A UK Interview…From “Across The Pond”
By author
Welcome to “Across the Pond”, here we will be taking a look at what it’s like being an American Football fan here in the Uk.
To start the ball rolling I would like to introduce you to the the host of www.miamidolphins.co.uk …
Will the real “Shady”, please stand up.
Blaze: So how and when did you become a fan of the Miami Dolphins
"Shady: How, Why and When I became a fan, This all started for me back when Channel Four began showing the NFL in the early to mid-eighties. Saturday mornings were regularly spent in front of the TV watching Gary Imlach and Mick Luckhurst (former Falcons UK kicker) showing highlights from the previous week to a mix of Two Tribes. Sunday night was normally a time for sitting up late playing with the tuning on the radio trying to get U.S. Forces radio who covered a late game and gave score updates from the other matches. Back then it was a close run thing with the Phins. I was also a big fan of Ickey Woods and his Ickey shuffle so if things had been different I may have been hosting CBUK instead of MDUK. But something about #13 dropping back and unleashing a Howitzer down field in the SFla sunshine just grabbed my childhood imagination and from that point on I was a Phin for life."
Blaze: What do you think of the current squad?
"Shady: Clearly we’re now at a point where we havethe potential to make a run to the playoffs. Yes, we’re in a tough divisionthis year once again with the Pats and the Jests but for me that’s a goodthing. If you want to be the best you have to beat the best. If we go 3-1 or4-0 (hey, a guy can dream) against those two teams then we should be lookingat top spot in the East. Can we do that? Well, we swept the Jests lastseason and so long as Cryin Ryan keeps writing our team talks by running hismouth there’s no reason we can’t repeat last years performance. The Patswill be the team to beat though, again. I must admit I find it very hard tohate the Pats. Bellicheat? Yes. The Pats? Well, being a fan from themid-eighties my earliest memory of the Pats were as the team that used toprop up the division on a regular basis. Well, that and their god awful olduniforms! For the Phins this year there’s no doubt that the O finally haswhat every Finatic has been crying out for – a true number one WR in BMarsh.If he and Henne find a chemistry this year then teams are going to have totake our passing game seriously and back off from stacking as many as eightguys in the box. In turn this should give Ricky and Ronnie more room to runand I can see Ronnie especially picking up some big gains. On D I’d have tosay I’m still concerned about our ability to stop the big plays. Safetycontinues to be an area of concern as will getting to the QB after thedeparture of Porter and Taylor. However one thing I think we will see thisyear is an increasing number of ‘looks’ from this D. Nolan picked up theBroncos last year and made their D competitive and I think there’s enoughthere in Miami this year for him to do the same again. This has got to bethe most exciting time in a number of years to be a Dolfan."
Blaze: What stands out to you in terms of Miami Dolpphin highlights?
"Shady: Well, the Marino fake spike against the Jests was a beauty as was the win against them where Brett Favre extended his career record number of INT’s thrown by three but purely on a personal note it has to be the Wembley game against the Giants. After numerous planned (and failed) attempts to put some money together, get some time off and actually get Stateside that was my first ‘in person’ taste of Phins football. A crap game, a grim English night but I was still smiling when I left the ground."
www.miamidolphins.co.uk … is a UK based forum for Miami Dolphins Fans!
Stay tuned for more UK Phin fan stuff , whether it’s the Miami Dolphins or the UK based leagues you can bet that we will be covering it!!
If you want to know anything or have friends or relatives over here give us a shout!
Next week an interview with Jim Blinkhorn (Headcoach Bolton Bulldogs & JV national advisor)
www.bafca.com … British American Football Coaches Association
www.bafa.org.uk … British American Football Association