Miami Dolphins By The Number: 4, 5, & 6
By Brian Miller
Well we won’t be able to combine the numbers much more. As we head towards double digits each number will have more than one option. So we will take the opportunity to do so while we can. It seems as though we are not the only ones taking a look at numbers either. The Miami Dolphins themselves have stole my idea…wink wink nod nod say no more. They are counting down from 99 and you can of course follow along. We started ours first though and you can vote here! BIG SMILE.
So that brings us to today. Let’s start with jersey number 4.
From 1978-1980 the uniform was worn by George Roberts. Tim Hutton wore the number in 1999 and for one part of the season in 2007 Brandon Fields wore the number before switching to his number two. But it was worn best by Reggie Roby who wore the number from 1983 until 1992. Roby is still today considered to be one of the best Miami Dolphins punters to have played for this team and we could have fun (maybe a poll series after this one) deciding who played each position the best. A great debate between Roby and Fields would be fun to discuss. So we will skip over the number four and hand it to one of the best!
With four out of the way we move on to number five where it gets a little more interesting.
Booth Lusteg wore the number in 1967. John Stofa from 1969-1970. Uwe Von Schamann from 1979-1984, Jeff Hayes in 1987, and Kyle Richardson in 1997. Matt Bryant wore the uniform in 2004 followed by Donnie Jones from 2005-2006. Dan Carpenter wore it from 2008-2012.
Miami was the only team that Von Schamann ever played for. He connected on 101 of 149 attempts in his six seasons. He missed only four extra points in that same time. 66 of 70. Von Schamann was almost money from inside the forty but outside the 40 his lack of pure leg strength hindered him. He kicked only four FG’s over 50 yards missing 11 and faired little better from 40-49 yards connecting on 14 of 31 attempts. Dan Carpenter connected on 127 of 155 attempts and missed only one extra point in his five seasons.
Carpenter was a long distance kicker and while he had some accuracy issues through seasons four and five with the team, he was still reliable. On his career in Miami, Carpenter was about 50% over 5o yards on his attempts and almost 90% on attempts made in the 40 – 49 yard range.
Who wore it best? You have to give the nod to Dan Carpenter and there really is no reason to poll the question. If you think that it should be someone else, let us know in the comments and we will see if we need to poll the question.
That brings us to number 6. Jim Arnold – 1994. Joe Nedney – 1996-1997. Brent Bartholomew – 1999. Ray Lucas – 2001 to 02. Pat White – 2009. JP Losman 2011. Not great deal of options there for you but I will let you decide for yourself. At some point I needed to put up a poll.