Jason Jenkins, R.I.P.: Community was the one place where Dolphins won big, because of him | Opinion
We are always looking for the “face of a franchise.” They are the easiest to find. They are usually the stars out front.
It is harder to identify a franchise’s soul. Its heart. They needn’t be the stars on the field. They can be behind the scenes, the faces you don’t know.
The Miami Dolphins have lost just that in Jason Jenkins, the team’s senior vice president of communications and community affairs.
The news broke Saturday evening, broke like hearts do. Jenkins was only 47 years old. He leaves behind a wife, Elizabeth, and three children. He leaves behind a Dolphins franchise in shock and tears. He leaves behind a South Florida community that loved him because he loved it back, embraced it, worked hands-on to build it up from the places that needing lifting the most.
Jenkins was not the face of the franchise to fans more concerned, and understandably, with how Tua Tagovailoa was connecting with Tyreek Hill, and how new coach Mike McDaniel is doing.
But Jenkins was the face of the franchise to many deep in the community, where the club was handing out new football equipment to local teams, and holiday turkeys to families in need, or organizing its annual cycling race to raise money to fight cancer. The Dolphins just won the NFL’s team community service award. Because of Jason Jenkins’ leadership and rolled-up-sleeves effort, they did.
I thought I’d be writing today about the impressiveness of Miami’s 48-10 win over Philadelphia last night to end the preseason schedule. How great Tua and Tyreek looked.
But all of that shrunk to insignificance as the news of Jenkins’ death trickled out and was confirmed at halftime.
The regular season will go on, but with something missing, something big and important.
The Dolphins had had to cancel a practice on Thursday because of a stomach bug within the team.
McDaniel called it “a random curveball.” Now the team was dealing with not a curveball but with a sudden tragedy.
“Right now, football pales in comparison,” McDaniel said after the game. He was fighting tears. The tears were winning. And he has known Jenkins only a matter of months. “This was a healthy, healthy guy that just brought it every day. Just full of life. That’s the hardest part. There’s just no words to describe. It’s a tough one to swallow. He will be missed. He will not be forgotten, I can tell you that much.”
Former Dolphins great Jason Taylor also was fighting tears on the postgame local TV broadcast. “It’s, um, we lost a good one today, a great, great, great person,” said Taylor, wracked by emotion.
Jenkins was omnipresent to the media; I last saw him as the Dolphins opened training camp a few week ago. He was the high-ranking team official you went to not for the little stuff but if, say, you needed a comment from team owner Stephen Ross.
Community affairs was the more vital element of what Jenkins did, because it affected and changed people’s lives.
Jenkins served on multiple boards across South Florida, such as the Anti-Defamation League Florida, Breakthrough Miami, Women of Tomorrow, YWCA Miami, Dolphins Challenge Cancer, Pro Sports Assembly and Urban League of Broward County.
There was always a cause to pursue, people to uplift, good to be done.
His alma mater, Texas Tech asked him to deliver its commencement address in 2018.
“I’m here to tell you, it won’t be your geography that marks your journey,” Jenkins told the graduating seniors. “It’ll be three things: the depth of your relationships, the foundation of your values and the courage of your decision-making. So my career, and life, has been awesome.”
Dolphins president and CEO Tom Garfinkel called Jenkins “a beacon in the community, a trailblazer and champion for others, and above all, treated people with a kindness and dignity that left a lasting mark on everyone he met.”
Jenkins was entering his 14th season with the club. That means all around him was a lot of losing where you saw it. On the field, the Dolphins didn’t do much, never won a playoff game, during his time. On the management side, there were calamities including Ross recently incurring NFL penalties for tampering, a mess Jenkins had nothing to do with but was left to help clean up.
The best thing about the Dolphins over the past 13 years was Jason Jenkins.
No, he was never the face of the franchise except to many deep in the community, where any sports team’s heartbeat starts.
That is where most of the Miami Dolphins’ winning was happening the past 13 years even when no one was watching. Because one man made it so.
This story was originally published August 28, 2022 at 10:38 AM.
