Don Shula will get the funeral he deserves despite social distancing

The Miami Dolphins and the NFL lost a legendary member of their family today when it was announced that Don Shula had passed away.

One of the thoughts that are making its way around those who knew him is that he will be robbed of the funeral that he greatly deserves. That may not be the case and in fact, he may be getting the funeral he most definitely deserves instead.

Because of social distancing, there will be no huge funeral for Don Shula. No throngs of people lining up along the road to pay tribute to his procession. No throngs of people pouring into a church or at a gravesite. Instead, Don Shula will miss all that and he will be laid to rest with his greatest legacies around him. His family.

Former players for Don Shula will not be able to attend his funeral and that is not good for them, but for Shula, a man who held his family very close, it is fitting.

There will be a time for fans, former players, and executives to pay their respects. The Miami Dolphins will eventually hold a memorial once the health crisis has subsided and life has returned to something more normal. There will be a time when the base of Don Shula’s statue outside of Hard Rock Stadium will be adorned with flowers and messages of thanks. That will come.

For his family though, this isn’t a bad thing. There will still be some players, you can bet on that, who will attend his services. It will be scaled down. His wife and kids will get something they rarely got during his coaching years, they will get almost entirely to themselves. Something they didn’t get much of until he retired way back in the 90’s. Something they have enjoyed in his twilight years.

I’m sure it is viewed as something being taken away from him. An honor at his gravesite on the day he is laid to rest but Don Shula will get laid to rest with his family by his side. It might not have been what it could have been, but it is still fitting for a man who gave so much to so many others that on that day, it’s the ones he loved the most that will have the peace of saying good-bye.