Anger will turn to apathy if Dolphins aren’t fixed quickly

Dec. 11 Opinion 4 comments ---Bill

The Miami Dolphins are one loss away from finishing the season with a losing record for the 4th straight season.  In case you were wondering, the Dolphins haven’t had a stretch like that since they were an expansion franchise in the 1960′s.  That means the Dolphins haven’t been THIS bad for THIS long in almost 50 years.   It’s sad that the only undefeated franchise in NFL history, is in such a state of middling mediocrity.

The franchise has only played in 1 playoff game in the last 10 years….and they lost…..and they were in the playoffs that season, in large part, because Tom Brady was out for the year….and the Dolphins happened to play the weakest schedule in the NFL that season.  Take nothing away from them that year, the Dolphins won their games and went 11-5, we all celebrated and hoped that better times were ahead.  That was 4 years ago.  Since then, the team has gone 7-9, 7-9, 6-10, and 5-8….or to say it another way, they’ve barely won 40% of their games.  If I were the owner of the team, I’d view that as unacceptable.

Photo Courtesy of Dolphins.com

The problem is that the Dolphins fan base is being so turned off by this team that their anger has started to shift towards apathy.  That’s not good when you’re in the business of selling stuff.  And make no mistake, despite not being blacked out yet, the Dolphins are hemorrhaging tickets.  I expect the next two games at Sun Life to be pretty empty.  They may be on TV because the Dolphins could buy up remaining tickets.  But, the Jaguars and the Bills don’t exactly draw a ton of fans down to Miami…especially when both of those teams are terrible.

While some Dolphins fans have written off this season and won’t pay attention again until the draft in April, others are kicking around ideas to let their displeasure with the team be known.  We saw a banner fly last year, imploring the Stephen Ross to fire Jeff Ireland….we saw a billboard devoted to bringing Peyton Manning to Miami to end the QB search….For this year, I’ve heard ideas for everything from placing urinal cakes with Jeff Ireland’s face on them in Sun Life, to unleashing an army of chickens, wearing anti-Ireland t-shirts, on the next home game tailgate.

Some of the ideas were pretty hysterical and I’m interested to see what the fans do.  However, the biggest statement fans can make to the owner is simply not showing up to the next 2 Dolphins home games.  Stephen Ross has done a great job in buying up unsold tickets to avoid blackouts.  He does that for all of us, not because he likes losing money.   However, if you want to send a loud, clear message to him, simply don’t go to the next 2 games, whether you have a ticket or not.  If you bought a ticket, that money already belongs to the Dolphins.  BUT, they wont’ get your parking, beer, food, or merchandise dollars. Imagine the impact an empty Sun Life Stadium would have.  It would be the exclamation point on the season, highlighting Dolphins fans displeasure about the direction of the team.   (cont’d on page 2, click below)

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  • michael mcbride

    Bad management and scouting are the Dolphins problem. They don’t have WR’s, Real Running backs, and Passrushers. Not going all out for RG3 was foolish. Go Redskins!!!

  • Miami Jules

    Phin Nation, you are pretty bold and not concerned with what they may think over in Davie… I can’t ell you how much I appreciate that… whether or not I agree with every idea, you all certainly have my respect. I called for the “not showing up” idea back when we had Sparano on another site and only a couple of people afgreed with me. We still have Ireland, but he seems to have calmed down and for a while now hasn’t really done something as contradictory as for example, claiming he wants a team free of loud mouths and trouble makers and goes out and gets Brandon Marshall and Chad “Ochocinco”… Make up you mind dude, squeaky clean or prima donnas. He hasn’t done things like that lately, but has done other things like getting Legadu Nannee… Who? The persistance with which they kept going to him as a receiver is still amazing, although he couldn’t catch a cold if he walked bare chested in the Alaskan tundra, but yet we seem to give up on Bess after a couple of plays during which he fails (unable) to get open… Is that Sherman? I have to think Philbin has dropped the ball on a couple of these too… I actually like Philbin. Anyway, I’m just rambling because I’m still fuming after Sunday.

    • Miami Jules

      PS… I want to see O-line draftees, CORNERS, and receivers… I didn’t even know Stallworth was available last week… Why didn’t we get him? Ohhh but we get the unknowns… Stallworth not clean enough for you Ireland? He went out and got Nannee, hence we suck. I want MY Dolphins back!!!!!! Great post by the way..

  • http://www.facebook.com/jason.miracle.10 Jason Miracle

    Chins up Fin fans. There were no expectations for this season and I think the young, undermanned fins have represented the franchise well. Lots of draft picks for Ireland, or whoever takes his place, to work with. I like coach Joe and I like the fact that he jettisoned talented but distracting players for draft picks. As a lifelong fin fan living in L.A. I hate to see the stadium half empty. Go support the team, it’s fun for god’s sake!