5 Miami Dolphins players that are not in the Hall of Fame and 3 that should be
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins wouldn't be the Miami Dolphins without Joe Robbie and he belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Joe Robbie and Dave Thomas came together to build an NFL franchise in South Florida. Robbie would buy out Thomas pretty quickly and he would own the team until his death in 1989.
Robbie's Dolphins would become one of the most storied franchises in the league. Under his ownership, Miami would appear in five Super Bowls winning two.
Often overlooked, Robbie was more than just an owner. He was a formidable business owner and that rubbed others in the league the wrong way. He put up the initial funds for what started out as Joe Robbie Stadium and is now Hard Rock. That too was not met with a lot of favor within ownership circles who were more interested in the communities flipping the bill for their stadiums.
It was Robbie who brought Don Shula to Miami stealing him away from the Colts and then being docked a first-round pick for doing it, despite the fact that the two leagues were still not officially joined.
Robbie is overlooked when fans start talking about who should be in the Hall of Fame but if we are being honest, there is zero reason for him not be other than fact he isn't alive to buy his way in like Jerry Jones. Argue that if you must.
Lamar Hunt, Al Davis, and Ralph Wilson, Jr. are all in the HOF but all three were founding members of the original AFL. Robbie is as deserving, however, as Dan Rooney, George Marshall who founded the then Redskins, Wellington Mara of the Giants, Tim Mara of the Giants, Eddie DeBartalo who owned the 49ers and was forced to give it up after he paid money for a casino license in a felony bribery scheme. He is also waiting although Charles Bidwell is also in the HOF.
If Robbie were still alive there is no question he would be in the Hall of Fame. Money talks as in the case of Jerry Jones who really is as undeserving as any owner.
Robbie will never be elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In the eyes of the voters who have put other owners in over him, he hasn't done enough. Maybe that is true if he were strictly being compared to Hunt, Davis, and Wilson but that door of mediocrity was opened with both Mara's and both Rooney's and again with Jone.