Miami Dolphins Walk of Fame inductees announced
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins announced their 2018 Walk of Fame inductees and the list is a little surprising and frankly, I’m not all that impressed.
The Dolphins have not had a class induction since 2014 mainly because of the pre-occupation with the stadium renovations. They haven’t had anyone inducted into the Ring of Honor since 2014 either. This years class however adds only one new name and this is where I believe they went wrong.
Dick Anderson, Mark Clayton, Mark Duper, John Offerdahl and Jason Taylor will be joined by Jon Giesler in this years Walk of Fame class. So why should you be surprised? Because that isn’t what the Walk of Fame was billed as, at least not what I thought it was supposed to be.
The Walk of Fame is comprised of two levels of players. Hall of Fame inductees and players that were not quite good enough for the Ring of Honor but still made lasting impressions on Dolphins history. Players deserving of recognition but maybe not at the highest level.
Of all the players on the WoF only the HOF players and Nat Moore appear on both the WoF and the RoH. Not anymore.
The Ring of Honor is in place to honor the highest achievements of Miami Dolphins through history. The Walk of Fame was, at least I thought, for those players with exceptional backgrounds as Miami Dolphins, players who have a special place in team history but maybe just were not on the same plane as say, the Hall of Famer’s or those on the Ring of Honor.
Now it’s watered down. Jason Taylor’s addition to the Walk of Fame makes sense. All of the Hall of Fame players are on the WoF. But now we are adding the RoH guys to it too? Seems like a copout and it seems like a bunch of deserving players have been cheated.
That is not to say that I don’t love the players on the list but do they need to be on both the WoF and RoH? It seems redundant. It is safe to say that next years group will now almost certainly include the other members of the RoH that are not on the WoF. And that will continue for the forseeable future until all of the members of the Ring of Honor are on the Walk of Fame. They have to now as they have set the precedent.
Perhaps what they should have done was just added all of the RoH players to the WoF at the Joe Robbie Plaza. No big celebration just add them. Then have a 2018 class comprising new names and celebrating them.
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Of course I don’t own or decide what does and doesn’t go on with the Dolphins. At least one new face get’s a long overdue mention.
Jon Giesler played 10 seasons for the Dolphins and started almost his entire career. He played in two Super Bowls in the mid-80’s and was one of the best left tackles in Dolphins history.
His addition to the Walk of Fame makes sense. But so would the addition of Tim Ruddy or Vern Den Herder whose accomplishments also have gone unrecognized in Dolphins history.
I’m not complaining about the names, again, they are great members of the Dolphins alumni and seeing them honored by the team is always pretty awesome. In November when they are officially inducted into the “Walk” fans will be able to get a glimpse of them. My problem is simply that the Dolphins are kind of making the Ring of Honor less impressive. It doesn’t have to be tiered the same.
Congratulations to all of them especially Jon Giesler. Not sure how the others actually feel, I mean they are on the Ring of Honor, it seems like a bit of step down to me. But then again, who am I to say. Does this now open the door for a member of the WoF to be inducted into the RoH? It should now. One player that comes to mind is Sam Madison.
The Walk of Fame is a pretty cool area outside of Hard Rock Stadium and one you should visit on game-days. While it would have been nice to see mainly new faces, it’s still cool to see these players getting attention.
UPDATE: After speaking with someone from the Miami Dolphins it is my understanding that the purpose of the dual representation is that it was not expected to be tiered. Players on the RoH should be included on the WoF as well.