News & Quotes

Ahh, Wednesday.  Too early to really dig into the weekends game breakdown and too disinterested in talking about the Oakland game that is 3 days old.  So where does that leave us?  With a bunch of information you may or may not know about what’s going on with the Miam Dolphins.  Here is some news and quotes for this week.  Enjoy.

Vernon Carey is this years Miami Dolphins nominated player for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award.  Last years winner was Jason Taylor so Carey has some big shoes to fill.  The MOY award is given to the player best deserving for his work off the field and not on.  

Could the Phins lose 2 WPMOY’s in consecutive years?

As stated above JT won the award in 2007 and then was traded to the Washington Redskins.  Vernon Carey has yet to be contacted regarding his contract.  He becomes and unrestrestricted free agent after this season.  If he wins the award, could he too be gone next year?

There are 4 other names on the list of free agents for the Dolphins.  4 starters that is.  Channing Crowder has had preliminary talks on a new deal but the sides apparently are not actually discussing real figures at this point and are only testing the waters.

The remaining 3 have yet to be contacted at all.  FS Renaldo Hill, S Yeremiah Bell, and CB Andre’ Goodman.  The Dolphins will likely look at retaining Bell and Hill but Goodman could be expendable as the team will look to improve the secondary in free agency and the draft.

Speaking of the draft, in case you haven’t noticed…the Pro-Bowl balloting is under way and the Dolphins actually have a rookie leading the votes in the AFC.  Number 1 overall pick Jake Long is currently the fan favorite for the tackle position.  Long leads D’Brikashaw Ferguson, Matt Light, and last years Pro-Bowl rookie Joe Thomas from Cleveland.  You can vote for the Pro-bowlers here.

Of course Long isn’t the only Phins leading the balloting.  Joey Porter is leading the defensive LB charge with over 30 thousand votes over 2nd place vote getter Keith Bullocks for the OLB voting. 

It doesn’t stop there.  Perennial all-pro RB Ladanian Tomlinson trails our own Ronnie Brown by some 20,000 votes for first place.  The last Dolphins RB to make the Pro-Bowl was Ricky Williams after his first season with the Dolphins.

Chad Pennington however is not in the top 3.

With the Patriots game fast approaching, Joey Porter is awful quiet this week.  Calling for an all out fan blitz this weekend, the most JP has said is to the fans.  Porter is begging for a sellout crowd and noise that will rock the stadium and force the Patriots to commit mistakes.  The most Porter has said this week regarding the Patriots is this:

"“I guess their quarterback has some more games under his belt so they feel more comfortable,” Porter said of Cassel, who threw for 400 yards with three touchdowns in Thursday’s loss to the Jets. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing; our confidence is starting to grow, so coming into our stadium we’re going to make it hard for anybody.””They let us now how they feel about us,” Porter said. “There’s no love lost. We don’t like them, and they don’t like us.”"

It seems to be a common theme as the Phins prep for the biggest game of their season.

"Ronnie Brown – “If you think about it, how many teams have beaten Bill Belichick twice in a season?” he said. “That’s another goal in itself. We obviously know what’s at stake and we’ve got a must-win game for us.””It’s going to be a big turning point of our season,” who said this will be the biggest game of his NFL career. “We’ve won four games in a row, but we’ve got to continue taking it one game at a time.”"

"Tony Sparano – “My message to the players is if you don’t walk through this door Wednesday and your heart isn’t racing a million miles an hour then you don’t have a pulse. This is why we do what we do. We put ourselves in a position to have a big game at home here at the end of November."

"“I don’t think too much has to be said this week.”Perhaps the strongest words spoken all week come from an unlikely voice.  Anthony Fasano – “Personally, I grew up a New York sports fan, so I’ve always hated the Patriots and the Red Sox, so I don’t have to dig too deep,”Yes, the game is that big.With any real playoff talk a week away, the outcome of this game will go a long way in factoring who the real players are.  Until this game plays out, there is no need to discuss the issue further except to say the loser could be on the outside looking in.Finally, a gift for you “men” who have managed to read this far down…first thank you, here’s your reward.  An exclusive video clip of Lilly from the Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders…enjoy.  Please feel free to register at our forum, the destination of that link and stick around to chat it up with other Miami Dolphins fans! Thanks to one of our readers, “Idahomer” for pointing out an error in this article that misquoted Joey Porter talking about last years NE game when he was referring to his son’s Pee-wee football game.  That portion of the article has been taken down. Anthony Fasano – “Personally, I grew up a New York sports fan, so I’ve always hated the Patriots and the Red Sox, so I don’t have to dig too deep,”"