Miami Herald Logo

Taylor, Thomas deserve their Dolphins honors | Miami Herald

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Site Information
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Herald Store
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • YouTube

    • Sections
    • News
    • South Florida
    • Miami-Dade
    • Broward
    • Florida Keys
    • Florida
    • Politics
    • Weird News
    • Weather
    • National & World
    • Colombia
    • National
    • World
    • Americas
    • Cuba
    • Guantánamo
    • Haiti
    • Venezuela
    • Local Issues
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • In Depth
    • Issues & Ideas
    • Traffic
    • Sections
    • Sports
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Pro & College
    • Miami Dolphins
    • Miami Heat
    • Miami Marlins
    • Florida Panthers
    • College Sports
    • University of Miami
    • Florida International
    • University of Florida
    • Florida State University
    • More Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Auto Racing
    • Fighting
    • Golf
    • Horse Racing
    • Outdoors
    • Soccer
    • Tennis
    • Youth Sports
    • Other Sports
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The Florida Influencer Series
    • Sections
    • Business
    • Business Monday
    • Banking
    • International Business
    • National Business
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate News
    • Small Business
    • Technology
    • Tourism & Cruises
    • Workplace
    • Business Plan Challenge
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Cindy Krischer Goodman
    • The Starting Gate
    • Work/Life Balancing Act
    • Movers
    • Sections
    • Living
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Pets
    • Recipes
    • Travel
    • Wine
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Dave Barry
    • Ana Veciana-Suarez
    • Flashback Miami
    • More Living
    • LGBTQ South Florida
    • Palette Magazine
    • Indulge Magazine
    • South Florida Album
    • Broward Album
    • Sections
    • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Games & Puzzles
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music & Nightlife
    • People
    • Performing Arts
    • Restaurants
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Jose Lambiet
    • Lesley Abravanel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Miami.com
    • Contests & Promotions
    • Sections
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Op-Ed
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Jim Morin
    • Letters to the Editor
    • From Our Inbox
    • Speak Up
    • Submit a Letter
    • Meet the Editorial Board
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Blog Directory
    • Columnist Directory
    • Andres Oppenheimer
    • Carl Hiaasen
    • Leonard Pitts Jr.
    • Fabiola Santiago
    • Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Place an Obituary

    • Place an ad
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Apartments
    • Auctions/Sales
    • Automotive
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Employment
    • Garage Sales
    • Legals
    • Merchandise
    • Obituaries
    • Pets
    • Public Notices
    • Real Estate
    • Services
  • Public Notices
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Real Estate
  • Mobile & Apps

  • el Nuevo Herald
  • Miami.com
  • Indulge

Sports

Taylor, Thomas deserve their Dolphins honors

By Greg Cote

    ORDER REPRINT →

October 14, 2012 12:01 AM

For Dolphins greats Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas, think of Sunday’s Honor Roll induction as a reward for what at times must have seemed like careers of unending misery.

My mental snapshot of the two defensive stalwarts, friends and brothers in law is taken from yet another losing postgame lockerroom, with Taylor seated over there, slumped, a white towel draped over his shaved head, and Thomas about 10 paces away, eye-black still on, half angry and half fighting tears.

Sunday, they’ll both be grinning like Joe Biden in a vice-presidential debate.

That’s the thing about retirement. The losses stop. But I did the math, and these two endured a lot of them. Imagine how many more if not for their own heroics?

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

Taylor’s career record as a Dolphin was 105-111 — including what few playoffs there were. Thomas’ was 100-99. The last eight years of their era were bereft of any playoffs. Since 2004 the record was 33-63 for Taylor, and 20-44 for Thomas.

Yet they excelled in the mediocrity or worse that surrounded them.

And Sunday they become the first Honor Roll inductees from what I would call the franchise’s current (post-Dan Marino) era, considering both arrived as the Marino years were ebbing.

Through no fault of their own fate gave neither man even a sniff of a Super Bowl.

Sunday they’ll have the consolation of franchise immortality, and appreciation.

Those smiles will have been earned, indeed.

• 

Stephen Weiss’

overtime goal lifted the Panthers over the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 on Saturday night in Florida’s regular-season opener. (Sorry. Just imagining how it might have been if the NHL lockout wasn’t dragging on and on).



• American men’s soccer team trained in Miami this week for its critical World Cup qualifying matches Friday in the Caribbean against Antigua and Barbuda, a 2-1 victory. I’m not sure who either Antigua or Barbuda were, but there was no way those two guys were going to beat the U.S.



• Yankees advanced to ALCS after benching slumping

Alex Rodriguez

. Team won behind strong pitching from

C.C. Sabathia

, who dominated the O’s despite it later being determined a family of four had been living inside his baggy uniform pants.



• The more time passes the more it seems

Jeffrey Loria

will stick with manager

Ozzie Guillen

. Marlins fans still trying to decide dif that’s good news or not.



• Penn State pedophile

Jerry Sandusky

, 68, was sentenced to at least 30 years for sexually abusing 10 boys. Dear Jerry: When you finally are released at age 98 in 2042, there’ll be an angry mob waiting outside the prison to beat the crap out of you.



• College football’s first Bowl Championship Series standings will be released Sunday. The teams ranked Nos. 1-2 and their fans love the BCS. Everybody else, not so much.



• Heat star

Dwyane Wade

is featured in a new NBA video explaining what “flopping” is. Can’t say I’m surprised. Even in interviews, Wade is known to theatrically fall down if he doesn’t like a question.



• It was Midnight Madness (or down here closer to Midnight Mildness) as UM men’s basketball team opened practice. Beforehand coach

Jim Larranaga

conducted a fantasy camp for men ages 35 and older where, for $2,500, Larranaga would tell the wealthy campers how impressed he was by their mad skills.



• 

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

missing two “Chase for the Cup” races with a concussion ruins his chances to be in the hunt for the season crown when the season ends Nov. 18 at Homestead. Junior’s legion of fans are incredulous that NASCAR won’t pause its playoffs a few weeks to let him heal.



• For those who didn’t think anything could get lower TV ratings than a WNBA Finals, I bring you a WNBA Finals between the Indiana Fever and Minnesota Lynx!



• The Jets choice of

Mark Sanchez

or

Tim Tebow

for a quarterback is like you wanting a safer neighborhood and having to decide between Beirut or Fallujah.



• That reminds me. Chiefs fans were under fire for cheering the injury to QB Matt Cassel. Um, do they not know that their backup is Brady Quinn?



• NFL commissioner

Roger Goodell

surprised no one by upholding his own Saints Bountygate penalties. Now

Jonathan Vilma

in an appeal is asking the court to recuse Goodell for bias and partiality. You think it’s time to break it to Vilma that he isn’t going to win this fight?



• 

Lawrence Taylor

jokingly suggested sex might be good for whatever ails Tebow. Dear Larry: Maybe a man who once admitted to relations with an underage prostitute should avoid sex jokes.



• 

Al Jefferson

of the Utah Jazz paid $23,287 for an oversized custom-made bed. Seriously? If I’m spending 23K on a bed it had better come with a supermodel under the covers.



• 

Pete Rose

said he does not think

Derek Jeter

will break his all-time hits record. Wonder what kind of odds Pete is laying?



• St. Thomas Aquinas High lost a second football game. Didn’t they used to lose about two games a decade when

George Smith

was coach? I’m not sayin’, I’m just sayin.’



• Parting thought: Ohio State freshman QB Cardale Jones said on Twitter, “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play football, we ain’t come to play school, classes are pointless.” Question: Is an idiot who comes out against education able to see the irony in that?

Visit Greg’s Random Evidence of a Cluttered Blog daily at MiamiHerald.com, watch video commentaries at YouTube/TheGregCote and follow on Twitter @gregcote.

  Comments  

Videos

Dwyane Wade on his 16th and final NBA season

What the Dolphins new defensive coordinator wants in his players

View More Video

Trending Stories

Here are some of the worst mistakes immigrants make applying for legal papers

February 15, 2019 11:26 AM

Dolphins sign former second-round defensive end and a young cornerback

February 15, 2019 03:30 PM

U.S. looks to send food aid to Haiti as violence brews humanitarian crisis

February 15, 2019 06:27 PM

Author of homophobic slur among 8 ousted in new Broward sheriff’s ongoing purge

February 15, 2019 03:26 PM

‘Crazy chick’ didn’t want to sit next to a toddler on a plane. Then came the outburst.

February 15, 2019 03:28 PM

Read Next

Mark Walton, former Canes star now with the Cincinnati  Bengals, arrested in Miami

Crime

Mark Walton, former Canes star now with the Cincinnati Bengals, arrested in Miami

By David Ovalle

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 16, 2019 11:05 AM

Miami police arrested Cincinnati Bengals running back Mark Walton, former University of Miami football star, after officers said he snatched a cell phone from a woman at a Brickell condo during an argument at a parking garage.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE SPORTS

After a two-year drought, American Heritage girls’ soccer back in state championship

Broward High Schools

After a two-year drought, American Heritage girls’ soccer back in state championship

February 16, 2019 12:45 AM
McCarthy girls’ soccer gets its ‘redemption game’ and a spot in the state championship

Broward High Schools

McCarthy girls’ soccer gets its ‘redemption game’ and a spot in the state championship

February 16, 2019 12:40 AM

Sports

Apartment popularity rising in Twins City, along with rents

February 16, 2019 12:20 PM

Sports

Brighton beats Derby to reach FA Cup quarterfinals

February 16, 2019 12:19 PM

Sports

Griezmann gives Atletico win before Juventus CL clash

February 16, 2019 12:16 PM
The Latest: LeBron impressed with Duke’s Zion Williamson

Sports

The Latest: LeBron impressed with Duke’s Zion Williamson

February 16, 2019 12:17 PM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Miami Herald App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Public Insight Network
  • Reader Panel
Advertising
  • Place a Classified
  • Media Kit
  • Commercial Printing
  • Public Notices
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story