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Dolphins QB
Dan Marino
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There is a gun being held to Dan Marino’s head.
Don’t bother calling the cops, though. They can’t help Marino. Only Marino
can help Marino — by quarterbacking his Dolphins, the best team in football this
year, to a Super Bowl victory.
It is history that is holding the gun, saying put up or shut up.
History is holding Marino hostage. At issue is jewelry. A ring, to be specific. A Super
Bowl ring. This isn’t a heist, though. History simply demands to know why
Marino’s Super Bowl ring finger remains as naked as a newborn child.
Shocking.
We all saw the way Marino dominated football early in his career and were certain
he’d be to the Super Bowl what Bill Russell was to NBA titles, Muhammad Ali to
championship belts and the Yankees to World Series victories.
Marino threw for an outrageous 48 regular-season TD passes in just his second year in
the NFL and guided the Dolphins to that season’s Super Bowl. Miami lost that game
38-16 to the 49ers, but given Marino’s yearlong dominance, you figured such a result
was either a typo or an oversight that would be corrected soon enough.
Surely, it was just a matter of time before Marino won the game of Roman numerals.
Surely, Marino would keep coming back over and over and over, like an unsupervised kid
playing in a department-store revolving door, until we were dizzy from the sight.
Send out the search party. Marino hasn’t been seen in a Super Bowl since. When it
comes to Super Sunday, Marino has been a poor man’s Jim Kelly, a poor man’s Fran
Tarkenton. At least Kelly and Tarkenton piled up frequent-flier miles for their Super Bowl
losses. Marino has been one and done.
Which brings us back to history and the gun it holds to Marino’s head. Marino fans
argue that their boy wonder is among the top handful of quarterbacks in NFL history, some
going so far as to say he is the best of all time. I’m here to tell you that if
Marino retires without winning a Super Bowl, history will blow holes into that theory like
a S.W.A.T. team blasting away at a fleeing cop killer.
If Marino retires without winning the big one, history will view him as Dan Fouts with
better statistics. That’s pretty good, but not good enough to earn Marino the
password into the all-time club for the super elite.
At this moment, Marino does not rank among the top five quarterbacks of all time. If he
doesn’t win a Super Bowl, he might slip out of my top 10.
Marino is not even the best quarterback of his era right now. John Elway’s double
dip into the Super Bowl victory pool late in his career (the Broncos’ quarterback
always was especially dangerous late in the game) shot him past Marino. Elway’s
recent success makes history look at Marino and shake its head. Tsk-tsk.
If Marino wants to play with the big boys on the all-time QB list — Johnny Unitas,
Joe Montana, Otto Graham and Elway — he’d better do something about that ring
finger.
If he never wins the big one, Marino still will go down as an all-time great who will
quickly find his way to the Hall of Fame. That said, if he doesn’t find his way to
the Super Bowl winner’s locker room, he will be an incomplete quarterback in
history’s eyes.
Thus far, I have seen in Marino an elite quarterback who has somehow failed to win a
Super Bowl, despite playing for two superstar head coaches.
Thus far, I have seen in Marino an elite quarterback who has not elevated his club to
the highest heights as Elway did in reaching five Super Bowls (the first three of which
happened only because Elway carried flawed teams beyond what they had a right to achieve).
Thus far, I have seen in Marino more stats than substance. He can throw for 20,000 more
yards and not move up an inch on my all-time QB list. One Super Bowl win, though, and he
skyrockets up the chart.
Thus far, I have seen in Marino an elite quarterback whose apologists have tried to
sell us more sob stories than the town drunk in search of a shoulder to cry on just before
last call. The Dolphins’ "D" isn’t good enough to win it all. No
running game. No superstar receivers. Boo hoo. It’s always someone else’s fault.
Enough with the crybaby excuses. If you are one of the top five quarterbacks of all
time, none of that should matter. The super-elite quarterbacks take a flamethrower to
excuses, the opposition and anything else that has the gall to get in the way of their
drive to Super Bowl glory.
Besides, there are no excuses for Marino this season. He plays for the NFL’s best
team. Miami’s defense should be dominating, the best in the league. The running game
should be better than decent, thanks to a quality run-blocking offensive line and a stable
of running backs with the potential to more than get the job done. The receivers are
plenty good. If Elway could win two Super Bowls throwing to Ed McCaffrey and Rod Smith,
don’t tell me Miami’s wideouts aren’t good enough to get the job done for a
quarterback of Marino’s immense talent.
No excuses.
All the pieces are in place. Miami has the dominating "D." Miami has the
effective ground game. Miami has enough talented receivers. The question is whether they
have a very, very, very good quarterback who can’t win the big one, or a super-elite
signalcaller who finally solves the Super Bowl puzzle.
Miami is my pick to win this year’s Super Bowl. This is the year Marino should
show he is up to the task. If he does, Marino gets to play catch with Unitas, Montana,
Graham and Elway in history’s back yard. If he does not win it all this year, or at
the very least before he hangs ’em up for good, history will tell Marino to quit
trespassing.
Marino can enjoy history’s gentle embrace in victory or its unforgiving wrath in
defeat. The gun is to Marino’s head. It’s time to find out if he truly is a QB
Superman who is faster than a speeding bullet. |
