30 years ago, the Dolphins were champions. It ended in 1974
Ken Stabler fades back.
He’s starting to scramble. Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins are jockeying for position in the Miami end zone. The Raiders are just a few yards from goal.
There’s less than 30 seconds to play in the game.
It looks as though The Snake is finally going to be stopped.
Vern Den Herder is closing in from the left end position.
Den Herder dives and grabs Stabler by his right ankle -- The Snake lunges forward and lofts, no, shot-puts the ball…
The ball miraculously lands in the hands of Clarence Davis who just so happens to have broken loose for a split second in the end zone. The Raiders have just taken a 28-26 lead.
The 1974 AFC Divisional Playoff Game in Oakland was my first taste of bitter defeat as a Miami Dolphins fan.
I know there isn’t much sympathy for fans of a team that almost every year is above the .500 mark and, at the start of the 2002 season, has qualified for the playoffs five years in a row. If you’re a fan of another team - a team with a history of losing - I’ll tell you the same thing my parents used to tell me: “I don’t care what the other kids are doing.”
Zach Thomas summed it up quite nicely after the Dolphins suffered a 21-17 loss to the Jets after leading the game 17-0 at halftime. "Everybody wants to win,” Thomas said. “I want to win to get to the playoffs and the Super Bowl. Some guys around here, they want to win, but they're satisfied with the winning season. That's not me. I'm tired of the 'winning season.' “
If you’re a fan of some loser organization like the Jets, Bengals, Lions or Falcons, that’s your problem. The Dolphins, they are my problem. And, considering they consume so much of my emotions and thoughts, they are a huge problem.
I have zero connection to the team, the city of Miami or the players other than the fact that I read about them every day, go out of my way to watch them every Sunday, travel to one game a year and am surrounded by items decked in aqua and orange colors. I’ve punched holes in walls, wrecked my bedroom several times and ended relationships with girlfriends because they simply couldn’t understand my passion.
I am relieved to know that there are fans out there that are worse than I am. But, like I said earlier, this is my problem.