Dwight Stephenson once broke Dan Marino’s finger

The Miami Dolphins have a great rich history and last weekend we learned about a story that involved two of the Dolphins Hall of Fame members.

Speaking to a group of Miami Dolphins fan-site webmasters Dwight Stephenson shared a story of how he once broke Dan Marino’s finger during a pre-season game. And how he avoided Don Shula afterwards.

When Dwight Stephenson, who is now a successful construction business owner, entered the teams meeting room, the larger man was just as intimidating as he was in his playing days. Hands that were easily the size of my face, Stephenson grabbed the microphone and instead of a baritone deep voice a soft-spoken Hall of Fame center began to talk to us about his journey through the life of a football player.

Stephenson started 170 games in his career before an injury derailed his career. His 170 games is almost too hard to fathom as a metric for induction into the HOF. Some believe that if Stephenson had remained healthy he would have gone down as the best center in NFL history. Some still believe he is.

During his talk with our group, Stephenson described the phone call he received telling him he had been voted into the HOF. He said he waited by the phone the previous two years with no luck so this time he wasn’t by the phone when they called.

It was around this time he shared a story of one Dan Marino. According to Stephenson, he broke Marino’s finger during a snap exchange. The Dolphins were playing an exhibition game when a play requiring Stephenson to level the linebacker was called. Stephenson said he hit the linebacker hard and the backer wasn’t thrilled. In the huddle, Marino called the exact same play again.

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Stephenson knew that the backer was going to come after him so he hurried the snap and slammed the ball into Marino’s finger. Marino didn’t leave the game but in the huddle Stephenson said he hid from his quarterback refusing to look up opting instead to stare at the ground.

When the series ended Stephenson made a bee line for the sidelines careful to avoid Don Shula. Word has apparently spread that Marino’s finger was broken. Stephenson told us that as he was leaving the field, defensive linebacker Hugh Green walked by him asking if he liked Green Bay, Detroit, or Dallas. A playful poke at Stephenson’s future now that he damaged the golden boy.

Of course we all know that Stephenson would never leave Miami and Marino never missed a game for the incident and in fact, as Stephenson put it had one of his best seasons. It was an insight into the game, into the huddle, and in a way into the game itself.