My Favorite News Articles;

  Jimmy Johnson knows what it takes to win Super Bowls, having done it twice in Dallas. He knows what it takes to rebuild an organization that has sunk into mediocrity or worse, having done it not just in Dallas but with the Miami Dolphins as well. So when the coaching legend turned FOX football analyst suggests the most important person the Dolphins install this offseason whether they retain General Manager Jeff Ireland or not probably won’t be their next head coach but their top talent evaluator, it should register. ”I think you want to have an owner that’s supportive that’s going to give you the tools that you need; the Dolphins have that in Steve Ross,” Johnson said Tuesday morning on The Joe Rose Show on WQAM (560-AM). “The Dolphins had that with Wayne Huizenga. The Cowboys obviously had it with Jerry Jones. He’s going to do whatever it takes to try to win games. But most all of the owners are that way...

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  Honor can be a tricky commodity. And when you balance aesthetics against the legacy of some of the greatest names in football, it can easily end up on the scrap heap. Such was the fate of the Miami Dolphins' famed Ring of Honor. Torn from a lofty perch, it found a new home in a salvage yard outside Liberty City. Asked about the ring's final resting place, officials at Pro Player Stadium scrambled on Wednesday to reclaim it. The Ring of Honor is a series of panels commemorating Dolphin demigods and the glory days of the undefeated season of '72. For seven years it circled the stadium's middle tier, just above the luxury suites, bearing the names and seasons of play for such greats as Larry Csonka, Bob Griese, Nick Buoniconti and former coach Don Shula. Early last month, much to fans' rancor, it was replaced with a version about half the total size on the harder-to-see upper tier...

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  The Miami Seahawks, were an original member of the All-America Football Conference, a league that formed in 1946 and merged into the NFL in 1950. The Seahawks went 3-11 in 1946. They were originally coached by Jack Meagher, who quit on October 22, after the Seahawks had won just one of their first six games. Hamp Pool, a former captain of the 1940 and 1941 Chicago Bears NFL championship teams, then took over as head coach. The team's schedule was quite difficult. Miami opened with three straight road games, had a single home game, and then played another four road games. After a 1-7-0 start, the team returned home to host their final six games (a difficult sell to the general public). Brooklyn, Cleveland, and San Francisco had completed their 14-game regular seasons before the Seahawks hosted their final two home games...

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  Jim Mandich former tight end for the Miami Dolphins, one of South Florida's most popular sportscasters, said Tuesday he is battling cancer and will not return to his afternoon talk show on WQAM, AM 560. Jim Mandich, 61, is receiving chemotherapy for a tumor in his bile duct, a tube that reaches from the liver to the small intestine. He hopes to know in a couple weeks how effectively the chemotherapy is working. Jim Mandich said, "I was led to believe there are a lot of positive outcomes with this condition," he said. "My mind frame is strong. I feel very good. I'm surrounded by the best professionals at the Sylvester Center. I have a lot of love from family and friends." Health permitting, Mandich "would love'' to continue announcing Dolphins games which are moving to WINZ, AM 940, and WBGG, FM 105.9 and might do occasional work on WQAM. But "my talk-show days are done. It was a lot of fun." Mandich felt a "stabbing sensation" during football season but thought it might be stress...

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  Near dawn, a homeless man in a Dolphins cap stands on the concrete median of a downtown intersection. It is cold outside. Dark. Quiet. Unshaven and ponytailed, he looks down the street for the coming headlights of a white Cadillac. Or maybe it will be the black one today? "You never know," John Schoen says. He inhales a cigarette. He waits. Nearly two years ago, Schoen was selling Sun Sentinel newspapers at this intersection of North Federal Highway and the 17th Street Causeway when the white Cadillac stopped at the red light for the first time. The window went down. The driver wanted a paper. "Hey, you're Bill Parcells," Schoen said. Parcells nodded, yep, he was. The Dolphins' football boss bought a paper that morning. Then the light turned green, Parcells drove off and that was that. Until the next morning's red light. "You know, I used to hate your teams," Schoen said when Parcells bought a paper that second day. "I'm an Eagles fan. I rooted against you with the Giants, the Patriots, the Cowboys …" Parcells smiled. The light turned green. Thus began an unusual relationship, bounded by the timing of a street light, between one of sport's biggest names and one of society's invisible souls...

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  In July, 1983, The First Miami Dolphins Training Camp for south Florida football fans who got a first hand look at that famous quick release for which the legend is known. The former University of Pittsburgh stand out was chosen in the first round, the 27th overall pick in the 1983 National Football League draft and karma would follow this legend being chosen in his first year of eligibility following his 1999 retirement as a Miami Dolphin. Dan Marino finished his rookie season as the AFC’s top rated quarterback who was named the starter in the Pro Bowl of the same year and received Rookie of the Year honors. This all came from a player that the Miami Dolphins considered themselves lucky to get. The Miami Dolphins picking at position 27 of the first round saw many quarterbacks taken before history was made with the 27th selection of the 1983 National Football League Draft, The Miami Dolphins selected Dan Marino. There were five other quarterbacks chosen before the future legend; John Elway was #1, Todd Blackledge was #7, Jim Kelly was #14, Tony Eason was #15, and Ken O’Brien was #24, they were all selected when the Miami Dolphins were on the clock...

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  HANALEI, Hawaii -- In the last state. On the last island. Down the last road. At the last speck of a no-stoplight town before the United States drops into the Pacific Ocean. This is where sports' reigning hermit possibly lives, protected by friends, geography and a six-foot hedge. Public records say he owns this unassuming, two-story home. But no family member or former teammate will confirm it. No telephone number is available. And there's only a decades-old football photo to measure the man in the front yard against. "Hi, Jake Scott?" I ask. "Jake's up in the house,'' the man says, pointing up a half-dozen stairs to a wooden porch with a screen door. "Who're you?" "A writer from Florida,'' I say, walking toward the stairs, leaving the man chuckling a this-could-be-good chuckle. He knows what everyone does: Jake Scott doesn't do interviews, rarely surfaces in public, divorced himself from the Dolphins, declined a College Football Hall of Fame bid, didn't join most other Super Bowl MVPs again last year in Detroit and has pulled such a Howard Hughes that a sports memorabilia dealer, showing the kind of focus that sends others in search of Sasquatch, once hired a private investigator to contact him. It took two years. "HEY, JAKE!" the man in the driveway yells up at the house...

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