Miami Dolphins greatest villain of all-time according to NFL Mocks
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins have played a lot of teams and a lot of football players but a handful standout as being that one guy that simply makes your blood boil. The villain.
On our sister site, NFLMocks.com, they listed the top villain for every NFL team through history and they 100% nailed the Miami Dolphins greatest villain, Thurman Thomas.
Thomas destroyed the Miami Dolphins pure and simple. On his legs the Bills were able to eat the clock and keep Dan Marino off the field. In fact you can pretty much say that it was because of the Bills and Thurman Thomas that the Miami Dolphins greatest quarterback isn’t regarded as the greatest quarterback of all-time outside of the Dolphins fan base.
In a nutshell, if not for Thomas and the Jim Kelly led Bills, Dan Marino would have gone to a lot of Super Bowls. Adding insult to injury, Thomas finished his NFL career as a Miami Dolphins with 28 rushing attempts in nine games for 136 yards.
While Thomas killed Miami the greatest villain of all-time may very well be a name you can’t remember or recall.
John F. Bassett
The name likely does not ring a bell but to the most die-hard and knowledgeable fans of the Miami Dolphins. Bassett however is one of the most villainous men to damage the Dolphins.
You have to go back to the 1973 NFL season when Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, and Paul Warfiled shunned the Dolphins and headed to the Bassett owned Toronto Northmen of the WFL. The move would end the Dolphins dynasty and while Miami stayed competitive they didn’t go back to the Super Bowl after their three year run until the 1980’s.
Bassett however faced a lot of obsticles and not just the financial ones for a team that was destined to fail as quickly as the league. The Canadian Parliment threatened to shut down his team in Toronto forcing him to move the team to Memphis as the Southmen.
The league itself saw several teams fold in the first 14 weeks and the cancellation of one playoff game due to poor ticket sales. In the end, Bassett invested and lost a lot of money in the WFL and the trio of Dolphins found their careers on a slide.
Over the course of the Dolphins history, names like Ken O’Brien come to mind. The Jets and Dolphins rivalry was at its best during the Marino-O’Brien era with amazing high-scoring games that often came down to the wire.
Today however most fans would point to Tom Brady but the Dolphins have actually been a thorn in Brady’s side so is he a villain as much as just a vile member of the Patriots? I would say the latter. Who would you say is one of the Dolphins biggest villains in history? Let us know in the comments.