Trending
By Ira Kaufman
For the Mirror
Last Thursday night's between Miami and Buffalo was one of the worst losses I can remember a team having early in the season.
On so many levels, the Dolphins' horrendous loss to the Bills, coupled with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's injury, has dealt a crippling blow to the franchise and its fan base.
The Dolphins hold a special place in the hearts of South Florida sports fans and across America as the only team to finish unbeaten in NFL history (17-0 in 1972).
The Dolphins were founded in 1966 and played their first four seasons in the AFL and were one of the worst teams in football.
In 1970, the team merged into the NFL and hired Don Shula as coach, and then for the next four years had one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history, playing in three Super Bowls and winning two of them, including the perfect season.
From 1970, the Dolphins only had two losing seasons (playing in two more Super Bowls in the '80s) and had one of the greatest players in the history of the NFL, Dan Marino.
When the Fins started their run in 1970, there was no Heat, Panthers, Marlins or any other professional sports in South Florida.
Miami was simply a vacation town for northerners in the winter.
The Dolphins of the 1970s shined a laser light on South Florida and was Miami's entrance into the big leagues of the USA cities, and now South Florida has become a leading center in the world for business.
After Marino and Shula retired, the 2000s have not been kind to the Dolphins. The Fins had two of the greatest coaches of all time, Jimmy Johnson and Nick Saban for a few years, without a Super Bowl appearance.
But decades of mediocre teams led by non-descript coaches and quarterbacks muted the passion of the Fins fans.
Then Tua was drafted in 2020 and an unheard of genius coach, Mike McDaniel, was hired in 2021 from the San Francisco 49ers.
The Fins started assembling by far the fastest team in the history of the NFL with receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle and running back Raheem Mostart. An amazing offense was unleashed, but then Tua suffered a concussion, and then another and then another.
Question marks surrounded the team and the future of Tua.
Then in 2022, Tua came back, added 15 pounds of muscle and with JuJitsu training. The team drafted the fastest player in the NFL, running back Devon Achane, and Tua stayed healthy all year and led the NFL in passing with Hill leading the league in receiving.
But the team built for warm weather froze on the road in Kansas City in last year's playoffs.
This season, however, was going to be different. Miami gave huge contracts to Hill ($120M), Waddle ($85M), and Tua ($212M) and even McDaniel.
In the first game of the season, the Dolphins overcame a two-touchdown deficit to beat Jacksonville -- and the traffic/police incident involving Hill appeared to bring the team even closer together.
Thursday night was going to be the night when Miami made it clear it now was the top dog in the division and Tua would emerge as an early MVP candidate.
The game could not have gone any worse for Miami -- and that was before Tua's injury.
The Dolphins' defense was paper machete the entire game as the Bills just ran the ball up the middle and dared the Dolphins to stop them. The Bills were up 24-10 at halftime.
With four minutes to go in the third quarter, Tua, with three interceptions, was having the worst game of his NFL career.
Serious injuries have dominated NFL conversation the last two years. Besides Tua's head injuries, the other injury that crossed into the general public discussion, was the Bills' cornerback, Damar Hamlin, collapsing on the field in the next to last game of 2022 after making a hit, suffering cardiac arrest.
The game was stopped (the first time in NFL history), and Damar's amazing recovery from that has been well documented.
Last year Hamlin played mostly a reserve role for the Bills, but this year he actually was playing a key role in the Bills defense.
And, most ironically, it was his hit on Tua that ended the Miami QB's night and will cause him to miss an undermined number of games this season.
He's currently on the injured list.
Considering Tua's concussion history, there is a chance he may choose to retire for his long-term health. And the Dolphins, who put all their chips in the center for this season, may be back to square one without a quarterback to lead the dynamic offense.
Kaufman, an Altoona native and traveling sports fan, hosts "IRA on Sports" on trueoldiesfla.com on Monday night from 7-8 p.m. His column appears occasionally.