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| ALSO SEE Ratto: Purple haze Marino weighs offer to be starting QB in Minnesota Legends on the move | | | |
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Tuesday, March 7
Dan the Man deserved better
Special to ESPN.com
The Dan Marino situation invites such a series of conflicting emotions, it's hard to know where to begin. On the one hand, there is the almost myopic hope for an elegant ending to a Hall of Fame career. On the other hand, there is the feeling that Marino, of all people, should be big enough to know that letting go is the right thing to do.
On the other hand, who is anyone to deny Marino one more shot at a Super Bowl ring? And on still another hand, there is this incredulousness that Dolphin Dan would even consider trotting out there in any other uniform. To what end, Brutus? Shades of Joe Montana, John Unitas, etc., etc., etc. Minneapolis Marino. Shudder. So many emotions, and so conflicted. So let's do what we always do in situations such as this, which is to go with what we know: (1) We've got way, way too many hands; and (2) Could the Dolphins have possibly made a worse cock-up of the whole affair? A few months into the story, we now have a certifiable antagonist. It is the amorphous blob that is the Dolphins organization, a disparate group well on its way to verifying that its Smiths and its Joneses not only aren't always on the same page, some of them apparently have never met. At one point, this seemed like a fairly clear progression of events. Now it's the worst story ever told. And the kicker is that it concerns not some run-of-the-mill slinger, and not even an upper-shelf NFL quarterback. Nope, the kicker is that this concerns one of the all-time greats, championship hardware or no. And as much as those of us in the Retire Gracefully camp would love to see some other resolution here, it's just impossible to choose against Marino. That goes double when you consider the outright buffoonery occurring on the other side. If this were a first date, the Dolphins would be home at 8:45 with first base still a long-term goal. How did this organization manage to turn this into such a drawn-out, unattractive process? How? Well, it's Marino, after all. Ask around South Florida: Few sports figures have ever elicited more response, and, as of recently, seldom a response so emotionally divided after such a career. Marino's legacy in Miami is such that, in a very tangible way, it overpowered a coach -- and not just any coach. It was Jimmy Johnson, after all, who knew deep down last season that his Dolphins were functioning better as an offensive unit with Marino out of the mix, and Johnson had numbers to buttress that feeling: Miami was 5-1 with Marino on the sideline. But in the end, Johnson just couldn't do the deed. Rather than be known as the guy who benched Marino, Johnson delayed the decision just long enough to retire as a coach, essentially handing the problem over to his successor, Dave Wannstedt. Marino, meanwhile, was left to twist in the wind. He knew that Johnson hadn't really believed in him at the end, and he knew that Wannstedt clearly felt that a change was the forward-thinking thing to do. And Marino knew that, as an organization, the Dolphins ... uh, what, exactly? That they wanted him back? Well, no. By being just vague enough in their assessment of Marino's future -- it was Dan's decision, the Dolphins' brass repeatedly said -- they tacitly encouraged Marino to void the final year of his contract, which he did. When nothing worked out in Tampa Bay, perhaps Wayne Huizenga's bunch figured that Marino would simply walk away from the game. It was a grand miscalculation. Where the outside observer sees last season as proof that Marino ought to consider walking away from the NFL while he can walk, Marino and his supporters see it as a year almost completely lost to injury -- and laboring in an inferior offensive scheme. When Minnesota came calling, Marino was interested. Vikings coach Denny Green noted that Marino has "got a lot of, what we call, gas in the tank." Clearly, not everyone in the NFL thinks Dan's done. The wish here is that it weren't so -- that there were some clear path for Marino that did not involve donning another uniform. The feeling here is also that, other offensive factors duly noted, Jimmy Johnson was correct in perceiving Marino to be near the end of the line. But it doesn't matter now: Dan's in play. And near the stroke of midnight, Dolphins president Eddie Jones says, "Danny has been told he can come back," as though Miami's newfound interest could possibly sound convincing to the player. It doesn't. At least, it shouldn't. In l'affair Marino, the Dolphins have sent too many mixed signals for any one to finally come in clear. If it leads to Marino finishing his wonderful career in a Vikings uniform, it'll be too bad for the fans in Miami, and in some ways a poorer conclusion for Marino than his seamless tenure would merit. It'll also be two other things: Not the first time in football history that it has happened; and almost entirely the product of a Dolphins front office without the unanimity to make a clean decision. Doesn't matter whether you think Marino should play or go. It only matters that, after all this, Marino deserves something approaching finality.Mark Kreidler is a columnist for the Sacramento Bee, which has a web site at http://www.sacbee.com/.
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