Miami Dolphins - Dominion is the Question

Wayne Huizenga (Miami Dolphins holder) is one of those owners who loves his team and is ready to do anything and spend any amount he thinks will help his club, but deficient in one important area, he doesn’t know football. This leads to poor decisions and mindless reactions that head to continuous poor teams.

His nonexistence of knowledge of the game and his lack of having people directly below him who have that knowledge has been his failure. Not for the visible reasons... Good football teams are built by coaches who have a scheme, a system and a grand plan on what type of players fit into that system. Each coach normally has a GM who assigns those views and works together to draft players and sign players, who fit that system. It is up to the owner to select a coach who has the ability to build a team based on his plan and give that coach the time to make his system work. The Dolphins are a case study on how an owner can destroy a team by making rapid coaching changes with complete indifference for the systems those coaches occupy.

Jimmy Johnson was a good coach with a recognized track record of winning and a proven track record of assembling a team from nothing, into a champion. When he took over the Dolphins he saw instantly that Dan Marino would not fit into his system. He made that clear and was plainly whacked by the local media and fan base because of the icon Dan Marino who was with the Dolphins. Wayne Huizenga mediates and reverses Jimmy’s choice to trade, or else allow Dan Marino to move on. This decision demoralized the coach, the team and had a rise and fall effect that is still being felt ten years later.

Marino did not suit Johnson’s system. It did not mean Marino was a bad player or was anything less than a great player, it simply meant Marino did not tally. Johnson was then forced to work with a player who didn’t fit his system, he was also compel to bring in players who didn’t apt his scheme and therefore, players he was not secure drafting because these were the players who would fit Marino. In the end, both Johnson and Marino went down in the flames of a 62 to 7 playoff in Jacksonville.

The bottom line is; there are no saviors, protectors or knights in shinning armor. If a team is bad it must be restored. If a team is good, the system should not be changed. The owner must have enough football expertise to understand this simple logic or the end product will be a very bad football team for a very long time.

Now, if you own $2.5 billion dollars like Huizenga does, never mind the lack of wisdom for the game, you can hire 100 coaches to do that for you.

About the author

Cindy Ferguson is a high-ranking sports writer, currently writing reviews on the NFL Season 2008-09 for the sports betting industry. Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety on your site, make sure to leave all links in place and do not modify any of the content.