Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Dolphins' 2007 NFL Draft needs: Is Trent Edwards the new Bob Griese?

Just wanted to get in my two cents like everyone else -before it was too late- about what's shaping up to be THE most important Dolphins draft since the 1967 draft that produced my childhood mentor-by-example, the 1966 Heisman Trophy runner-up to Steve Spurrier, Purdue's Bob Griese, once the subject of a forty-page paper I wrote while at Fulford Elementary in North Miami Beach, circa 1971, complete down to having his PAT stats while at Purdue.

[I'll have much more on my Griese connection in the future, including one of the highlights of my childhood, scoring a TD after intercepting a pass of his in a flag football game, while up at the sports camp he operated in the early 70's with then-Dolphins wide receiverand former Iowa Hawkeye and holder for Garo's kicks, Karl Noonan, in Boca Raton at St. Andrew's School, site of the the Dolphins' first training camp.

(One of my counselors was a young Roy Firestone, the future 7-time Emmy winner, but then just a very smart and funny University of Miami student who also did some work at the then-Channel 4, WTVJ.)

I returned it the equivalent of about 70 yards for a TD, twice faking him out so bad that the last time, he wound up rolling on the ground, something I was somewhat used to since I was usually the fastest kid by far on any team I played on.

Afterwards, while standing in the end zone being congratulated by my teammates -which for that game, included one of my counselors/instructors, Dave Elliott, the University of Michigan DB and son of University of Miami head coach and future Pro Football Hall of Fame Director, Pete Elliott- still somewhat stunned by what I'd done, Griese walked over to me and yanked HARD on my flags to make sure that I hadn't cheated by tieing each side within itself, thereby making them shorter, then, after seeing them come off, said, "The touchdown is good."

Then, he turned towards me and said "Congratulations, but how did you know to roll from one side of the field to another, the weak side to the strong side?" or words to that effect.

I told him that the moment I saw the pattern he'd given the receiver I was covering, I recognized it as a pass play he'd often employed successfully to Paul Warfield, whereby Griese looked hard at the CB to make him bite and commit, and then open up his body and throw in the opposite direction towards the outside, where the CB thinks he has a play but is almost always beaten by the wide receiver."

As a devout Dolphin fan who'd had season tickets starting with the perfect 17-0 season of '72, and who'd only missed two home games -whether exhibition, regular season or playoff - from 1971-78, I knew their plays like the back of my hand.

After listening to my explanation, Griese smiled and laughed and said that I'd been 100% right.

Later that week, I was with him the moment he first learned thru the newspaper that the NFL had decided to outlaw his favorite means of drawing a defense offsides by bobbing his head, which had resulted in so many favorable penalties extending drives over the years.

The play I described to Griese is sort of like the play that QB1, Jason Street demonstrated to Matt Saracen in Dillon Panther Stadium at midnight with "Smash" Williams and Tim Riggins in one of the best scenes of the year of Friday Night Lights, one of my favorite TV shows from Day One. http://www.nbc.com/Friday_Night_Lights/ ]

I came late to this Sun-Sentinel QB story after having already read most of Armando Salguero's Herald QB stories, and having made copious notes in my legal pads about various players that WQAM radio hosts Orlando Alzugary,
http://www.wqam.com/index.php?page=328 , Jim Mandich,
http://www.wqam.com/index.php?page=332 and "The Hammer," Hank Goldberg, http://www.wqam.com/index.php?page=329 have discussed at length over the past few weeks on their respective shows, especially after the NFL player workouts in Indy.
I thought I'd share some thoughts about whom I think the Dolphins should draft, QB-wise -in the second round- of this weekend's NFL Draft, but first, I feel the need to go over this particular Sun-Sentinel story with a red pencil.

First, for information purposes, keeping with the intent of this blog's name, Michigan State's Drew Stanton, consistently mentioned as being part of the second-tier QB group who'll be available to the Dolphins with their second pick on Saturday, is, according to numerous local media reports, now living just down the street from me over the county line in Aventura, the so-called "City of Excellence," so he can train in a climate and atmosphere more conducive to his getting maximum potential out of his natural talent, and give him a chance to work out in person for Cam Cameron.

(That "Excellence" moniker can't be said for the city's email system, which marked as "spam" an email I sent to the Aventura mayor and the city manager recently to alert them to a water leak on the sidewalk off Biscayne Blvd., after the SFWMD and the media were bombarding us with info about calling in any water leaks you spotted on account of the new water restrictions and the longstanding drought conditions at Lake Okechobee, http://www.sfwmd.gov/site/index.php?id=16 )

Also, curiously, reference is made in the story to the "radio comments" of Giants' Hall of Famer and CBS NFL analyst Phil Simms without any specific show be credited. Just for the record, Phil has been making his comments on Hank Goldberg's program of late, just as he does during the NFL season.

Yours truly has originally planned to write down Phil's prescient comments just as quickly as possible, while taping the program, to share his insightful comments with you here, but that plan was too hopeful and not accomplished with the exceptions of a few notes below.

For more of Phil, see the Sun-Sentinel's usually prescient Ethan Skolnick's interview:
http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_football_dolphins/2007/04/simms_sizes_up_.html

More than any other current NFL TV analyst, I tend to agree with Phil's intuition close to 100% of the time, which is saying something.
Sort of like the NFL version of Slate's Mickey Kaus,
http://www.slate.com/?id=3944&cp=2065132 whom I used to talk to occasionally when I lived in DC and he was still toiling at The New Republic, while yours truly worked his second job at the Border's Books on 18th & L Street, which was the bookstore that most of DC's media flocked to at lunch or after work due to its great location, near the DC bureaus of ABC News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, et al.

WQAM's NFL draft programming starts Saturday with pre-draft material starting at
10am Kenny, Bo and Alex Marvez 12pm QAM's NFL Draft Coverage and then settles in for the afternoon at noon 'till the 6:30 Marlins coverage.

You might want to avail yourself of the info package they've assembled on the station's draft page, http://www.wqam.com/index.php?page=412, which, conveniently, includes the Phil interviews as well as ones Hank and Jim have conducted with other guests on various draft prospects.

Stanton is not Phil's "type of quarterback," per se, and while describing Toby Karotti as "not a great thrower," he did say that he'd heard that he was the second-best thrower at the Indy workout, while lumping Ohio State's Troy Smith and the gators Chris Leak as "projects," doubting they'll ever get a real chance to start at QB in the NFL.

Phil also described Sooner RB Adrian Peterson in two words, "take him!" He's "as dynamic
an RB as I've watched since paying attention to the NFL Draft. Incredible physical talent."
"Can't miss." High praise indeed!

Though the internet's the answer to an NFL Draftnik's prayers, despite the many sites that are out there passing along info that ranges from prescient to slander, I've found that in the weeks leading up to this weekend's draft extravaganza that besides the NFL's own site,
http://www.nfl.com/ , which most of you probably already have bookmarked -or should-
http://nfldraftscout.com/ , another site has filled in a lot of the black holes for me.

People down here, esp. initial skeptics of Culpepper trade, like me, are VERY disappointed that we only heard two weeks ago about extent of the Culpepper injury timeline, and while nearly everyone wishes that Culpepper works out okay, the Dolphins are deep behind the eight-ball with their current crop of QBs, since without mobility, Culpepper is useless and even more fumble-prone with the offensive line the Dolphins have currently.

I like Cleo Lemon and Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron, the subject of an upcoming posting, had Lemon while out in San Diego while he was Chargers' offensive coordinator
and likes his athleticism and his command of the huddle.

The other players really seem to like him and try hard for him, which I can't say was always the case for the last few Dolphin QBs, for whatever reason.

(I should mention here that, for the benefit of those of you who aren't in the South Florida area, lots of callers to local sports radio shows are opining that Nick Saban, aka the Devil, with his "only one voice" top-down management style, intentionally left this injury situation below the surface as his ultimate screw-you to South Florida on his way out.
Word is that even the more partisan sports writers and TV reporters who cover Alabama, the ones who thought this area was "unfair" to Saban, are now starting to see that all the things they were told by South Florida media folks about Saban only a few months ago, really are TRUE.)

Due to the above news, it looks more and more likely that former Hoosier and Redskin Trent Green will be coming here after this weekend's draft, since he has already indicated to the beleaguered Browns that he wants no part of them.

At this point, it's just a question of whether the Dolphins will blink and give in to the Chiefs' draft pick demands, or whether the Dolphins will hold firm.

Personally, after reading what I could about all the potential QB candidates, I'd like to see the Dolphins draft Stanford QB Trent Edwards
(see
http://gostanford.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/edwards_trent00.html
and
http://www.mymockdraft.com/725/PlayerDetail.aspx ) in the 2nd round, since Green is, even under the best of circumstances, a two-year option -though I'm open to the idea of being proven wrong.

Though the knock on him is that he is a "system" QB, I was VERY impressed with Houston's Kevin Kobb in his game against the Hurricanes last year down here.

I'll be going to the Dolphins' training facility in Davie on Saturday, catching the fan over-analysis over there "up- close and personal," while also touring the facilities and checking the new crop of Dolphin cheerleaders, and will try to post some photographs in the days to follow.

This will mark my first trip to the Davie facility, though I was a regular for the Dolphins' training camp at the then-Biscayne College in the early 70's, the outside sauna, which is where I first became a charter subscriber to Dolphin Digest, back in the day before those sorts of niche sports publications exploded on the scene.

For whatever reason, I've never had any urge to go up to their "new" place in Davie.

Here's hoping that Mueller & Cameron really do stick to their guns and pick ONLY smart talented players for a change!
A good start would be getting Penn State's Levi Brown with the 9th pick and nabbing Trent Edwards in the second round.

_________________________________________________________________
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-spdrqbs24apr24,0,5910968.story?coll=sfla-sports-front
Dolphins' Cameron, Mueller feeling own QB pressure
By Harvey Fialkov
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
April 24, 2007

More than a year after seemingly solving their quarterback problems with the acquisition of three-time Pro Bowl selection Daunte Culpepper, the Dolphins find themselves back at the drawing board as draft day approaches.
And a drawing board is exactly what Dolphins coach Cam Cameron wanted from former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn during a February interview at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.
Cameron told Quinn he had seven minutes to diagram every run and pass formation, as well as each pass protection scheme, in the Notre Dame playbook, according to a report on Sports Illustrated's Web site. A former college quarterback at Indiana, Cameron recently explained why he wanted Quinn to perform such a harrowing mental exercise.

"Guys need to be able to think to play the position," Cameron said. "I want to try to find out, `Can they think fast?' ... Then the ultimate test is, `Can they think fast under pressure?'
Cameron and General Manager Randy Mueller are facing pressure to fix the quarterback situation for a team that has gone five seasons without a playoff appearance. Whether the still-gimpy Culpepper or imminent acquisition Trent Green is this season's starter, Mueller has made it clear that he wants a young quarterback to develop.

Most draft analysts believe that Quinn and Louisiana State's JaMarcus Russell will be gone by the Dolphins' turn at No. 9. Russell seems destined for the quarterback-starved Oakland Raiders at No. 1, while the Lions (No. 2) and Browns (No. 3) would be hard-pressed to pass up Quinn, who seems most NFL-ready after playing for former New England Patriots offensive coordinator Charlie Weis the past two seasons.

The Dolphins could trade up for Quinn and draft a quarterback in the first round for the first time since taking Dan Marino at No. 27 in 1983. More likely, the Dolphins will use one of their two second-round picks to snare a second-tier quarterback such as Stanford's Trent Edwards, Michigan State's Drew Stanton or Brigham Young's John Beck.
All have question marks.
Edwards has durability issues, with the most recent injury being a broken right foot that ended his senior season after the Cardinal's 0-7 start.

At 6 feet 3 and 226 pounds, Stanton is a classic pocket passer. Stanton recently moved to South Florida and has worked out several times for Cameron.

NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said Stanton lacks consistency, while ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. questioned his arm strength. Former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms also recently said during a radio interview that Stanton is "not a good enough pocket thrower."

Cameron made a trip to Provo, Utah, to visit Beck, who finished his BYU career as the school's second-most prolific quarterback (11,021 yards). But because Beck served a two-year church mission in Portugal, he will be a 26-year-old NFL rookie.

"His size, arm strength and mobility are all better than advertised," according to Rob Rang of nfldraftscout.com.

Mueller, a former NAIA Division II quarterback who drafted Marc Bulger and the unheralded J.T. O'Sullivan during three New Orleans Saints drafts from 2000-02, realizes that drafting a quarterback early isn't always a recipe for success.

"Most of the time they're thrown out there and have to carry a team, a franchise and a city right away, and that's a lot," Mueller said. "Ask David Carr [Houston's underachieving top pick of 2002, now with Carolina] and some of these other guys, and I think you can evaluate for days and weeks and months and you won't know the answer to that question."

But at least it's a start for a team that hasn't drafted a quarterback since Josh Heupel in 2001.

Harvey Fialkov can be reached at hfialkov@sun-sentinel.com.
Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
___________________________________________________________
http://www.miamiherald.com/616/story/84456.html
Miami Herald
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Draft might provide Fins QB of future
By ARMANDO SALGUERO

Lost in the Trent Green trade speculation and the intrigue about Daunte Culpepper's soon-to-follow trade or release is the fact the Dolphins still will be looking for their future quarterback even after the two dramas finally play out.
And that's where this weekend's NFL Draft serves as the climax to Miami's offseason quarterback search.
Because the Dolphins aren't just searching for one starting-caliber quarterback, but rather, they're trying to find two. The first player is expected to be a veteran to serve as steward over the 2007 season, the short-term fix to Miami's long-standing and long-term quarterback woes.
The second is supposed to be the heir to Miami's passing game. That rookie, drafted sometime Saturday, will be asked to carry Miami's quarterback hopes into the next decade.
''That's something that coach [Cam Cameron] and I have spent a lot of time on,'' Dolphins general manager Randy Mueller said. ``It's no secret we'd like to make the right choice, if a quarterback is in the future for us. Again, we don't know because I can't tell you what else is going to be there and what our other choices will be.
``But I do know this: All of the guys, and there are five or six guys who are probably first-day worthy, all have ability to play in this league. I think the hardest part is sorting out the intangibles and we've spent a lot of time on that.''

THE BIG RIDDLE
In fact, the Dolphins have spent more time trying to solve the quarterback riddle than they have spent on practically any other position.
Mueller and Cameron traveled to South Bend, Ind., to meet and work out Notre Dame's Brady Quinn. They traveled to Baton Rouge, La., for an on-campus workout of Louisiana State's JaMarcus Russell. But realizing both those players likely will be out of reach barring a Saturday trade-up scenario, the Miami brain trust also has done homework on likely second-round picks.
The Dolphins have two second-round picks and one of those could be used on Brigham Young's John Beck, Stanford's Trent Edwards or Michigan State's Drew Stanton. All have met with Cameron, Mueller or both at least twice in recent weeks. East Carolina's James Pinkney is a later-round possibility.
Mueller and Cameron are conducting a wide-ranging search while looking for a focused set of skills, with the ability to think quickly among the most important of those.
''I think guys need to be able to think to play the position,'' Cameron said. 'But, it's a lot more than that and that's kind of why guys tend to think, `Well, I'm a smart guy, I can play quarterback in the NFL.' Then you try to find out if they can think fast.''
Cameron has tested the mental speed of the quarterbacks he has talked to this offseason by simply asking them to diagram their passing schemes -- under pressure of a time limit.
''What I like to try to do -- usually we'll have it down to the group of guys that we think can think at the level that we need to run this system, but then I want to try find out, can they think fast? That is kind of the next step,'' Cameron said. ``Then the ultimate test is, can they think fast under pressure?
``Take anything we think we know and decrease the time element, it's amazing what happens to people. We are looking for that guy that when there is five seconds on that 40-second clock or five seconds in the game, that's like two days to him, the game is in slow motion. We've all seen those guys operate and that's the guy we're looking for. I would say the guys that have a tough time thinking fast under pressure are going to struggle in this business.''
The Dolphins don't think Quinn is one of those that will struggle. People within the organization say Quinn is the quarterback most likely to succeed in a system similar to the one Miami runs and that is why the Dolphins covet Quinn.
That does not cast aspersions on Russell's potential and great athletic skill. But the Dolphins simply think Quinn is a quicker thinker.
And Quinn, not surprisingly, agrees.

THE TOP CHOICE?
Although he is not nearly as gifted as Russell physically or athletically, Quinn thinks he should be the first quarterback chosen, something the Dolphins are frankly rooting against.
''I'm a competitor and as a competitor I want to be the best, I want to be first,'' Quinn said. ``The best player in the draft is the one that gets picked first. That's why I want to get picked first. Nothing against any of the other guys, but that's how I'm thinking.''
Draft experts have criticized Quinn for not playing well in big games although he has never thrown more interceptions than touchdowns in a game against a winning team. They've also criticized his ability to throw on the move and throw long passes with accuracy.
But Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, who mentored Tom Brady during his days as New England's offensive coordinator, believes the team that gets Quinn is getting a star.
''They're going to get a combination of Tommy and Peyton [Manning],'' Weis said. ``I've heard from at least 20 teams that have talked to Brady [Quinn] and say this is the closest interview they've seen to Peyton.''

© 2007 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.http://www.miamiherald.com

In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation

In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation
"In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation." -South Beach Hoosier, 2007

#IUBB, #bannersix

#IUBB, #bannersix
Assembly Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; Click photo to see video of Straight No Chaser's version of Back Home Again In Indiana, 2:37
The South Florida I Grew Up In

Excerpts from Joan Didion's Miami, 1987, Simon & Schuster:

In the continuing opera still called, even by Cubans who have now lived the largest part of their lives in this country, el exilo, the exile, meetings at private homes in Miami Beach are seen to have consequences. The actions of individuals are seen to affect events directly. Revolutions and counter-revolutions are framed in the private sector, and the state security apparatus exists exclusively to be enlisted by one or another private player. That this particular political style, indigenous to the Caribbean and to Central America, has now been naturalized in the United States is one reason why, on the flat coastal swamps of South Florida, where the palmettos once blew over the detritus of a dozen failed booms and the hotels were boarded up six months a year, there has evolved since the early New Year's morning in 1959 when Fulgencio Batista flew for the last time out of Havana a settlement of considerable interest, not exactly an American city as American cities have until recently been understood but a tropical capital: long on rumor, short on memory, overbuilt on the chimera of runaway money and referring not to New York or Boston or Los Angeles or Atlanta but to Caracas and Mexico, to Havana and to Bogota and to Paris and Madrid. Of American cities Miami has since 1959 connected only to Washington, which is the peculiarity of both places, and increasingly the warp...

"The general wildness, the eternal labyrinths of waters and marshes, interlocked and apparently neverending; the whole surrounded by interminable swamps... Here I am then in the Floridas, thought I," John James Audobon wrote to the editor of The Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science during the course of an 1831 foray in the territory then still called the Floridas. The place came first, and to touch down there is to begin to understand why at least six administations now have found South Florida so fecund a colony. I never passed through security for a flight to Miami without experiencing a certain weightlessness, the heightened wariness of having left the developed world for a more fluid atmosphere, one in which the native distrust of extreme possibilities that tended to ground the temperate United States in an obeisance to democratic institutions seemed rooted, if at all, only shallowly.

At the gate for such flights the preferred language was already Spanish. Delays were explained by weather in Panama. The very names of the scheduled destinations suggested a world in which many evangelical inclinations had historically been accomodated, many yearnings toward empire indulged...

In this mood Miami seemed not a city at all but a tale, a romance of the tropics, a kind of waking dream in which any possibility could and would be accomodated...
Hallandale Beach Blog
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Hallandale Beach Blog is where I try to inject or otherwise superimpose a degree of accountability, transparency and much-needed insight onto local Broward County government and public policy issues, which I feel is sorely lacking in local media now, despite all the technological advances that have taken place since I grew-up in South Florida in the 1970's. On this blog, I concentrate my energy, enthusiasm, anger, disdain and laser-like attention primarily on the coastal cities of Aventura, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach.

IF you lived in this part of South Florida, you'd ALREADY be in stultifying traffic, be paying higher-than-necessary taxes, and be continually musing about the chronic lack of any real accountability or transparency among not only elected govt. officials, but also of City, County and State employees as well. Collectively, with a few rare exceptions, they couldn't be farther from the sort of strong results-oriented, work-ethic mentality that citizens here deserve and are paying for.

This is particularly true in the town I live in, the City of Hallandale Beach, just north of Aventura and south of Hollywood. There, the Perfect Storm of years of apathy, incompetency and cronyism are all too readily apparent.
Sadly for its residents, Hallandale Beach is where even the easily-solved or entirely predictable quality-of-life problems are left to fester for YEARS on end, because of myopia, lack of common sense and the unsatisfactory management and coordination of resources and personnel.

It's a city with tremendous potential because of its terrific location and weather, yet its citizens have become numb to its outrages and screw-ups after years of the worst kind of chronic mismanagement and lack of foresight. On a daily basis, they wake up and see the same old problems again that have never being adequately resolved by the city in a logical and responsible fashion. Instead the city government either closes their eyes and hopes you'll forget the problem, or kicks them -once again- further down the road.

I used to ask myself, and not at all rhetorically, "Where are all the enterprising young reporters who want to show through their own hard work and enterprise, what REAL investigative reporting can produce?"

Hearing no response, I decided to start a blog that could do some of these things, taking the p.o.v. of a reasonable-but-skeptical person seeing the situation for the first time.
Someone who wanted questions answered in a honest and forthright fashion that citizens have the right to expect.

Hallandale Beach Blog intends to be a catalyst for positive change. http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Hallandale Beach's iconic beachball-colored Water Tower, between beach and A1A/South Ocean Drive

Hallandale Beach's iconic beachball-colored Water Tower, between beach and A1A/South Ocean Drive
Hallandale Beach, FL; February 16, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Hollywood in Cartoons, The New Yorker

Hollywood in Cartoons, The New Yorker
"Gentlemen, I am happy to announce that as of today we are closing down our Washington news bureau and moving the entire operation to L.A."

Hollywood in Cartoons, The New Yorker

Hollywood in Cartoons, The New Yorker
"O.K., so I dig a hole and put the bone in the hole. But what's my motivation for burying it?"

Hollywood in cartoons, 10-21-06 Non-Sequitur by Wiley, www-NON-SEQUITUR.COM

Hollywood in cartoons, 10-21-06 Non-Sequitur by Wiley, www-NON-SEQUITUR.COM
The Magic of Hollywood: A motion has been put forth that we should seek to create rather than imitate. All in favor of killing this silly notion, nod in mindless agreement...

Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins
South Beach Hoosier's first Dolphin game at the Orange Bowl came in Dec. 1970, aged 9, a 45-3 win over Buffalo that propelled them into their first ever playoff appearance.

Sebastian the Ibis, the Spirited Mascot of the University of Miami Hurricanes

Sebastian the Ibis, the Spirited Mascot of the University of Miami Hurricanes
Before going to my first U-M game at the Orange Bowl in 1972, a friend's father often would bring me home an extra 'Canes game program. That's how I came to have the Alabama at U-M game program from Nov. 16, 1968, which was the first nationally-televised college football night game in color. (A 14-6 loss to the Crimson Tide.) After that first ballgame against Tulane, as l often did for Dolphin games if my father wasn't going, I'd get dropped off at the Levitz parking lot near the 836 & I-95 Cloverleaf in NMB, and catch a Dade County Park & Ride bus, going straight to the Orange Bowl. Onboard, I'd get next to the window and listen to WIOD's pre-game show on my Radio Shack transistor radio. A few times, I was just about the only person onboard besides the bus driver, which was alright by me. Once at the Orange Bowl, if I didn't already have a ticket, I'd buy a game program for myself and one or two for friends or teachers before heading to the ticket window, since you usually couldn't find a program vendor once inside. I probaly had a friend or my father with me for just under 40% of the U-M games I ever went to, but you have to remember that the team, though blessed with several talented players, like Chuck Foreman and Burgess Owens, was just so-so to average at best, and the games were usually played on Friday nights, so it wasn't exactly high on everyone's list of things to do. Depending upon the opponent, if I was alone, I'd often have entire areas of the Orange Bowl to myself. (Wish I had photos of that now!) For instance, I had a good portion of the East (open) End Zone to myself against Oklahoma in the mid-70's, when the Boomer Schooner and the Schooner Crew went out on the field after an Oklahoma TD, and the Schooner received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from the refs, as would happen years later in an Orangle Bowl Classic game. (Against FSU?) I was there for the wins and losses under Pete Elliott, Carl Selmer & Lou Saban, and the huge on-field fight in '73 when under eventual national champion Notre Dame (under Ara Parseghian), they called a time-out with less than a minute to go, and already up 37-0. Their rationale? To score another TD and impress the AP football writers; final score 44-0. Well, they got their wish and beat Alabama 24-23 for the title at the Sugar Bowl. A year later, thanks to my Mom's boss, she and I saw Ara's last game as head coach of the Irish in the Orange Bowl Game from the East End Zone -in front of the Alabama cheerleaders!!!- in an exciting 13-11 Notre Dame win over Alabama and Bear Bryant, a rematch of the '73 national title game. I was also present for the U-M's huge 20-15 win under Pete Elliott against Darrel Royal's Texas Longhorns, the week Sports Illustrated's College Football preview issue came out with Texas on the cover, below. I was also present for lots of wins against schools called College of the Pacific, UNLV and Cal-Poly San Luis Obsispo, which I'd then never heard of before.

Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders, April 28, 2007

Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders, April 28, 2007
Photo by Mario J. Bermudez. April 28, 2007 at Dolphins NFL Draft Party at Dolphin HQ, Davie, FL

Of cheerleaders past and present

Given South Florida's unique version of the melting pot -con salsa- demographics and mindset, these women in the photo above are surely what most South Floridians would consider attractive women. But for this observer, who's spent hours & hours at IU cheerleader tryouts and who has known dozens of cheerleaders -and wannabes- in North Miami Beach, Bloomington, Evanston and Washington, D.C., the whole time I was watching these members of the Dolphins' squad perform, I couldn't help but compare them and their routines to those of some IU friends of mine who ALWAYS showed true Hoosier spirit & enthusiasm. Sitting at my table right near the stage and still later, while watching the long lines of Dolphin fans of all ages waiting to snap photos of themselves with the cheerleaders, I couldn't help but think about those friends who always left me and other Hoosier fans feeling positive & optimistic. Was there anyone I saw in Davie who possessed these valuable intangibles: the dancing precision of IU Red Stepper -and Captain- Gail Amster, my talented and spirited Phi Beta Kappa pal from Deerfield (IL), who always sat next to me in our Telecom. classes as we took turns entertaining the other; the ebullient spirit & energy of two Hoosier cheerleaders -and captains- from Bloomington, Wendy (Mulholland) Moyle & Sara Cox; the hypnotic, Midwestern, girl-next-door sexiness of Hoosier cheerleader Julie Bymaster, from Brownsburg; or, the adorable Southern girl-next-door appeal of former Hoosier Pom squader Jennifer Grimes, of Louisville, always such a clear distraction while sitting underneath the basket? Nope, not that I could see. But then they were VERY tough acts to follow!!! And that's not to mention my talented & spirited friends like Denise Andrews of Portage, Jody Kosanovich of Hammond & Linda Ahlbrand of Chesterton, all of whom were dynamic cheerleaders -and captains- at very large Hoosier high schools that were always in the championship mix, with Denise's team winning the Ind. football championship her senior year when she was captain -just like in a movie. That Denise, Jody & Linda all lived on the same dorm floor, just three stories above me at Briscoe Quad our freshman year, was one of the greatest coincidences -and strokes of luck for me!- that I could've ever hoped for. You could hardly ask for better ambassadors of IU than THESE very smart, sweet and talented women. In a future SBH post, I'll tell the story of one of the greatest Hoosiers I ever met, the aforementioned Wendy Mulholland, the Bloomington-born captain and emotional heart of the great early '80's IU cheerleading squads, and the daughter of Jack Mulholland, IU's former longtime Treasurer. The acorn doesn't fall far from a tree built on a foundation of integrity & community service! (After he retired, Mr. Mulholland was the first executive director of the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County. I used to joke with Wendy that her dad's name was the one that was permanently affixed to the bottom of my work-study checks for years, while I worked at the Dept. of Political Science's Library, first, at the Student Building in the old part of campus, and then later, after it was refurbished, in magnificent Woodburn Hall, my favorite building on campus.) In that future post, I'll share some reflections on Wendy's great strength of character and personality; my intentions of returning to Bloomington a few weeks before Fall '82 classes started, so I could help Wendy train and work-out to rehab her knee, so she'd feel confident in trying-out for the squad again, following a bad knee injury that'd left her physically-unable to try-out for the squad the previous spring, a big disappointment to those of us who cared about both Wendy and the team; my incredulity at, quite literally, running into Wendy while walking down a sidewalk one afternoon a few years later in Evanston, IL, when we were astonished to discover we were both living there, with me trying to hook on with a Windy City advertising agency, and Wendy then-attending Kellogg (KGSM) at Northwestern, right when the WSJ had named Kellogg the #1 Business School in the country. I'll also share a story about Wendy performing a true act of kindness towards me in 1982, when I was having a real emergency, and she went above-and-beyond what I had any logical reason to expect. Yet, Wendy, along with her very helpful dad, Jack, came through for me when I was in a very bad time crunch. I've never forgotten Wendy's kindness towards me, and her true Hoosier spirit. There's NOTHING I wouldn't do for Wendy Mulholland.

It's All About "The U"

It's All About "The U"
South Beach Hoosier's first U-M football game at the Orange Bowl was in 1972, age 11, against Tulane in the infamous "Fifth Down" game. In order to drum up support and attendance for the U-M at the Orange Bowl, that game had a promotion whereby South Florida kids who were school safety patrols could get in for free IF they wore their sash. I did. Clearly they knew that it was better to let kids in for free, knowing their parents would give them money to buy food and souvenirs, perhaps become a fan and want to return for future games. The ballgame made an interesting impression on The New York Times, resulting in this gem from the "View of Sport" column of Oct, 14, 1990, labeled 'Fifth Down or Not, It's Over When It's Over.' -"In 1972, aided by a fifth-down officiating gift in the last moments of the game, Miami of Florida defeated Tulane, 24-21. The country and the world was a much different place that fall because The New York Times took time and space to editorialize on the subject. ''Is it right for sportsmen, particularly young athletes, to be penalized or deprived of the goals for which they earnestly competed because responsible officials make mistakes? The ideal of true sportsmanship would be better served if Miami forfeited last week's game.' South Beach Hoosier hardly needs to tell you that this was YET another New York Times editoral that was completely ignored!

The issue I took with me the night of U-M's 20-15 upset of #1 Texas at the Orange Bowl

The issue I took with me the night of U-M's 20-15 upset of #1 Texas at the Orange Bowl
College Football, Texas No. 1, Hook 'em Horns, Sept. 10, 1973. Living in North Miami Beach in the '70's, my Sports Illustrated usually showed up in my mailbox on the Thursday or Friday before the Monday cover date. And was read cover-to-cover by Sunday morning.

The Perfect Storm

The Perfect Storm
U-M QB Ken Dorsey, Miami Hurricanes Undefeated National Champions 2001, Jan. 2002

Miami's Romp in the Rose

Miami's Romp in the Rose
Miami running back Clinton Portis, Jan. 7, 2002

Why the University of Miami should drop football

Why the University of Miami should drop football
June 12, 1995

REVENGE!

REVENGE!
Steve McGuire and Miami Overpower No.1 Notre Dame, Dec. 4, 1989

How Sweet It Is!

How Sweet It Is!
Miami Whips Oklahoma For The National Championship, Pictured: Dennis Kelleher, Jan. 11, 1988

My, Oh My, Miami!

My, Oh My, Miami!
Steve Walsh and the Canes Stun FSU, Oct. 12, 1987

Why Is Miami No. 1?

Why Is Miami No. 1?
QB Vinny Testaverde, Nov. 24, 1986

Miracle In Miami

Miracle In Miami
The Hurricanes Storm Past Nebraska, Halfback Keith Griffin, Jan. 9, 1984

Special Issue: College Football

Special Issue: College Football
The Best Passer, George Mira of Miami, Sept. 23, 1963

1984 College & Pro Spectatcular

1984 College & Pro Spectatcular
A Pair Of Aces: U-M QB Bernie Kosar & Miami Dolphin QB Dan Marino, Sept. 5, 1984

Pro Football Hall of Fame Special Issue

Pro Football Hall of Fame Special Issue
Dan Marino, Class of 2005, Aug. 2005

FACES OF THE NFL

FACES OF THE NFL
A Portfolio by Walter Iooss Jr., Ricky Williams, Miami Dolphins, Dec. 9, 2002

Coming Back

Coming Back
Jay Fiedler rallies Miami to a last-second win over Oakland, Oct. 1, 2001

Dan's Last Stand

Dan's Last Stand
At 38 and under siege, Dan Marino refuses to go down without a fight, Dec. 13, 1999

The War Zone

The War Zone
In the NFL's toughest division, the surprising Dolphins are on top, Lamar Smith, Dec. 11, 2000

Down and Dirty

Down and Dirty
Jimmy Johnson's Dolphins Bury The Patriots, Steve Emtman, Sept. 9, 1996

The Sunshine Boys

The Sunshine Boys
Now Playing in Miami: The Dan Marino and Jimmy Johnson Show, May 11, 1996

HOT & NOT

HOT & NOT
Miami loves Pat Riley but wants to give Don Shula the boot, Dec. 11, 1995

NFL PREVIEW 1995

NFL PREVIEW 1995
Which of today's stars are locks for the Hall of Fame? Dan Marino for sure. But who else? To find out, we polled the men who do the voting. Sept. 14, 1995

Sportsman Of The Year

Sportsman Of The Year
Don Shula, Dec. 20, 1993

Dan The Man

Dan The Man
Dan Marino Saves The Day For The Dolphins, Jan. 14, 1991

Dangerous Dan

Dangerous Dan
Dan Marino Passes Miami Into The Super Bowl, Jan. 14, 1985

Super Duper!

Super Duper!
Wide Receiver Mark Duper Of The Undefeated Dolphins, Nov. 19, 1984

Air Raid! Miami Bombs Washington

Air Raid! Miami Bombs Washington
Mark Clayton (burning Darryl Green) Sept. 10, 1984

Rookies On The Rise

Rookies On The Rise
Dan Marino: Miami's Hot Quarterback, Nov. 14, 1983

New Life In The WFL

New Life In The WFL
Warfield, Csonka and Kiick of Memphis, July 28, 1975

Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota

Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota
Larry Csonka, Jan. 21, 1974

Pro Football, Miami Is Rough And Ready

Pro Football, Miami Is Rough And Ready
Larry Csonka & Bob Griese, Sept. 17, 1973

Miami All The Way

Miami All The Way
Bob Griese, Jan. 22, 1973

It's Miami and Washington

It's Miami and Washington
Mercury Morris Speeds Past The Steelers, Jan. 8, 1973

Kiick and Csonka, Miami's Dynamic Duo

Kiick and Csonka, Miami's Dynamic Duo
Larry Csonka & Jim Kiick, Aug. 7, 1972

Sudden Death at Kansas City

Sudden Death at Kansas City
Miami's Garo Yepremian Ends the Longest Game; (kneeling) placekick holder Karl Noonan, Jan. 3, 1972

New Pro in a New Town

New Pro in a New Town
Miami's Frank Emanuel, Aug. 8, 1966

Old-style "Obie" the Orange Bowl Committee mascot

Old-style "Obie" the Orange Bowl Committee mascot
The iconic image I grew-up with in Miami, before FedEx got into the picture