For some Miami Dolphins players, 2019 was a lifelong dream
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins played more than 75 different players this season. Some of whom may never play another down in the NFL.
On Sunday, the Miami Dolphins improved to four wins on the season and that win dropped them from a potential second overall draft pick to a 5th. Was winning really all that important?
While some, myself included, questioned the idea of playing Ryan Fitzpatrick when the season was lost and a draft pick position was on the line, Brian Flores didn’t care what we thought and he didn’t care about the draft. Weeks ago he told the media that he could not stand in front of his team and tell them he wasn’t giving them the best chance to win.
His team. A team of misfits like the toys in Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer. A bunch of “toys” that “nobody wanted’. (can you guess what I watched with the family last night?). These are castoff players from other rosters. Players that never made it to a big game or a game outside of pre-season.
For many players, pre-season games are what they talk about a decade later while sitting around with family at a Christmas party. “This is my brother John, he played two pre-season games with the Dolphins back in the early 1990s”. We all know someone with that type of story and honestly, I would love to be able to say I played in a pre-season game in the NFL.
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For these players, it’s not a pre-season game. They not only played in a regular-season game but in many cases started or at the very least contributed. On Sunday, the 1972 Miami Dolphins team was honored at Hard Rock Stadium for being a perfect team. They were comprised on the defense of a bunch of “no-names”. It was fitting on Sunday that they were honored with a bunch of absolute no-name players representing them on defense.
Calvin Munson, Trent Harris, Tae Hayes, Zach Sieler, Adrian Colbert, Nate Brooks, Linden Stephens, and even on offense we got De’Lance Turner. Outside of Miami you really need to have a life if those names recall any memories of an NFL career.
On Sunday, Colbert, Sieler, Hayes, and Brooks all had passes defensed. Harris and Sieler each had a sack and all of them made tackles. Not bad for a bunch of guys who only dreamed of being an NFL player.
So what does this win mean for the Miami Dolphins? Absolutely nothing. They lost three or four draft spots but to these guys, it means everything. To these guys, players that will likely not make it out of training camp or if they are really lucky to make it to final cuts, it is the world.
We can say what we want but they played hard all year. Some lasted most of the season, some didn’t, but each week they were prepared, they were ready, and frankly, they had no business being on the football field and yet they were. Making plays, keeping the team in games and on four occasions, winning them.
The Miami Dolphins are not going to the post-season they are not drafting Joe Burrow or Chase Young and probably should consider trading back, and most of this undrafted roster won’t make it to year two, but this team may very well go down in Dolphins history as one of the best. Not for wins, not for Super Bowls or playoffs, but for sheer desire, heart, and motivation.