No matter what the year, the NFL is always filled with great stories. This season is no exception.
The Cowboys are collapsing, Kerry Collins has come back from the dead, and the Falcons are as far as could be from He Who Shall Not Be Named.
The regulars have contributed too: Al Davis, Chad Johnson, and the Lions are all helping us write the same old lyrics to the same tired tune.
But none of those, good or bad, is the best story emerging this season. Part of this might be me liking everything about this team, and if you wanted to be jaded, you could say that I’m just reaching for a positive story because I’m sensing extreme disappointment for myself come Tuesday evening.
To bring this to a quick head, I’ll talk about culture change. We talk about it a lot in sports; writers say that the culture changed, coaches talk about changing a team’s culture in press conferences, and announcers talk about how a culture has been totally changed in a given place.
More often than not, this fails miserably. But this past summer, one place actually did start to change. It underwent a “revolution” if you will. (I’ve had a lot of Jefferson Airplane on the past few days.)
A quarterback thought to be long past the expiration date, two running backs thought to be total busts, and a free-agent linebacker who was thought to finally have a bark far worse than his bite would come together to be led by a first-year head coach whom nobody actually thought would be a head man this year.
From laughing stock to legitimate AFC contender, the Miami Dolphins have catapulted themselves into contention for a playoff spot (heck, the division is well within reach), and they have a lot going for them: They’re young, they’re talented, and they’re getting better.
The Dolphins emerged onto the national scene by running a gimmick offense that I believe hadn’t been seen since Bronko Nagurski was as young me.
After showing initial success, everybody in the league starting incorporating something that had been brought back by...the Dolphins.
The 1-15, no direction, no offense, no defense, bolting coaches Dolphins, who just couldn’t seem to do a darn thing right last year, were now being copied by teams around the league.
But what makes this story great, and what gives this team so much promise, isn’t that they can run a bunch of trick plays.
The Miami Dolphins have bought into coach Tony Sparano’s teachings and it's all finally come together: Convert third downs (finally), don’t turn the ball over, don’t commit penalties, and maintain composure.
With the help of short arm Chad Pennington, the offense has taken massive strides.
Everything about this team screams "winner".
When Pennington first showed up at Dolphins training camp, writers and bloggers everywhere laughed at the thought of the Dolphins being led by a quarterback who has a deep ball comparable to some Division-II college kids.
Pennington helped Sparano preach basics; the team had to learn how to work together and to get their timing together down. They dropped their opening game because of a poorly executed pass play.
When it became clear that they needed a way to keep defenses off guard while they learned how to work well together, they tried the old single-wing formation (referred to as the Wildcat formation), something straight out of that pick-up football game you like to play in.
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