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It’s bad enough that the NFL is afraid of concussions and won’t let grown men play ball willingly if they have a headache.   Now they won’t let grown men play in the rain. Even though there is no solid evidence that the hurricane will be hitting Hard Rock Stadium Sunday afternoon, the league is already considering plans to make us move the game. It could be played later, or earlier, or in another state, or even during our bye week, which would then make Week One our new bye week.   And I thought only baseball players were afraid of the wind and rain!Read More →

With the practice games behind us, it’s time to think again to Opening Day.  As I’ve mentioned before, the NFL did no favors for the Miami Dolphins with the schedule this year.   We have very little weather advantage this time around.  Typically, the humid September games bury the opponents.  But this year is different.  Our first opponent is also used to this weather, and they won’t be affected by the humidity any worse than the Dolphins. Opening Day is a home game for the Dolphins, but there will be plenty of Tampa Bay fans in attendance as well.  This is a game I wouldn’tRead More →

I was away on Thursday night and could not watch the Dolphins-Eagles game live.   Instead, I read all about it over the next few days.   I read all about how sharp Jay Cutler looked, especially on some long passes to DeVante Parker. Then I watched the game, and I scratched my head.  What were the other Dolphin writers talking about? On the very first series, I saw Jay Cutler fumble away a promising drive by failing to protect the ball whatsoever.  On another series (the one where he allegedly made a great pass to Parker), I saw him underthrow the ball, which causedRead More →

The injury to Raekwon McMillan, coupled with the Dolphins management stupidly refusing to draft any other LBs, made the signing of Rey Maualuga almost a necessity. The brainiacs who run the Dolphins ignorantly assumed that Koa Misi would be healthy and productive, and they also ignorantly assumed that no one else would get hurt.  Wrong and wrong. So what does Maualuga have left in the tank?  Is he a better option than Mike Hull?  We’ll get a quick feel for that on Thursday night, as the Dolphins play a practice game with the Eagles.   When the Bengals got rid of Maualuga, they claimed itRead More →

Well, the backup Dolphin defenders gave up 31 points to a bunch of 5th stringers who are about to be unemployed once they are cut.   That is not good news, as it shows a serious lack of depth.  After watching 3 and a half quarters of unknown defenders out there, you’d think that one or two would have made a play to catch my eye.  Not really. Although, I do have to mention Cordrea Tankersley had a nice interception, literally taking the ball away from a receiver.  That was sheer smarts and instinct.   The receiver thought that Tank was simply going for the tackle,Read More →

UPDATE: The NFL just suspended Ezekiel Elliot for 6 games for smacking a woman around. I have to feel that Jarvis Landry will get at least 8 games, because his domestic violence led to an actual police report, etc. At least he didn’t trip over his own two feet and tear his ACL (Tannehill) or trip over his own teammate and tear his ACL (McMillan).   Back before the draft–all during the spring as a matter of fact–I repeatedly said that the Dolphins needed to spend all their draft picks on LBs. Many people thought I was crazy.  The Dolphins certainly didn’t listen.   NowRead More →

First, some news about the site.    We’ve finally upgraded the awful chatroom that was so troublesome last season. Let’s kick it off right on Thursday night.   Anyone is free to join us.  Hopefully, the new chatroom is flawless, but if not, then we’ll consider it the pre-season of chatrooms and it will give us some time to fix. The room is here:  http://dolphinstruth.com/chat/ You can also find the link at the top-right of every Dolphins Truth page.   We always have some lively discussions on game days, some debates, some fights.  But that’s what chatrooms are all about! And on Thursday, we’ll be ableRead More →

When it rains, it pours. On the day the Dolphins welcome Jay Cutler to camp (more on that later), it’s been revealed that back in April, a domestic violence report was filed against Landry.   The Dolphins did well to hide this, but in this era, such alleged crimes are harder and harder to hide.   Still not sure how the word got out and who spilled the beans.  The Dolphins, of course, went with the old “We’re aware of this and will wait to see how it plays out” routine.     Adam Gase has made it clear that he doesn’t mind his playersRead More →

In a single week, we lost Ryan Tannehill and Jay Ajayi, which are the injuries that received the most notoriety of course. Tannehill’s knee bothers me in retrospect,  because he should have had surgery last year instead of holding on to the ridiculous notion of “I’m not getting surgery yet, just in case we make it the Super Bowl and it will be healed by then so I can play.” Ajayi’s concussion scares me more, because of the way the league will step in now.  The NFL cannot order Tannehill to get his knee fixed, but they CAN order us to shut down Ajayi forRead More →

The official word from the Dolphins is that the team is taking this “very seriously.” It doesn’t look good.  Considering the fact that Matt Moore showed his true colors by blowing the two most important games of the year last season, this could be devastating news.  I’m not a major Tannehill fan, but he certainly had a chance to prosper this year with all the new offensive weapons.  I feel we’re better with him that without. And, for the time being anyway, we’re without. RG3, Come on down!!   You are the next QB!Read More →

It’s not looking very good either.  Add that to the fact that the NFL babies these guys nowadays and REQUIRES them to sit out games if they the league wants them to, it could be a long season with no seasoned RB. Time to step it up, Mr. Kenyan Drake.Read More →

Well, it didn’t take long for Koa Misi to be gone.  This year it occurred before the season even started.  The Dolphins placed him on I.R., essentially disqualifying him from playing one single snap this year.  There are back-and-forth rumors declaring if Misi is retiring or not, but does that really matter?  He hasn’t played a full season for us in 7 years.  If a guy barely plays for 3 seasons and retires, what have we lost? Don’t get me wrong.  I like the guy and injuries are never an athlete’s fault.  The injury doesn’t make Misi less tough.  The point is that Dolphins couldRead More →

In the past few months, we’ve already covered the logistical nightmare that the Dolphins schedule poses for the team.   Examples include having only 7 home games instead of 8, a brutal travel schedule, backloaded home games (so that Bills and Patriots visit Florida during perfect December weather, instead of muggy September), etc. But now it’s time to dig into the REAL nightmare.   Never mind the travel and scheduling.   It’s now time to look at the power of our opponents.  And there is no good news. We studied the Top Scoring offenses last year.  For the record, the Dolphins were at the low-middleRead More →

Back in March, I wrote about the nonsense that goes into the NFL creating and releasing its schedule.   Then in March, I continued my tirade. I just wanted to write a quick post today to follow up, and emphasize my point, since I saw the NHL released its schedule today. That’s right.  Less than two weeks after watching the Penguins win the Stanley Cup, the NHL is already back at work, releasing its schedule.   That’s 82 games per team x 31 teams…a huge and complex number of games, including working in a new expansion team and an odd number of teams.   ALLRead More →

There’s an interesting story out of Michigan about an anonymous donor who spent more than half a million dollars of his own money to send the entire Michigan Football team to Rome, Italy.   Is there any doubt that it was Stephen Ross?  We all know that Michigan is his favorite sports team, so it would not surprise me one bit. Speaking of Ross, his RISE initiative won some kind of award for trying to fight racism in sports.  Because every Dolphin fan in the world will be happy with a 4-12 team every year, as long as the locker room is filled with butterfliesRead More →

Man, and you thought MAY was a slow month for football. Just to give us another column to comment on, I’m writing here with a few tidbits to get us discussing things. First of all, the Miami Herald today had an interesting interview with Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christiansen.   What I zoned in on was Clyde and Adam Gase disagreeing on TD celebrations.   Clyde said he has an old-fashioned point of view (like me), but Adam Gase is far more lax.  Clyde is concerned about the penalties, but Gase apparently says “Who cares.   Let them celebrate.  Let them get a penalty.   We’ll makeRead More →

A few new administrative rule changes are going into effect in 2017, and like most of what the NFL tries, some are good and some are bad. First the bad rule change, and the one where many of you will disagree with me:   The NFL is relaxing its touchdown celebration rules.   Snow angels, using the ball as a prop in a celebration dance, and group celebrations, for example, are all now allowed. So why is this bad?   It all lacks professionalism. When you do something well at work and accomplish a weekly goal, do you hug your laptop?  Do you get togetherRead More →