Miami Truly is the Los Angeles of the East

So I went to my first live Dolphins game this past Sunday. Heading down to south Florida with the phinisher, don'tcallmedolfan, and an Eagles fan who hooked us up with the tickets, we hit the keys and took in the Phins/Bucs tilt. I come away with three impressions: (1) The Dolphins, while not bad, have plenty of room to improve. (2) The weather in Miami is fucking awesome. (3) The fans in Miami are as tepid as hour-old bisque.

One. I don't know if my heart can take another game in which the Dolphins snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, which in turn was plucked from the maw of victory. The game was fun, but far more of a nail biter than it probably should have been. Sure, the Bucs are not quite as bad as their 1-8 record indicates, but they made so many miscues that the Dolphins should have buried them. The blame probably falls most to the same culprits as the other losses this year: dropped passes and play calling. At least my man, Ricky, got to shine right at the end and had a season-high in carries. More of that, please.

Two. The weather was so nice that I almost didn't feel like I was at a football game. Having lived in the Philadelphia area for over five years now, I'm used to sporting events from September through April being cold and/or rainy and generally a trial. I guess I'll take a bit of a sunburn over pneumonia any day.


A group of Dolphans heading to their seats.
Three. The fans. Jesus, it was a bit sad. I have to agree with the phinisher on this one. The turnout was solid, with at least 75-80% of the stadium seats filled, but I think many of them were driven in from the local morgues. In our section, 102, the vast majority of fans spent most of their time sitting on their hands. They got a little more excited when Jimmy Buffett would get played after a Phins score (I still can't get that stupid "Fins to left! Fins to the right!" song out of my head), but most of the time they seemed to stare around waiting for who-knows what. The most enthusiastic fan was a young meathead in front of us who was mostly pumped up
because his equally knuckle-headed friend was a Bucs fan. Admittedly, it was funny when, after the first touchdown catch by Sperry, he took his buddy's Bucs hat off, held it up to everyone behind him and gave it a joyous "thumbs down". However, as this guy got drunker, he basically got dumber and meaner. Mid-way through the third quarter, this guy was screaming for Sparano to put in Pat White for the rest of the game. And he wasn't the only one who seemed to already be set to completely give up on Chad Henne, despite the kid's obvious potential. And that was what composed the rows around us: apathy and impatience. Maybe it was just that section on that particular day. I hope so. I usually only see such weak sports fandom in the infamously lackadaisical southern California.

Big game tomorrow. None but a fool would try to convince you that the Dolphins are ready to go toe-to-toe with the elite teams in the league, but I think there's potential for them to improve enough to nab a wildcard spot and make a few of the top-flight teams sweat a bit. If they can win against a Panthers team that seems to be righting their ship a bit, then take the Bills, things get really interesting. Possibly hosting the Pats at 6-5, with the division possibly up for grabs? Very intriguing.

It's a real shame to hear about Ronnie Brown's injury. That certainly makes things more challenging. Still, anyone who's watched Ricky closely realizes just how much fuel he still has in the tank. Now we get to see him get the wheel and stomp on the gas again for the first time in over four years.