Flurry of moves finally quiets Huizenga naysayers

By Hugo Guzman  |   Wednesday, January 16, 2008  |  Comments( 3 )

Miami Dolphins
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Since he first entered the South Florida sports scene in 1990, Wayne Huizenga has been the proverbial guy whom everybody loves to hate. He usurped the Miami Dolphins from the struggling Robbie family, then stripped their name off the team's stadium in favor of a now-defunct clothing company (Pro Player). He paid ... I mean paved the way for a Florida Marlins World Series championship, only to dismantle the team the next year. He jettisoned the Florida Panthers, leaving the fledgling hockey franchise to wallow in NHL anonymity.

Say what you will about the self-made entrepreneur, but you have to concede that he not only brought professional baseball and hockey to South Florida, but more importantly for this discussion, he has been the epitome of a good NFL owner.

Unlike the headline monger in Dallas (Jerry Jones) or the power monger in Oakland (Al Davis), Huizenga has stayed behind the scenes and abdicated the football-related decisions ever since taking over majority ownership of the team in 1993. Moreover, the 70-year-old garbage magnate has never spared expense when it came to retaining players, coaches or front-office personnel. Every so often, you'll hear a seasoned NFL media pundit or former player/personnel guy praise Huizenga for his ownership style, but those accolades definitely fall on deaf ears when it comes the South Florida fan base.

The average Dolphins fanatic has been spouting venom toward Huizenga for years, and that poisonous tone has reached a fever pitch in recent years, considering the carousel of ineffective coaches and personnel evaluators who have moved through Miami. Couple that with a six-year playoff drought, and the resounding vitriol for the embattled owner seems all the more validated.

But what seems to infuriate local fans the most is Huizenga's efforts to monetize his football franchise in the face of these on-field struggles. When tickets and parking continue to go up, and the stadium undergoes a myriad of upgrades, it becomes difficult to defend the orchestrator of these fiscal moves in the face of all the football futility.

However, if you allow yourself to consider Huizenga's stance on entrusting his football people with maintaining the on-field product, it becomes apparent that Huizenga's only failing has been his inability to secure a solid front office.

Fortunately for him, it appears that those days might finally be over.

Huizenga has secured arguably the most consistently successful football mind in the modern era in Bill Parcells, a guy who has resurrected all four of the franchises he's been involved with. And though Parcells won't be occupying his customary head coaching role, he and Huizenga have installed a triumvirate of young and successful NFL minds that should help turn Miami's football fortunes around sooner than later.

Oddly enough, all of the Huizenga detractors who proliferated the radio waves and various fan forums have seemingly disappeared. They must have all moved on once a man named Parcells came to town.

Get off Wayne Huizenga's case at RealFootball365.com
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About Hugo Guzman

Trying to bring an objective approach to NFL analysis.
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CommentsComments: 3  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
RAC		09:30 AM
01/16/2008
What about the Dolphins having to play on a baseball infield for the first half of the year? That seems bush league to me.
No.2
Jim		04:49 PM
01/16/2008
I thought the Marlins weren't playing there this year and the diamond would no longer be an issue?? Is that not true? (Editor's...
No.3
Todd Melanson		01:04 AM
01/17/2008
I found the following portion of your article to be right on the mark. Huizenga has always been an exemplary owner in terms of...
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