverage and threw a touchdown.
Here's how I started my column that day: He stayed on the field like a king surveying his dominion, hands on hips and feet apart, while his subjects filed by. Teammates tapped his helmet on their way to the locker room. Dolphin coaches smiled in wonder.
New England coach Bill Parcells made a detour through the mud, stuck out a hand and said, "Not bad for a guy on one ankle."
Dan Marino smiled at this, as he can forever about Sunday, the way anyone who recognizes artistry at work would. He didn't just return to action after 11 months off. He returned to his throne. He delivered the most remarkable game of his remarkable career.
He proved himself once again, by throwing for 473 yards and five touchdowns in an utter fan's delight of a game. He also beat everyone, from his Achilles' tendon gremlins to his overworked media critics to, foremost of all, Parcell's Patriots, 39-35."
Number 2. At Seattle, playoffs, 1999. Down by four points with less than nine minutes to play in what could have been his final game, Marino started at the Dolphins 15. On a third-and-17 play, he hits Tony Martin for 23. Later, on a third-and-10, he hits Oronde Gadsden for 24 yards and a first-and-goal from the 5. Dolphins win, 20-17..
Here's how I started my column: "This was the Dan Marino we were told so loudly in recent weeks did not exist anymore, could not exist, never would exist again in a Dolphins uniform.
The game was against him. The game plan was against him. The score, the noise, the third down, the long distance and too little time both on the scoreboard and more dramatically on his career all were against the Dolphins quarterback as he walked to the line in Sunday's fourth quarter.
He stood 3,000 miles from home, either eight minutes from retirement or 92 yards from victory, and he wasn't numbering any such nonsense.
Heroes never do. They're too busy.
"I was thinking about making one play," Marino said.
Number 3. The Clock Play. Marino comes to the line and hears Bernie Kosar in the radio in his helmet saying, "Go for the rookie!" That was New York Jets cornerback Aaron Glenn. Marino took the snap pretended to spike the ball, then lofted a touchdown to Mark Ingram -- their fourth of the game.
"Our whole defense just stopped," safety Bryan Washington said.
Here's how I started the column: "Until Sunday, it was just a well-traveled note stuck in the Dolphins playbook, by way of Cleveland, because it was at the Browns camp years ago that Bernie Kosar and Gary Danielson were tossing around X's and O's when the light bulb lit.
"What if...," Kosar said.
"Yeah, then...," Danielson said.
And there it was.
The Possum Play.
One for the ages, or the blooper films, or at least the final, frantic seconds of a Dolphins game years and careers later when the offense goes through the half-motions with the ball to be spiked by the quarterback to stop the clock .."
Number 4. 1992 opener against Cleveland. Could pick the 1986 playoff comeback against Cleveland. But, hey, it's the opener. In this one, the Dolphins were trailing by 17 with 13 minutes left. Marino leads two TD drives to win the game.
"A good birthday present to me,'' he says on his 31st.
Number 5. At Indy, 1999. Again, the final season. Maybe it was all the drama that year brought. Jimmy Johnson was on Marino. There was a lot of disappointment. A lot of questions about Marino, too.
So in what looked to be another December swoon, Marino threw for two touchdowns and 176 yards in the fourth quarter. On a fourth-and-10 with 34 seconds left, he threw for 48 yards to Gadsden to the Colts 2. He threw the TD to Gadsden from there.
"Grand larceny,'' defensive end Trace Armstrong called it.
Here's my (slightly exaggerated column: After maybe his finest moment, after perhaps his greatest comeback, after he beat the Colts, silenced a city and above all corked his coach's fat mouth, Dan Marino sat on a beige plastic chair, stuck his sore legs into his locker and laughed about the jump that goes forever like a rose petal into his scrapbook.
``Did I get off the ground?'' he asked.
He was told replays were inconclusive.
``Hey, I used to be able to jump,'' he said. ``In high school, I could dunk [a basketball]. I'll give you names to call. I've got witnesses.''
Marino turned his head to take in the locker-room scene, the shoulders having to turn with the head, the upper body following along, everything moving on a neck so stiff it could be stuck in cement. His back was welted red. His legs had no juice left.
He's 38, remember. But he played 28. And he jumped like 18 after that 2-yard touchdown pass to Oronde Gadsden delivered the most improbable of comebacks for the Dolphins after the most impossible of weeks ...
