Year after year, Dolphins fans prove they are a special breed

By Hugo Guzman | Wednesday, March 18, 2009 | ( 1 )

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I was having a casual conversation with a colleague and the topic somehow turned to the National Football League. As a New England Patriots fan, he naturally went on and on about how key free-agent additions, not to mention the triumphant return of Tom Brady, would more or less ensure another perfect regular season from the Pats.

I retorted in a very simple fashion, reminding him that the Miami Dolphins are the defending AFC East champions and that the Patriots should be happy to have a 1-1 split against them in 2009 (never mind a 16-0 regular-season campaign). He relented, saying that he secretly wishes for a Dolphins-Patriots AFC championship matchup. I then proceeded to lapse into a semi-conscious daydream laced with visions of a Bill Parcells-against-Bill Belichick, mentor-versus-prodigy matchup at the end of January 2010.

My colleague then suddenly remarked that he thought it was funny that we were talking NFL on the verge of baseball’s opening day. That’s when I reminded him that the NFL is almost always the main topic of conversation in South Florida.

Granted, Miami is not the only NFL-centric city. Indianapolis has a similar fixation, as do cities like Jacksonville and Nashville. However, it’s important to note that those cities don’t have the full gamut of major sports teams. It can be argued that of all the four-sport cities, Miami (South Florida if you’re sensitive to city and county lines) suffers from the strongest case of football tunnel vision.

The arrival of Parcells and his new regime only heightened this lopsided level of local sports fanaticism, which is hard to believe when you consider that Miami happens to house arguably the most exciting, heart-stopping virtuoso in the NBA, Dwyane Wade. And sure, when Wade led the Heat to the Promised Land (where the Florida Marlins have been on two occasions), the city did shift its focus away from football. In hindsight, however, that was little more than a fleeting glance that quickly move back to the Dolphins.

This offseason has been no different. Despite Wade’s heroics and a young and competitive Marlins squad poised to kick off the regular season, most South Florida fans busy are contemplating free-agent flights of fancy or intricate draft scenarios. (And no, Jay Cutler is not Miami-bound.)

And you know what? This writer thinks that’s a good thing. While many will say that the faithful's lack passion or dedication (as evidenced by all the empty seats at 1:00 p.m. on regular-season Sundays), the reality is that Miami’s fans -- unlike in other cities -- are almost singularly focused on their NFL team.

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	About Hugo Guzman Co-founder of RealFootball365.com. Born in Argentina, of Dominican descent, living in Hoboken, but from Miami through and ...
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