So long and thanks for all the fish!

When I was about 12 or 13 years old, I decided that the Miami Dolphins were "my" team in the NFL. I don't know why I was really motivated to pick an NFL team; I'd never seen a game in person (I still haven't), I didn't live in Miami (and even now, I've only visited the horrible Miami airport on a stop over), and very likely Dan Marino was the only player I could name on the entire team. I'd never heard of the '72 Dolphins and their incredible undefeated season.

I lived through some good moments (none of which spring to mind right now). But looking back now, it seems there were many more terrible moments: the Monday Night Meltdown in 2000 (Miami blowing a 30-7 4th quarter lead to lose 40-37 in OT, a game voted the #1 MNF game of all time); the Dolphins losing every playoff game I ever watched, including Dan Marino's last game; and the string of 4 straight years without even making the playoffs. That was up to the start of last year's season.

Things were looking up in the summer of 2006. We had Daunte Culpepper coming in as a trusty veteran QB after years of shaky Marino-wannabees, Ronnie Brown looking to make a sophomore breakthrough as the primary RB now that Ricky Williams was off for a year due to drug-related suspension, and the defense, though aging, was still a key factor and feared by every opposing team. Miami had finished the previous season strongly, winning 6 of the last 6 games to finish at 9-7. Head coach Nick Saban had things ticking over well, implementing his game plan and letting the team know that he had the vision and they had the talent to make it. Many publications were even picking Miami as a Superbowl XLI favourite.

Then the wheels started to fall apart. Brown and Culpepper went down with injuries. Close games were lost. Others were just blow outs. When the dust settled, the Dolphins finished 6-10 and last in the AFC East. Sabin said he was committed to the plan and 2006 was just a blip; then he lied his ass off, took the golden ticket and blew off the Dolphins to go back to college ball.

His replacement (Cam Cameron) seemed to have a good pedigree, being one of the San Diego Chargers more capable assistants. Then they passed up a potential franchise QB (Brady Quinn, originally predicted to go #1 or #2) in this summer's draft, but took another quarterback in the second round anyway. Then just this week, they finalized a deal to get Trent Green from Kansas City. Nothing against Green, but he's already 37 with a history of concussions (including one last year that cost him 8 games), and now the Dolphins are going to likely deal or release Culpepper. So they passed up a great future quarterback and are likely tossing aside their veteran franchise quarterback acquired one season ago, for an even older veteran?

That's it. I am done. I just can't take this team anymore. After 20 odd years of following this team, I'm washing my hands of their misery. The Dolphins ship is going nowhere but down, and I've finally decided to inflate my life vest and head back to the surface.