Of course, having a HOF quarterback does help out, but there is no question that Don Shula understood the importance of this position and raided the Eagles roster for Jackson and Byars.



http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miam ... l+Blogs%29

Then Shula made the mistake of signing Eric Green. A guy whose butt was fatter than Rhode Island. Green talked about becoming a Pro Bowl tight end, then went out and tested positive for drugs twice. The Steelers pleaded with him to increase his workouts and decrease his pig outs and he refused. He got open less and got hurt more often because his weight kept stressing out his joints.

The right way to motivate a guy like Eric Green was to give him a small base salary and huge incentives. The wrong was is to give him a big signing bonus and long term deal. The Dolphins gave him a six year deal worth $12 million with a $2.5 million signing bonus (major deal in the mid 90's). Now tell me, who was really on drugs here?

I remember Byars playing fullback?

ya he was a fullback but he basically was like a receiving tight end. He was pretty clutch for Marino.

I was so excited about this signing as Green was coming off of 2 Pro Bowl seasons and was nearly 300 pounds. He got fat and lazy with the new contract and didn't perform as we had hoped. Jimmy Johnson came in and had little patience with laziness.

And that was Shula's downfall at the end of his career. If there's one thing he didn't deal with well in the mid 90's, it was the new breed of players that had character issues. Eric Green missed 39 practices that year. Other players were missing close to that number, claiming they were hurt. Players were late to meetings, they slept in meetings, they even played Game Boys during meetings.

Shula got old.....But i doubt he loses to the Jags by 70 like JJ did.

JJ ran those guys into the ground prepping for that Jaguar game. They had no legs left.

I dont care what JJ did prepping for that game. They would have not won that game on 2 weeks rest. The funniest thing about that game was Orande Gadsden celebrating a TD down 41-0 in the second quarter.

wrong thread

My friend's uncle owns a car dealership in Miramar that a lot of Dolphins players frequent over the years. He said he talked to a player back then whose name will remain private and that player said the entire team laid down on purpose because they were sick of JJ's rigorous practice methods. He had them going at the same speed and intensity as training camp late in the season. You don't do that.

Cannot believe Marino would ever take part in that or for that matter any professional team. They just got their butts kicked that day. Nothing went right.

I'm kinda skeptical about it myself. Maybe some guys did though. How else can you explain Fred Taylor scoring a 90 yard TD with five defenders touching him?