The Miami Dolphins are about to lose a super star on their defense

The Miami Dolphins are about to lose a super star on their defense, a Cameron Wake loss will be a hard pill to swallow after years of dominating at the edge for the Dolphins and their fans.

Another year gone, and the off-season has shown up and suddenly everyone on the planet knows everything. You can go to any social media site or sports news channel and there is hundred people telling you that their source has this football guy talking to this football team, it’s simple exhausting trying to weed through all these self-claimed gurus, to figure out what might be legit and what is a huge load.

It seems to happen every year, but there are a few guys out there whom seem to have a legit pulse for your team. Every year players who you might have liked and cheered for or even bought merchandise for are now leaving to go and play for another team. It’s just the way it is now a days. The days where your favorite player played for your team his entire career or at least most of it are long gone. It is after all a professional business, but sometimes the fans forget that and like me, take a player leaving personal.

So, when a mainstay superstar does come to the end of his career or is moved on from by the franchise due to financial restrictions or the age of a player, it’s tough.

One of my favorite players on the Miami Dolphins team the last ten or so years has been Cameron Wake. He has been a fierce beast on the field. You could always count on Cameron Wake to step up in a crucial situation and make a huge play. He was a physical freak and could absolutely wreak havoc on anyone standing on the other side of him at any given moment. Cameron Wake was an edge rushing wrecking ball.

Cameron Wake took the not so easy path to NFL stardom, after playing a great collegiate career at Pennsylvania State University, were he mostly played linebacker, but did play some defensive end. Cameron played good enough to join the New York Giants in April of 2005, but then was released by the Giants shortly after in the month of June.

Cameron Wake then signed a free agent deal with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League in May of 2007. He absolutely destroyed the league on the defensive side of the ball. He totaled 39 sacks over his first two seasons in the CFL and was the first player ever to be named Rookie of the year and also Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. The following season Cameron Wake followed that up by winning the Most Outstanding Defensive player award.

Finally, Cameron Wake got his shot to impress the Miami Dolphins with a workout in January of 2009. The regime realized what a player they had just witnessed and quickly signed him to the team with a four-year deal including a million-dollar bonus. The long road to the NFL had finally paid off. The blood sweat, and the pain had finally got him the shot he was due years before.

If there is one thing you can never tell Mr. Cameron Wake, it’s the phrase “you can’t do it”. This just simply fuels this man to do it and do it better than ever before. From being told he wasn’t good enough for the NFL, to being told you’ll never come back from that Achilles injury, sorry, but Cameron Wake just doesn’t understand limitations, he is just not wired that way.

Cameron Wake walks on to a really bad Miami Dolphins team in 2009. A team that has an offense led Chad Henne, enough said there, a team that has a lot of issues on both sides of the ball. So, after enduring a quite 2009 season (5.5 sacks/1 game started) Cameron Wake shows up in the 2010 season and introduces himself to the NFL with 14 sacks, 21 TFL’s and 26 QB Hits while starting all 16 games and earning himself a pro-bowl, and more importantly establishes himself as the new Miami Dolphins edge rusher for years to come.

So many great moments from this guy, we all enjoyed countless sacks delivered to, if my math is correct, an amazing 19 different quarterbacks, with 3rd down stops, pass deflections and even an interception, but let’s not forget enjoying 10.5 soul crushing sacks to one Tom Brady.

But, the most memorable game must be the Halloween night Cincinnati Bengals game,

"“It was Halloween night and I shut the game down in overtime with that sack for a safety,” Wake says. “I thought that game would last forever. One of my most memorable sacks.”"

I myself, will never forget that sack, it still makes me smile and gives me chills thinking about it. I remember coming 6 feet off my couch screaming “Hell Yeah Wake!”, of course there might have been some not so clean added verbiage in that comment as well. I absolutely love watching Cameron Wake come off that low dip, rise up under the tackles outside shoulder and reach for the QB or even better getting an unobstructed open shot, man it was a thing of beauty.

But, as all things, father time catches everyone and even the best of the best fall to his curse. It appears the end has come for Cameron Wake in the Aqua and Orange and it is definitely an end to an era. It is in fact a sad reminder that time has passed to quickly and one of my favorite players time has again come and gone and I will truly miss his passion, his game and his beast-mode celebration that only he could deliver to get the fans out of their seats screaming.

It will really seem odd not having number 91 setting the edge out there for the Miami Dolphins and I guess we will have to sit back and wait for the next great edge rusher, but if time has told us anything, this franchise has a knack of finding Hall of Fame pass rushers.

A personal thank you Mr. Derek Cameron Wake, it’s been a real honor to watch you ball out for the Miami Dolphins, you will be missed, but never forgot. You might don some unfamiliar colors for a few more years, but I know you will retire a Miami Dolphin and hopefully will get your number froze in time on the ring of honor, you’ve earned it!