Sept. 4, 2024
Fish Tank Iconic: The Comeback
In this special episode, O.J. and Seth chronicle the Miami Dolphins September 4, 1994 contest against the New England Patriots. After a torn Achilles tendon forced Dan Marino to miss the majority of the 1993 season, questions and doubt circled around the legendary quarterback in ways previously deemed unimaginable. The anticipation for this season opening game was heightened by the matchup between future Hall of Fame head coaches in Don Shula and Bill Parcells, two new team owners in H. Wayne Huizenga and Robert Kraft, and the Patriots new shining star: quarterback Drew Bledsoe. What followed was a game for the ages featuring nearly 1,000 yards in combined offense, nine touchdown passes thrown between the two quarterbacks, and a 4th and 5 connection between Marino and Irving Fryar that Miami Dolphins fans will never forget!
Contributors to this episode include Chris Clark and Dolphins Productions.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:00
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins first round selection.
00:00:03
Speaker 2: The Dolphins selected quarterback Dan Reno of Pittsburgh.
00:00:08
Speaker 3: You just start with the electricity that surrounded him and the talent he brought to the field and the energy.
00:00:14
Speaker 4: Fires deep man open Clayton's tent.
00:00:17
Speaker 5: Fuck touchdown, Dolphins.
00:00:18
Speaker 4: Here's Marina. He's back, he's looking fires into the end zone.
00:00:21
Speaker 5: It's complete for a touchdown.
00:00:23
Speaker 4: Reno drops the throw as time going deep up the sideline.
00:00:26
Speaker 5: Man, don got it?
00:00:27
Speaker 6: Funny?
00:00:27
Speaker 7: Twenty five twenty good, Well they'll never touch in touchdown.
00:00:31
Speaker 8: He brought again the electricity to the sports world that Miami Vice did to Hollywood.
00:00:38
Speaker 9: I had Danny's poster on my wall growing up.
00:00:40
Speaker 7: Perfectly frowned passed by Damn Marino.
00:00:44
Speaker 2: That is the guy who is almost insufferably arrogant in his belief in what he can do.
00:00:53
Speaker 9: That's exactly who I want playing quarterback for me.
00:00:56
Speaker 4: Reno is we on the play?
00:00:58
Speaker 8: The impact of that moment was like time spy.
00:01:01
Speaker 9: It does not look good.
00:01:03
Speaker 1: When Dan got hurt, Obviously everybody thought the sky had fallen.
00:01:07
Speaker 10: The way his Achilles kind of tour and it kind of like shredded.
00:01:11
Speaker 8: Is he done? Even if he comes back? Is they're going to be the same.
00:01:14
Speaker 11: Not a lot of guys came back from an injury like that. It was almost kind of like a death sentence after.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: First time I ever heard anybody question what the Dolphin future might be without Dan Marino.
00:01:32
Speaker 4: There are moments, there are big moments.
00:01:35
Speaker 6: In some moments are simply iconic.
00:01:37
Speaker 12: Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino had treated us to all of the above in ten plus years under center for the Miami Dolphins. Because unprecedented in nineteen eighty four season, a dismantling of the eighty five Chicago Bears on Monday Night football, one fourth quarter comeback after the next, but then the unthinkable.
00:01:54
Speaker 13: Hap.
00:01:55
Speaker 14: Yeah, while it might have been in nineteen ninety three, I remember like it was yesterday as I stood on the busy sideline of Cleveland Stadium watching what should have been a routine played for number thirteen.
00:02:04
Speaker 9: It became anything but.
00:02:06
Speaker 12: With Damn Marinos seated on the twenty six yard lines clutching his right ankle. Miami Dolphins fans across the globe held their collective breadth Reno's torn achilles tendon. The subsequent months of tireless rehabilitation and a lackluster preseason in nineteen ninety four all led to speculation that previously would have been considered blasphemy. Now throwing a hot shot second year gunslinger and Drew Bledsoe.
00:02:29
Speaker 14: In a matchup between two future Hall of Fame head coaches in Don Shula and Bill Parcels.
00:02:34
Speaker 12: And two first year high profile team owners and Wayne Heizinger and Robert Kraft, and the dolphins nineteen ninety four season opener had more storylines than a Hollywood blockbuster.
00:02:44
Speaker 14: Yeah, But by kickoff, however, all anyone wanted to know was how with Dan Marino was fined? This is fish tank, I conye.
00:02:58
Speaker 15: So leading up to Marino's comeback game in ninety four, it was all a big question mark.
00:03:04
Speaker 11: There was no doubt in my mind that he would come back. I mean, there were a lot of questions surrounding it.
00:03:09
Speaker 3: I think there was a lot of concern once he got left, can he come back fully?
00:03:15
Speaker 5: And the achilles is.
00:03:16
Speaker 3: Its own injury. It can go again, and it can be career threatening for some guys.
00:03:21
Speaker 10: Just had to be around dance eleven or twelfth year and to have an injury that significant, and then you're the quarterback and you know, you always got to drop back, got a plan.
00:03:30
Speaker 8: It wasn't even is his career over? It is could he be Dan Marino again?
00:03:35
Speaker 10: In their mind, their question is he gonna be able to come back? And if not, do we need to try to draft a quarterback?
00:03:41
Speaker 1: That was something no one had ever thought about. It was unthinkable to believe that there would be life after Dan Marino, but some people in the media actually wrote that maybe we would be better off keeping Scott Mitchell and not really tying our future on Dan Marino's comeback.
00:03:57
Speaker 3: It's the most controversial memorable CA I ever written. I did not write the headline. At the time, there was speculation out there, there were trade rumors about trading Marino. I wanted to write a column that sort of put all that in perspective. He was thirty two at the time. Through eleven years, they weren't winning with him enough. I mean, they were winning, they were super exciting, but if Super Bowl was the goal, it wasn't happening. I just wanted to put the notion out there now or never, you know, in terms of if you're going to consider trading him, do it now. And what I wrote was seen as blasphemous.
00:04:32
Speaker 10: I think the good thing was Coach Schuler was still there, and you know Dan was his guy, and he was going to give him every opportunity and exhaust everything before he just pulled the plug on him.
00:04:43
Speaker 16: The great thing about Dan Marino is I never saw the philosophy that I have to prove someone wrong.
00:04:49
Speaker 17: I was frustrated with just the situation I was in, not with people what they were saying.
00:04:54
Speaker 6: I could care less about that.
00:04:56
Speaker 9: It was more or less just.
00:04:58
Speaker 17: How can I be ready to play and play in the opening game and to feel good about it.
00:05:03
Speaker 9: I knew that Dan was a competitor.
00:05:05
Speaker 11: I knew that Dan had fire in his belly, and something like an injury like that him given the fact that he wasn't I didn't think he was ready to retire. He wasn't ready to retire. He wasn't going to retire, so he wasn't going to let it beat him.
00:05:19
Speaker 1: You can tell that it was something he wasn't used to doing, something frankly he didn't like. And the only way he thought he could stop it's been going out and showing everybody that he still could play at the level he knew he could play at even with that injury.
00:05:30
Speaker 11: Before he ruptured his achilles, he couldn't move anyway. So it wasn't like it was a big change in his game where now he could run the ball and make guys miss.
00:05:39
Speaker 9: He couldn't do that to begin with.
00:05:41
Speaker 11: He was still dand in the pocket, Dan would he jump up, move up a little bit, make a guy miss and throw that ball on the line.
00:05:48
Speaker 9: He could still do that.
00:05:49
Speaker 6: And the arm was still sharp, the mind was still sharp. So could his body catch up to everything else?
00:05:59
Speaker 14: That all season, all what Danny did to try to get himself back, he put that work.
00:06:03
Speaker 6: In the way.
00:06:04
Speaker 10: His achilles kind of tour wouldn't like just a straight up even cut that would have been easier to repair, but it kind of like shredded. So I think the surgery was a lot more tedious and it took a lot longer to make the repair.
00:06:18
Speaker 16: That achilles was not the same achilles. In fact, he couldn't do, you know, a toe raise to this day, he can't do a toe raise on it, and that's your plant foot.
00:06:27
Speaker 17: That summer camp, it was rough. I mean, I just didn't feel great going into the year and then it, you know, they shaved a little bit here, shaved a little bit there, and then went back and then the next thing, you know, I was I was good.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: But now he was enduring months of can he play again? Can he ever lead the Dolphins again? Can he regain the same heights again? And if you know Dan, he is an intensive competitor as you ever want to see. But even then with a strict confidence he has in himself and his abilities, he was starting to question his own ability to come back. And then having this amplified for all the questions he was getting asked, he was getting a little upset about that.
00:07:00
Speaker 8: I remember going up to him that week and he was sitting at his locker. It was just me and him, and he had his face like in the locker, and he was getting madder and madder at the questions I asked. I just remember his face was getting redder, and he was just so sick of all the questions and doubts and you know, should he player, shouldn't he play?
00:07:19
Speaker 17: We went through a lot of stuff in the preseason. Wasn't that good?
00:07:23
Speaker 7: Dan didn't play in the first at least the first two And when he did play in the first preseason game, I can remember seeing him come out onto the field and thinking, wow, he's he's really limping noticeably, and how is this guy going to play?
00:07:39
Speaker 1: So he comes into the preseason with these questions without having played a game, and then when he does finally get in, he plays terribly Minnesota. I think he was four or twelve with two picks. Weading up to the first regular season game.
00:07:55
Speaker 18: He didn't have a great preseason. In fact, there was one game where I came over to actually give him some water and he looked up and he goes, I haven't thrown a touchdown pass.
00:08:05
Speaker 1: So now people earlier were trying to question his future. Now the reservice, we questioned his medical condition. Was he really fit enough to be able to play anywhere near the level that he played before his injury, And we were going to find that out.
00:08:17
Speaker 19: Obviously the first game in the ninety four.
00:08:18
Speaker 6: Season, did Damn Marino ever doubt Damn Marino?
00:08:22
Speaker 17: No, I knew I could do it. Have injuries, There's always that question in the back of your mind. But then you know the competitiveness and you know how you work and the things you put into it. That always comes to the forefront to prove that I'm going to be able to play at a high level and all that. Yeah, I was definitely thinking about that.
00:08:40
Speaker 16: The people who respect most was his dad, and I remember his dad talking about, you know, hey, either you got to get it fixed or you have to figure out how to play with When that first game came, we figured out what he did.
00:08:53
Speaker 6: He didn't get it.
00:08:53
Speaker 16: Fixed, but he sure figured out how to play with him.
00:09:02
Speaker 1: Heading into that first game, there were a lot of things that were happening, both on the field and off the field. Sure was waying heising's first game, which was important. It was obviously going to be a big game from a division standpoint.
00:09:15
Speaker 9: We wanted to win.
00:09:16
Speaker 20: We wanted to win it all and we felt like that year we had a good enough team to be able to do that.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: Du Bledsoe at that point was the new hot shot. Everyone was talking to him after two years in the league of playing a potential Hall of Fame level. Obviously you had Bill Parcells coaching on the opposite sideline.
00:09:32
Speaker 3: Had so many elements like the coach against the coach, and the old warrior quarterback coming back from a terrible injury against the young rising star.
00:09:41
Speaker 14: The fact that Danny was making his return against the quarterback that was drafting number one overall in my draft class.
00:09:47
Speaker 6: That was more important to meeting anything the year before when he was a rookie.
00:09:50
Speaker 17: He actually beat us in overtime the last game of the year to throw a touchdown, and you could tell then that he was an up and.
00:09:56
Speaker 9: Coming, you know star.
00:09:57
Speaker 3: It was a great star, not only through right then, but in franchise history.
00:10:03
Speaker 6: I think by the line, it was New England in the division and we had.
00:10:06
Speaker 14: To find a way to get a win, and we had the best man to do it.
00:10:08
Speaker 9: For the stakes was high. It was Parcels.
00:10:11
Speaker 20: It was Parcels versus Shuler, and then Dan Marino versus everybody.
00:10:17
Speaker 6: The other components.
00:10:18
Speaker 15: Irving Fryar, a guy who made his name mark in the league with the Patriots now coming back trying to haunt the team.
00:10:24
Speaker 11: I had been trying to get out of New England for years. I mean I tapped Coach Shuler on the shoulder after games.
00:10:30
Speaker 9: We played Miami Dolphins twice.
00:10:32
Speaker 11: A year and I tapped him on the shoulder five years in a row. I tapped him on the shoulder after every game. I go up to him, Coach, you gotta get me out of here. I felt like I had been born again again. I was born again in New England, but I got born again again down in Miami. Being able to play in that type of offense, and of course.
00:10:48
Speaker 14: You know, in this game, Irva want to go out there and show off and show out, you know, to his former team.
00:10:54
Speaker 11: Learning how to play wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins was totally different than playing wide receiver for Nebraska. Playing wide receiver for the New England Patriots, it was a rebirth. I wanted to prove that I could do more than what was being done or.
00:11:11
Speaker 9: I was being used in New England.
00:11:12
Speaker 11: Other than Dan, all the other quarterbacks and there were eighteen other ones that I played with. They were either average or below average quarterbacks.
00:11:21
Speaker 9: I go from Doug Flutie to Dan Marino.
00:11:23
Speaker 11: Come on, Tommy Hotson to Dan Marino, Jeff Carlson to Dan Marino. You don't even know who those cats are. When I was in New England, if we called a play in the huddle and we came out lined up and the defense was in a defense that was not good for that play, we just took one on the chin. We took it as a loss. We didn't change plays at the line of scrimmage. When I got to Miami, we were changing plays at Lona Skirits.
00:11:48
Speaker 9: I'm like, what, I've never done this before.
00:11:50
Speaker 6: We can do this.
00:11:57
Speaker 1: Before the season actually started, and even before preseason, there were questions. First of all, Danny had to have a whole new shoe built specifically to treat that injury. Danny was playing with one low cut shoe and one high type shoe, which looked strange by itself.
00:12:10
Speaker 18: We weren't quite sure how Dan was going to respond to this, this giant boot that we had made for him, and every boot was four hundred dollars.
00:12:20
Speaker 20: You know, he has that limb, and you know he has a different kind of shoe on. You know, we really don't know what to expect. We know his arm is there.
00:12:26
Speaker 18: I remember that for that game, since he was donning this new boot, I had ordered hockey laces.
00:12:34
Speaker 19: Those hockey laces are.
00:12:36
Speaker 18: Waxed, and so he kept having trouble at practice keeping them keeping the boot tight.
00:12:43
Speaker 19: So I had ordered.
00:12:44
Speaker 18: These hockey laces, not knowing a damn thing about hockey.
00:12:48
Speaker 19: Sure enough, they work like a charm.
00:12:56
Speaker 21: Thirteen all looks ago in Miami's still Robbie Stadium, the reintroduction of vam Marino, returning to the elm of the Dolphins confidence coming off the first significant injury layoff of his career.
00:13:11
Speaker 22: I do remember he was wearing like this giant shoe, like he had this this boot that went all the way up to his freaking calf.
00:13:17
Speaker 23: So it's the opening between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins and Joe Robbie Stadium where for most of the hour and a half before game time, a steady rain fell on an uncovered field, and we expect more thunderstorms.
00:13:31
Speaker 5: As the day goes.
00:13:32
Speaker 18: On the morning of we get the just the wonderful news that the game was what.
00:13:38
Speaker 19: Might be affected by bad weather.
00:13:41
Speaker 1: The Marlins still had the infield down because of baseball season, and it rained before the game.
00:13:47
Speaker 18: Specifically, I believe it was on the east end zone was just a muddy mess.
00:13:51
Speaker 4: It is going to be a struggle for running backs at that part.
00:13:55
Speaker 7: If you remember that year, there was a baseball strike, so there was no baseball in the month of September.
00:14:01
Speaker 12: Marlin organization clearly the eternal optimists.
00:14:04
Speaker 4: Keeping the infield here. It is going to be difficult the course.
00:14:07
Speaker 12: Of the game, and the flutters are going to be key to the success of both teams today.
00:14:11
Speaker 20: That is probably one of the worst conditions you could ever play. It rained so much that the field was completely muddy.
00:14:18
Speaker 6: The mud on the infield was just terrible.
00:14:21
Speaker 14: That's for guys that played wide receiver or part returner and things like that.
00:14:25
Speaker 18: I had started everybody in three quarter inch cleats, and during the game we were actually changing you guys into inch cleats because the field conditions were so bad.
00:14:40
Speaker 7: So during the game, Jim Mandage goes on a rant about how the baseball guys should just give it up, fill that dirt in with grass.
00:14:49
Speaker 4: And let's play football.
00:14:51
Speaker 7: Well, Wayne Heisange also owned the Florida Marlins, and it gets to a point where I'm feeling something happening behind me in the booth. There's some kind of ruckets going on, and I turn around and Wayne Heissanga is in the booth with veins popping out of his head, saying some things that went very nice about Jim's muff.
00:15:12
Speaker 1: At that time, Wayne down the Marlins as well as the Dolphins, and I don't think he took lightly to anybody complaining about what he was doing.
00:15:19
Speaker 18: And then obviously anytime that there was a time out, we'd run out the field and try as hard as we could to get to clear the player's cleats of mud. In addition to that, you're worried about keeping those balls as dry as possible under those conditions, which was a challenge in and of itself. The problem with this game was not only the weather, not only the abhorrent conditions of the field, but the tension that surrounded Dan's comeback and whether or not he'd be able to return to form after suffering that type of injury.
00:15:55
Speaker 1: So there was a physical fear that because of that mud it would rarely limit Dan's ability to a point where if he was trying to lift his foot out of the mud as he was trying to move around, it would put additional strand under the kellies and might even rip again.
00:16:08
Speaker 5: The baseball infield section of the field.
00:16:10
Speaker 10: Is a black min They're having problems with footing, but you're having problems with foot as well, and last thing you want to do is slip and fall and then a guy get a free you know, run just target, you know, to the quarterback while.
00:16:22
Speaker 18: You're worried about all of the players, and certainly you're tending to everyone's needs, your primary worry is number thirteen. So every time he came off the field, I was on hand with a flat heead screwdriver, taking mud right from under his cleats and then changing cleats if he needed it.
00:16:47
Speaker 24: From the shot gun, Marino looking steps up in the pocket. He's gonna run it. Dad is down to the thirty five and dives down of the thirty two.
00:16:53
Speaker 4: That's enough for the first out. And what a round of applause he gets from the crowd.
00:16:58
Speaker 5: Here, my god, what's that career?
00:17:00
Speaker 23: Just?
00:17:00
Speaker 17: What do I remember about it?
00:17:02
Speaker 20: Is?
00:17:02
Speaker 17: It just opened up and I think they played man under too deep, so there was nobody there really basically, And to get seven yards in the mud too, it wasn't it wasn't just dirt, It was mud. It felt pretty good and it got me kind of a little dirty and just kind of ready to go.
00:17:16
Speaker 5: You think he wants to win the first quarter.
00:17:19
Speaker 25: There's a lion hearted player underneath that number thirteen Jersey.
00:17:23
Speaker 4: I'm impressed.
00:17:25
Speaker 24: And that's the final player of the first quarter here at Joe Robbie Stadium.
00:17:28
Speaker 6: He's a quiet guy.
00:17:29
Speaker 14: On games, you don't hear much at all when the lights are on, when the clock starts.
00:17:34
Speaker 6: And Danny's ready to go. So I knew that he was focusing, ready to go.
00:17:38
Speaker 17: You know, once the game started and I kind of got into the game, I didn't even think about it. It was about just playing the game, playing the best you possibly can and winning and beating the Patriots.
00:17:46
Speaker 24: Fires are the word right, Sideway Kirby the loan setback Marinos back throws in the quick one the Fires. It bounces in the air and is intercepted by Dwayne Sob.
00:17:54
Speaker 25: We're all a huge turnover is gonna go upgains to the Miami Dolphins. So an interception for the Patriots to a berth the Dolphins scoring prep.
00:18:02
Speaker 4: You see Dan Marino's anger, but I.
00:18:04
Speaker 10: Remember it was like he got pissed off and I seen the look in his eye, And anytime he did that, it was just.
00:18:11
Speaker 6: Like this, let's go. It changed from that point on.
00:18:16
Speaker 10: It's like flipped the switch and then he took off and he ate him up.
00:18:21
Speaker 6: He ate the Patriots up.
00:18:22
Speaker 14: We knew he had a score points, and we knew he had the offense that could score point.
00:18:26
Speaker 20: You got Irvin Frar, you got Keith Jackson, you got mark Ingram, you got O J mc duffey. You know, I was catching the ball. It was one of those games where it's like, you know what, let's go, let's go, let's score some points, because they were gonna score points.
00:18:38
Speaker 11: We never had a great defense. We had a good defense, but we always had to score a lot of points, and most of our points had to be scored through the air because we never really had Pro Bowl running backs or an elite running game. I knew in order for us to win this game that we would have to throw it, and we got to keep throwing it.
00:19:00
Speaker 24: Marino slogging in the ball back to pass, he throws down field.
00:19:02
Speaker 4: Has it had open?
00:19:03
Speaker 5: Mark Agrub has it at the thirty he's still the twenty ten. He is God, Oh that guy. Yes, Daddy, Marino is back. Baby. That is sweet.
00:19:18
Speaker 25: And the momentum of this game has changed dramatically.
00:19:22
Speaker 6: I felt good.
00:19:23
Speaker 17: I mean, anytime you throw a touchdown and you throw it that way where we split the defense, it does give you confidence. It gives you a sense of Okay, we can do this, and let's roll. You know, I felt like it was a really good throw.
00:19:35
Speaker 2: What was I think very signature about that throw was that he didn't put a lot of arc on it. He threw the ball on a hot line, pretty far downfield. Dan had such trust in his arm, and with good reason.
00:19:47
Speaker 20: You had two great quarterbacks in that game. You know, you had Marino and Bletzo going at it. You couldn't ask for anything better than a shootout in a game like that.
00:19:56
Speaker 22: So for me, man, it was kind of a mind bending, you know, situation where like, holy crap, man, that's Dan Marino over there, and I'm going to take the field across from him. I always felt like, regardless of who it was, even though it's Dan Marino over there, that I was going to be the best quarterback in that game. And then afterwards I tried to get his autograph.
00:20:14
Speaker 24: Everybody in tight Bledsoe's gonna throw a gad fires out of the ends, all Ben Coates has it touchdown.
00:20:21
Speaker 8: I don't know if Dan Marino needed Bledsoe matching him touchdown for touchdown, but I'll tell you what.
00:20:26
Speaker 6: The script needed it.
00:20:27
Speaker 8: The drama needed it, the excitement to the game needed it. It was always okay, Bledsoe can Marino answer, then can bleedso answer, and it was like a two heavyweight fighter throwing punch after punch at each other.
00:20:40
Speaker 1: And I remember at halftime was pretty clear that Dan Marino was Dan Marino. I went over to Greg Cody, who wrote one of the original stories months ago, saying, Hey, maybe we should keep Scott Mitchell and maybe we should think about wedding Dan go. I went over to Greg, I said, Greg, so, what are you going to write now?
00:20:56
Speaker 20: I think with Danny in that huddle that we knew Danny was back was when Danny walks into that huddle and he has that attitude and he has that fire in his eyes and he goes, listen, this is what we're gonna do, and this is how we're gonna do it. I don't think I've ever played with any other quarterback that could actually come into the huddle, and you know, like even right now, you know, I get the chills talking about it, because that's the attitude that Marino has and you know that you're gonna win that game.
00:21:26
Speaker 24: Blood shoe straight back to pass, fired one deep down middle for Coats. He's got a at the thirty five to thirty twenty five twenty. He's at the fifteen ten five touchdown patrias hey sixty three yard touchdown pass led sew to Ben Coachs.
00:21:40
Speaker 22: It became one of those like hey, just give me the ball back, Just give me the ballbacker, We're going to score again, you know, And I know Danny was feeling the same way. One of those games where you just feel like, hey, we're unstoppable. Unfortunately they were unstoppable also, and.
00:21:52
Speaker 5: The momentum now belongs to the men in.
00:21:54
Speaker 21: Blue hits him down to the twenty two yard line.
00:22:03
Speaker 9: I was thinking about Tom y'all Tholby the freaking ball. That's why I was thinking, Shoot, I got this all day.
00:22:09
Speaker 6: This like this all day.
00:22:10
Speaker 17: Sometimes they'll take guys away, and I'm sure they were taking them away in the first half. But knowing Irving and how you know competitive he is, that.
00:22:18
Speaker 5: He was going to be there.
00:22:19
Speaker 9: It was just a beginning, and it was a relief. It was a relief. I'm like, Okay, I got the first one on my belt. Let's let's keep going. So now we're off to the races.
00:22:29
Speaker 24: Let's snap in the shotgun to Marina. He's looking has time throws it into.
00:22:33
Speaker 4: The ends all. Keith Jackson has a touchdown Dolphins.
00:22:36
Speaker 5: Oh, yes, that's the one we've been looking for. Keith Jackson says.
00:22:41
Speaker 25: Oh, mister Coats, there's more than one tight end on this field.
00:22:45
Speaker 21: Marino becomes the second ever to throw three hundred.
00:22:49
Speaker 23: Touchdown passes, and now the crowd here in Joe Robbie Stadium responds to that announcement.
00:23:00
Speaker 4: Out and go, let's all short drop.
00:23:02
Speaker 24: He's looking to throw fire straight undo the en zone, complete for a touchdown of Michael Timpson.
00:23:06
Speaker 22: I think at that point in the game, I don't think anybody felt like a lead was safe. You know, it was just going to keep the lead, was going to keep swapping until the clock.
00:23:14
Speaker 2: And it was quite a statement on the New England offense that they were able to keep up.
00:23:19
Speaker 10: I always though Dan look forward to somebody trying to match his level of play, and I thought Blesso did a pretty good job. But it was just his day that day, and he wasn't gonna be denied.
00:23:35
Speaker 11: Whatever the field conditions are is always for a receiver, it's always to our advantage. Why because we know where we're going, we know what we're going to do, and a defensive back always has to respond to react to what we do.
00:23:49
Speaker 9: I had played on turf all of my career.
00:23:52
Speaker 11: When I came to Miami, man, I was so happy to be able to practice on grass and play on grass.
00:23:58
Speaker 9: I didn't care whether money or not.
00:23:59
Speaker 24: Marino takes the snap, he's under pressure, dodges the rush, now throws deep downfield, has a man open, It's caught.
00:24:05
Speaker 5: Irvin Fryer touchdown, grunting us. Gracious, what a big play by the Dolphins.
00:24:12
Speaker 17: I think the first one I threw to him, I had to kind of scramble a little bit and the coverage just dropped him, and then the safety start coming over and he just turned and went deep.
00:24:21
Speaker 6: And when that happened, I just let it go.
00:24:22
Speaker 11: There's nobody on that defensive backfield that we played that year that could cover any of the receivers that we had, and I knew that, and I knew every last single one of those cats in New England none of them could cover me.
00:24:35
Speaker 17: You start getting that field and you feel in the game, and it was just starting to feel like Irving was going to take the game over.
00:24:40
Speaker 11: I wasn't anticipating things going the way they did, but man, when things started popping man at the top blu.
00:24:48
Speaker 24: Off, second down, five to go, England in motion. Rife stops those back left the pitch took Kurby.
00:24:53
Speaker 4: Here comes with Holly Breger.
00:24:55
Speaker 5: He's got fire light open. Marino to Friar at the fifteen ten to five down by.
00:25:05
Speaker 25: The old fleet Fronter pearl, and he caught that Patriot defense dead asleep.
00:25:11
Speaker 15: That's all I remember from the game. It's just bing, bing bing is Marino de Frio deep deep, deep, got open every time.
00:25:18
Speaker 3: So from a journalist's perspective, it was hell to.
00:25:21
Speaker 4: Right, go ahead and strite your stuff.
00:25:23
Speaker 5: Burbank, Bryer, now you bad, you bad.
00:25:32
Speaker 24: Let shows back to pass. He's looking throwing one into the end zone for Crittendon. He dives, he makes the grab touchdown, and.
00:25:40
Speaker 21: The Patriots had the lead again, New England thirty five, Miami thirty twos.
00:25:45
Speaker 5: But what will Marino do next?
00:25:47
Speaker 15: And it's one of those games is that September humidity is just everybody is drenched, and you know teams are gonna kind of just wilt.
00:25:54
Speaker 6: In the fourth quarter, We're dying.
00:25:57
Speaker 13: We're in the huddle just like, oh my god, this is like the hot the most humid game, and you know we're all sucking when we looked over at the defensive line for New England.
00:26:06
Speaker 15: They quit and Dan just looked fresh as a daisy when he kept throwing those balls.
00:26:10
Speaker 6: And what a game. I mean, it was classic Marina. You've got the whole crowd.
00:26:14
Speaker 4: Everybody's waiting to see.
00:26:16
Speaker 8: Are the Dolphins of Marino gonna have that fairy tale ending to his comeback that everybody was in the stadium wanted.
00:26:26
Speaker 23: You see the numbers there, New England leading by a field goal seven minutes, fourteen seconds to go in the game. The Dolphins get the football back with eighty yards to gold.
00:26:36
Speaker 21: Dan Marino has had a red hot day, particularly throwing the deep bowl.
00:26:43
Speaker 23: New England with Pretzer well timed play by Hurst as he was able to knock the ball away.
00:26:50
Speaker 12: Now the big decision, the way this guy has been so hot, I say they got to.
00:26:54
Speaker 5: Go for it. You've got pets do on it. Some fifty two yards is certainly within his range, and.
00:26:59
Speaker 7: You could try a long field goal.
00:27:01
Speaker 3: And if you're gonna go for.
00:27:02
Speaker 7: It, maybe you try a little short pass and pick up the first down.
00:27:05
Speaker 17: There's no doubt when you're playing a game where you're going back and forth and scoring back and forth. You know you're in that kind of shootout situation. You don't want to be conservative.
00:27:13
Speaker 5: But instead they'll go for the first down, fourth down five. I do the same.
00:27:17
Speaker 1: I know coach Shua and he's sometimes cautious, but I al saw Dan Marino and I think there's no way Dan Marino is looking to think about let's get the first down. He always always thinks let's get some touchdown.
00:27:29
Speaker 2: It didn't surprise me if I had Dan Marino and I'm the head coach at that moment, I'm saying.
00:27:33
Speaker 9: Yeah, go for it.
00:27:34
Speaker 11: We're behind. It's fourth freaking down. We needn't. If we don't get the first down, the game's over for us because we don't have any timeouts.
00:27:43
Speaker 10: I think we were in such a rhythm that coach Shuler say, hey, we're going to win.
00:27:48
Speaker 6: We're not playing for the time.
00:27:50
Speaker 20: That last play, fourth and five, Danny walks in and he sits in that huddle and he goes I mean, I can't say it on TV, but you can only imagine what he told usson. Let's let's basically y'all guy, so it doesn't matter listen, and now he goes, listen, We're getting this fucking first down right here. This is the game winner right here. And that's the attitude that you have with them, Marino.
00:28:13
Speaker 17: In this kind of game, you might not get the ball back if you don't get that first down and score games over. Really, so you're you're you're going for it the whole way.
00:28:21
Speaker 21: All it's just downside the thirty five, and they've got to get it almost to.
00:28:25
Speaker 11: The we're going it's fourth and five. I'm at the line of scrimmage and we're going I don't remember exactly what the verbiage was on the call, but it was a trip's left, and the trips was I was Keith Buyers, Keith Jackson and mark Ingram and I was split a split in off by myself to the right. The ball was supposed to go, the original call was supposed to go to them. Today, when I watch it, you watch the three of them go and run their routes, and thank god he didn't throw the ball to them because.
00:28:54
Speaker 9: None of them got open.
00:28:56
Speaker 11: And again, here's this whole scenario where Dan can change the play and it's just you and him, and he can do it at the line of scrimmage, and I had never never experienced that before, and this was actually the first time that happened.
00:29:13
Speaker 17: I remember we were doing a combination on the front side and then he goes to me. He says, if he plays bump, let.
00:29:18
Speaker 9: Me go deep.
00:29:19
Speaker 6: I'm like, okay, yeah, go.
00:29:21
Speaker 17: I'm like, right in a huddle, he said that, and I'm like, yes, if he's in bump, run to take off.
00:29:27
Speaker 11: And there were a couple of signals that he had five wass ago. He'd give you two that was a slant, or he'd give you one which was a hitch.
00:29:35
Speaker 9: And you gotta pay attention because it's real quick. Come up to the line. He looks and does that boom. I just I put my hand down five. He looked at me there like that and put his hand down. I'm like, it's us. It's me and him.
00:29:46
Speaker 11: If you were the receiver to that side, only you and him knew. Everybody else was still running the play that was that was in the call in the huddle and bang, it's on boll snap.
00:29:57
Speaker 6: I just run fast knock.
00:30:10
Speaker 5: Shotgun.
00:30:11
Speaker 24: Marino throws deep downfield.
00:30:13
Speaker 5: It is caught by fire, touch down, touch down. Dolphins doreno arageous calm.
00:30:23
Speaker 11: That's on fourth of five and he threw it man right where it needed to be.
00:30:28
Speaker 9: I mean it was the thrown was crazy. I mean Dan with Dan's a bad.
00:30:32
Speaker 5: Boy, unbelievable.
00:30:35
Speaker 25: Got a game by Irving Friar, won a game by Marino.
00:30:42
Speaker 5: You talk about championship courage, you talk about a will to win.
00:30:48
Speaker 25: A flame burns inside that man, Dann Marino.
00:30:51
Speaker 11: It was a handketch. It was way out in front. I had to go get it. Dan threw it. I had to go get that ball. I was able to do it.
00:30:59
Speaker 17: He was in bump, single high safety.
00:31:01
Speaker 6: Just keep him there.
00:31:02
Speaker 24: And yeah, absolutely incredible. Fourth and five, Marino long to Friar thirty five yards and a touchdown.
00:31:16
Speaker 4: Fryar ran right underneath it.
00:31:18
Speaker 1: I don't think he cared what he saw. All he cared about was Irving Friar running down that sideline. If he thought he can get the ball to Friar, and then he always thinks he can get the ball to somebody. He was gonna take that shot, even with the game on the line.
00:31:30
Speaker 6: Irv of you know, of all the people never wore gloves.
00:31:34
Speaker 14: Pate his fingers up perfect fingertip catch and man, what a perfect route, what a perfect path.
00:31:39
Speaker 11: Either I was gonna get it or nobody was gonna get it. He stretched me because he made me one. I had to run to get that ball. I had to open up and go get it, and I did. Man, that arm, that arm was special. It was always special.
00:31:52
Speaker 13: So you always knew something could happen. But again, when you're thinking fourth and five, you just want to get a first down. But we've practiced this play. We're gonna get a first down and stay alive. And Austin's like, wait, where's the ball? When you look at the other side and there it is. Touchdown, We're as surprised as anybody else in that stadium.
00:32:09
Speaker 20: And to pull that fourth and five off at that time in the game, in that atmosphere, nothing better.
00:32:17
Speaker 22: It just elevated my respect for Danny even more. You know, I mean, how many how many quarterbacks you know in the history of the NFL. It's fourth and five. He looks out there and sees press coverage. He's like, nope, we're going, We're going, you know, and then throws it. Just an absolute perfect strike.
00:32:32
Speaker 14: The timing was perfect, the ball was perfect, and of course me. I celebrated like I scored a touchdown.
00:32:38
Speaker 18: And I remember kicking my little legs. I couldn't move them fast enough. I was just sighted. That was unbelievable. I felt like somebody had handed me a playoff check.
00:32:47
Speaker 9: It was like a big weight wasnifted off me. And that smile was just absolutely genuine.
00:32:52
Speaker 22: We're trying to win the game. But also as a quarterback, I'm like, man, that was great cool, you know, like you look over like, man.
00:32:59
Speaker 1: That's a big It showed everybody that Danny was back, both mentally and physically.
00:33:03
Speaker 5: He knew what he needed to do and he did it.
00:33:05
Speaker 8: And from that moment on, there was never a question of will he ever be Dan Marino again.
00:33:10
Speaker 3: It was the story you wanted to tell. It was the story that thirty years later you want to remember.
00:33:15
Speaker 17: Lights come on and we lit him up.
00:33:17
Speaker 23: And look at the numbers on Irving fire against his teammates.
00:33:26
Speaker 17: When you have four or five catches in the game for two hundred yards, I mean, that's crazy. You never know when it's gonna just pop up and you're gonna be the guy that's gonna have to, you know, make those plays, and he made them.
00:33:35
Speaker 11: It was just a freedom that I experienced that I had never experienced before in playing the game of football.
00:33:41
Speaker 9: And it was it was awesome. It was just awesome.
00:33:44
Speaker 11: I don't think I've ever had a high like that, and emotional high like that.
00:33:49
Speaker 9: Like that particular game.
00:33:50
Speaker 11: The next day we come in and we watch film and Coach Schule is talking about it, and Shula said, and it's just made me happy.
00:33:59
Speaker 9: He said, never seen anything like that before. And I was like, wow, I said.
00:34:04
Speaker 11: All that this man has seen football wise, all the players that he's coached, all the time that he spent, all the film that he's watched, and he's never seen anything like that before. That made me feel real good. That made me feel real good. I had never done anything like that before.
00:34:19
Speaker 5: Let's well, now have eighty yards to go. Pristase Marino did four minutes ago.
00:34:24
Speaker 4: Let's always back. He's looking. He throwed completes at the coach at the fifty.
00:34:29
Speaker 5: He's to the.
00:34:29
Speaker 4: Forty five to forty the thirty five.
00:34:31
Speaker 5: He dropped the ball. It's losing the.
00:34:32
Speaker 24: Sideline recovered by Michael Stewart.
00:34:35
Speaker 5: The Dolphins have the ball.
00:34:38
Speaker 25: The Dolphins get the bit turned over the Miami Dolphins, on the strength of Dan Marino's five touchdown passes and nearly five hundred yards.
00:34:48
Speaker 23: In the air, hold off the New England Patriots in an extraordinary battle thirty nine to thirty five.
00:34:55
Speaker 18: We walked into the locker room after the game, it was you for it. You would have thought we won a super Bowl, and nobody gave a shit about how muddy everything was, in the mess that everything was, and the fact that we were going to have to clean and do laundry for ten hours the next day because we won and Dan Marino was back to being Dan Marino.
00:35:15
Speaker 6: That locker room was so lively. It was so much fun.
00:35:18
Speaker 26: Almost thirty years later, I did say to myself, Wow, this is this is certainly as good a game as you ever called, maybe the best professional game that I ever called.
00:35:29
Speaker 22: That was super disappointing, but there was also no piece of it was like, wow, man, I just went toe to toe with one of my heroes. Be out there competing with him was a surreal experience.
00:35:39
Speaker 9: And it was fun as hell.
00:35:43
Speaker 8: And I remember staying on the sidelines that he's coming off, and you know, Bill Parcells tells him, not bad for a guy. On one ankle.
00:35:51
Speaker 1: There was a lot of things that happened during and after the game, but the end result was I think everybody realized that Dan Marino was Dan Marino. Whether it was Greg Cody or Bill Parcells.
00:36:00
Speaker 3: It was the dream with the happy ending and the perfect ending. And when I think about epic games in Dolphins history, the way that game went, the way it ended, the statement it made I'm back epic, chilling, really emotional to be there.
00:36:16
Speaker 1: I knew Danny was thinking I showed everybody. He didn't look at people and say, see, I told you so, that's not Dan Marino. He went his actions say that, but you know he was thinking, see, I shut them all up. They should never have doubted me in the first place. I didn't doubt myself. They should have done it.
00:36:33
Speaker 17: There's always a little bit of thing, and no matter what the circumstances are, you know where you you know, you feel like some people were criticizing us a little bit me in the preseason. Maybe I shouldn't be playing Achilles not there. So there's a little bit of that. Yeah, I get back at you some for sure.
00:36:51
Speaker 10: I think that game he took the crutch and threw it to the sideline and never went to pickyback up again, danced back and we never looked back after that.
00:36:59
Speaker 9: I think that was the greatest thing to be a part of that.
00:37:01
Speaker 16: I was happy for him that he was playing at the level that he expected to play at, and it was just an iconic game.
00:37:10
Speaker 20: And for him to come back and to do it in that kind of fashion in our home stadium, with him throwing a thirty five yard touchdown on fourth and five, you couldn't ask anything better.
00:37:22
Speaker 17: Winning that game was different because of what I went through in the summer, in the offseason and all that with my achilles. It was a big deal to go out and perform like I performed for us to win at home. You know, at first, they didn't really hit me that much about it, but you know, when I got home later in Atlanta, I was I guess I kind of just relaxed a little bit, you know, saying, Okay, you know I got through this. Now I proved to myself I actually do it. It was a feeling of relief.
00:37:44
Speaker 8: It really was so to come out and from the first game, throw five touchdowns and have a remarkable comeback win. It had to be as big a game as he had in his career.
00:37:55
Speaker 17: Yeah, for me, it ranks pretty damn high personally because of coming on the injury, you know, and just feeling like, okay, now I'm gonna be all right.
00:38:05
Speaker 14: Just one of the best peer of passes you ever run into, and that game proved it.
00:38:09
Speaker 17: What made that game awesome was I think the fact that everybody was questioning whether I was gonna come off my achilles or not.
00:38:16
Speaker 6: And the way it was played.
00:38:19
Speaker 17: I mean the game, you know, nine touchdowns, I threw five, he threw four, back and forth and we end up winning at the end. It was special, really special game. It was one of my favorite games, you know, I ever played it.
00:38:29
Speaker 14: Whenever you win in that fashion, I mean, there's nothing like it.
00:38:32
Speaker 6: It becomes that comment.
00:39:20
Speaker 5: To the.
00:39:29
Speaker 17: To thirty years that's pretty Yeah, So how do I look?
00:40:47
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 1: Miami Dolphins first round selection.
00:00:03
Speaker 2: The Dolphins selected quarterback Dan Reno of Pittsburgh.
00:00:08
Speaker 3: You just start with the electricity that surrounded him and the talent he brought to the field and the energy.
00:00:14
Speaker 4: Fires deep man open Clayton's tent.
00:00:17
Speaker 5: Fuck touchdown, Dolphins.
00:00:18
Speaker 4: Here's Marina. He's back, he's looking fires into the end zone.
00:00:21
Speaker 5: It's complete for a touchdown.
00:00:23
Speaker 4: Reno drops the throw as time going deep up the sideline.
00:00:26
Speaker 5: Man, don got it?
00:00:27
Speaker 6: Funny?
00:00:27
Speaker 7: Twenty five twenty good, Well they'll never touch in touchdown.
00:00:31
Speaker 8: He brought again the electricity to the sports world that Miami Vice did to Hollywood.
00:00:38
Speaker 9: I had Danny's poster on my wall growing up.
00:00:40
Speaker 7: Perfectly frowned passed by Damn Marino.
00:00:44
Speaker 2: That is the guy who is almost insufferably arrogant in his belief in what he can do.
00:00:53
Speaker 9: That's exactly who I want playing quarterback for me.
00:00:56
Speaker 4: Reno is we on the play?
00:00:58
Speaker 8: The impact of that moment was like time spy.
00:01:01
Speaker 9: It does not look good.
00:01:03
Speaker 1: When Dan got hurt, Obviously everybody thought the sky had fallen.
00:01:07
Speaker 10: The way his Achilles kind of tour and it kind of like shredded.
00:01:11
Speaker 8: Is he done? Even if he comes back? Is they're going to be the same.
00:01:14
Speaker 11: Not a lot of guys came back from an injury like that. It was almost kind of like a death sentence after.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: First time I ever heard anybody question what the Dolphin future might be without Dan Marino.
00:01:32
Speaker 4: There are moments, there are big moments.
00:01:35
Speaker 6: In some moments are simply iconic.
00:01:37
Speaker 12: Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino had treated us to all of the above in ten plus years under center for the Miami Dolphins. Because unprecedented in nineteen eighty four season, a dismantling of the eighty five Chicago Bears on Monday Night football, one fourth quarter comeback after the next, but then the unthinkable.
00:01:54
Speaker 13: Hap.
00:01:55
Speaker 14: Yeah, while it might have been in nineteen ninety three, I remember like it was yesterday as I stood on the busy sideline of Cleveland Stadium watching what should have been a routine played for number thirteen.
00:02:04
Speaker 9: It became anything but.
00:02:06
Speaker 12: With Damn Marinos seated on the twenty six yard lines clutching his right ankle. Miami Dolphins fans across the globe held their collective breadth Reno's torn achilles tendon. The subsequent months of tireless rehabilitation and a lackluster preseason in nineteen ninety four all led to speculation that previously would have been considered blasphemy. Now throwing a hot shot second year gunslinger and Drew Bledsoe.
00:02:29
Speaker 14: In a matchup between two future Hall of Fame head coaches in Don Shula and Bill Parcels.
00:02:34
Speaker 12: And two first year high profile team owners and Wayne Heizinger and Robert Kraft, and the dolphins nineteen ninety four season opener had more storylines than a Hollywood blockbuster.
00:02:44
Speaker 14: Yeah, But by kickoff, however, all anyone wanted to know was how with Dan Marino was fined? This is fish tank, I conye.
00:02:58
Speaker 15: So leading up to Marino's comeback game in ninety four, it was all a big question mark.
00:03:04
Speaker 11: There was no doubt in my mind that he would come back. I mean, there were a lot of questions surrounding it.
00:03:09
Speaker 3: I think there was a lot of concern once he got left, can he come back fully?
00:03:15
Speaker 5: And the achilles is.
00:03:16
Speaker 3: Its own injury. It can go again, and it can be career threatening for some guys.
00:03:21
Speaker 10: Just had to be around dance eleven or twelfth year and to have an injury that significant, and then you're the quarterback and you know, you always got to drop back, got a plan.
00:03:30
Speaker 8: It wasn't even is his career over? It is could he be Dan Marino again?
00:03:35
Speaker 10: In their mind, their question is he gonna be able to come back? And if not, do we need to try to draft a quarterback?
00:03:41
Speaker 1: That was something no one had ever thought about. It was unthinkable to believe that there would be life after Dan Marino, but some people in the media actually wrote that maybe we would be better off keeping Scott Mitchell and not really tying our future on Dan Marino's comeback.
00:03:57
Speaker 3: It's the most controversial memorable CA I ever written. I did not write the headline. At the time, there was speculation out there, there were trade rumors about trading Marino. I wanted to write a column that sort of put all that in perspective. He was thirty two at the time. Through eleven years, they weren't winning with him enough. I mean, they were winning, they were super exciting, but if Super Bowl was the goal, it wasn't happening. I just wanted to put the notion out there now or never, you know, in terms of if you're going to consider trading him, do it now. And what I wrote was seen as blasphemous.
00:04:32
Speaker 10: I think the good thing was Coach Schuler was still there, and you know Dan was his guy, and he was going to give him every opportunity and exhaust everything before he just pulled the plug on him.
00:04:43
Speaker 16: The great thing about Dan Marino is I never saw the philosophy that I have to prove someone wrong.
00:04:49
Speaker 17: I was frustrated with just the situation I was in, not with people what they were saying.
00:04:54
Speaker 6: I could care less about that.
00:04:56
Speaker 9: It was more or less just.
00:04:58
Speaker 17: How can I be ready to play and play in the opening game and to feel good about it.
00:05:03
Speaker 9: I knew that Dan was a competitor.
00:05:05
Speaker 11: I knew that Dan had fire in his belly, and something like an injury like that him given the fact that he wasn't I didn't think he was ready to retire. He wasn't ready to retire. He wasn't going to retire, so he wasn't going to let it beat him.
00:05:19
Speaker 1: You can tell that it was something he wasn't used to doing, something frankly he didn't like. And the only way he thought he could stop it's been going out and showing everybody that he still could play at the level he knew he could play at even with that injury.
00:05:30
Speaker 11: Before he ruptured his achilles, he couldn't move anyway. So it wasn't like it was a big change in his game where now he could run the ball and make guys miss.
00:05:39
Speaker 9: He couldn't do that to begin with.
00:05:41
Speaker 11: He was still dand in the pocket, Dan would he jump up, move up a little bit, make a guy miss and throw that ball on the line.
00:05:48
Speaker 9: He could still do that.
00:05:49
Speaker 6: And the arm was still sharp, the mind was still sharp. So could his body catch up to everything else?
00:05:59
Speaker 14: That all season, all what Danny did to try to get himself back, he put that work.
00:06:03
Speaker 6: In the way.
00:06:04
Speaker 10: His achilles kind of tour wouldn't like just a straight up even cut that would have been easier to repair, but it kind of like shredded. So I think the surgery was a lot more tedious and it took a lot longer to make the repair.
00:06:18
Speaker 16: That achilles was not the same achilles. In fact, he couldn't do, you know, a toe raise to this day, he can't do a toe raise on it, and that's your plant foot.
00:06:27
Speaker 17: That summer camp, it was rough. I mean, I just didn't feel great going into the year and then it, you know, they shaved a little bit here, shaved a little bit there, and then went back and then the next thing, you know, I was I was good.
00:06:38
Speaker 1: But now he was enduring months of can he play again? Can he ever lead the Dolphins again? Can he regain the same heights again? And if you know Dan, he is an intensive competitor as you ever want to see. But even then with a strict confidence he has in himself and his abilities, he was starting to question his own ability to come back. And then having this amplified for all the questions he was getting asked, he was getting a little upset about that.
00:07:00
Speaker 8: I remember going up to him that week and he was sitting at his locker. It was just me and him, and he had his face like in the locker, and he was getting madder and madder at the questions I asked. I just remember his face was getting redder, and he was just so sick of all the questions and doubts and you know, should he player, shouldn't he play?
00:07:19
Speaker 17: We went through a lot of stuff in the preseason. Wasn't that good?
00:07:23
Speaker 7: Dan didn't play in the first at least the first two And when he did play in the first preseason game, I can remember seeing him come out onto the field and thinking, wow, he's he's really limping noticeably, and how is this guy going to play?
00:07:39
Speaker 1: So he comes into the preseason with these questions without having played a game, and then when he does finally get in, he plays terribly Minnesota. I think he was four or twelve with two picks. Weading up to the first regular season game.
00:07:55
Speaker 18: He didn't have a great preseason. In fact, there was one game where I came over to actually give him some water and he looked up and he goes, I haven't thrown a touchdown pass.
00:08:05
Speaker 1: So now people earlier were trying to question his future. Now the reservice, we questioned his medical condition. Was he really fit enough to be able to play anywhere near the level that he played before his injury, And we were going to find that out.
00:08:17
Speaker 19: Obviously the first game in the ninety four.
00:08:18
Speaker 6: Season, did Damn Marino ever doubt Damn Marino?
00:08:22
Speaker 17: No, I knew I could do it. Have injuries, There's always that question in the back of your mind. But then you know the competitiveness and you know how you work and the things you put into it. That always comes to the forefront to prove that I'm going to be able to play at a high level and all that. Yeah, I was definitely thinking about that.
00:08:40
Speaker 16: The people who respect most was his dad, and I remember his dad talking about, you know, hey, either you got to get it fixed or you have to figure out how to play with When that first game came, we figured out what he did.
00:08:53
Speaker 6: He didn't get it.
00:08:53
Speaker 16: Fixed, but he sure figured out how to play with him.
00:09:02
Speaker 1: Heading into that first game, there were a lot of things that were happening, both on the field and off the field. Sure was waying heising's first game, which was important. It was obviously going to be a big game from a division standpoint.
00:09:15
Speaker 9: We wanted to win.
00:09:16
Speaker 20: We wanted to win it all and we felt like that year we had a good enough team to be able to do that.
00:09:20
Speaker 1: Du Bledsoe at that point was the new hot shot. Everyone was talking to him after two years in the league of playing a potential Hall of Fame level. Obviously you had Bill Parcells coaching on the opposite sideline.
00:09:32
Speaker 3: Had so many elements like the coach against the coach, and the old warrior quarterback coming back from a terrible injury against the young rising star.
00:09:41
Speaker 14: The fact that Danny was making his return against the quarterback that was drafting number one overall in my draft class.
00:09:47
Speaker 6: That was more important to meeting anything the year before when he was a rookie.
00:09:50
Speaker 17: He actually beat us in overtime the last game of the year to throw a touchdown, and you could tell then that he was an up and.
00:09:56
Speaker 9: Coming, you know star.
00:09:57
Speaker 3: It was a great star, not only through right then, but in franchise history.
00:10:03
Speaker 6: I think by the line, it was New England in the division and we had.
00:10:06
Speaker 14: To find a way to get a win, and we had the best man to do it.
00:10:08
Speaker 9: For the stakes was high. It was Parcels.
00:10:11
Speaker 20: It was Parcels versus Shuler, and then Dan Marino versus everybody.
00:10:17
Speaker 6: The other components.
00:10:18
Speaker 15: Irving Fryar, a guy who made his name mark in the league with the Patriots now coming back trying to haunt the team.
00:10:24
Speaker 11: I had been trying to get out of New England for years. I mean I tapped Coach Shuler on the shoulder after games.
00:10:30
Speaker 9: We played Miami Dolphins twice.
00:10:32
Speaker 11: A year and I tapped him on the shoulder five years in a row. I tapped him on the shoulder after every game. I go up to him, Coach, you gotta get me out of here. I felt like I had been born again again. I was born again in New England, but I got born again again down in Miami. Being able to play in that type of offense, and of course.
00:10:48
Speaker 14: You know, in this game, Irva want to go out there and show off and show out, you know, to his former team.
00:10:54
Speaker 11: Learning how to play wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins was totally different than playing wide receiver for Nebraska. Playing wide receiver for the New England Patriots, it was a rebirth. I wanted to prove that I could do more than what was being done or.
00:11:11
Speaker 9: I was being used in New England.
00:11:12
Speaker 11: Other than Dan, all the other quarterbacks and there were eighteen other ones that I played with. They were either average or below average quarterbacks.
00:11:21
Speaker 9: I go from Doug Flutie to Dan Marino.
00:11:23
Speaker 11: Come on, Tommy Hotson to Dan Marino, Jeff Carlson to Dan Marino. You don't even know who those cats are. When I was in New England, if we called a play in the huddle and we came out lined up and the defense was in a defense that was not good for that play, we just took one on the chin. We took it as a loss. We didn't change plays at the line of scrimmage. When I got to Miami, we were changing plays at Lona Skirits.
00:11:48
Speaker 9: I'm like, what, I've never done this before.
00:11:50
Speaker 6: We can do this.
00:11:57
Speaker 1: Before the season actually started, and even before preseason, there were questions. First of all, Danny had to have a whole new shoe built specifically to treat that injury. Danny was playing with one low cut shoe and one high type shoe, which looked strange by itself.
00:12:10
Speaker 18: We weren't quite sure how Dan was going to respond to this, this giant boot that we had made for him, and every boot was four hundred dollars.
00:12:20
Speaker 20: You know, he has that limb, and you know he has a different kind of shoe on. You know, we really don't know what to expect. We know his arm is there.
00:12:26
Speaker 18: I remember that for that game, since he was donning this new boot, I had ordered hockey laces.
00:12:34
Speaker 19: Those hockey laces are.
00:12:36
Speaker 18: Waxed, and so he kept having trouble at practice keeping them keeping the boot tight.
00:12:43
Speaker 19: So I had ordered.
00:12:44
Speaker 18: These hockey laces, not knowing a damn thing about hockey.
00:12:48
Speaker 19: Sure enough, they work like a charm.
00:12:56
Speaker 21: Thirteen all looks ago in Miami's still Robbie Stadium, the reintroduction of vam Marino, returning to the elm of the Dolphins confidence coming off the first significant injury layoff of his career.
00:13:11
Speaker 22: I do remember he was wearing like this giant shoe, like he had this this boot that went all the way up to his freaking calf.
00:13:17
Speaker 23: So it's the opening between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins and Joe Robbie Stadium where for most of the hour and a half before game time, a steady rain fell on an uncovered field, and we expect more thunderstorms.
00:13:31
Speaker 5: As the day goes.
00:13:32
Speaker 18: On the morning of we get the just the wonderful news that the game was what.
00:13:38
Speaker 19: Might be affected by bad weather.
00:13:41
Speaker 1: The Marlins still had the infield down because of baseball season, and it rained before the game.
00:13:47
Speaker 18: Specifically, I believe it was on the east end zone was just a muddy mess.
00:13:51
Speaker 4: It is going to be a struggle for running backs at that part.
00:13:55
Speaker 7: If you remember that year, there was a baseball strike, so there was no baseball in the month of September.
00:14:01
Speaker 12: Marlin organization clearly the eternal optimists.
00:14:04
Speaker 4: Keeping the infield here. It is going to be difficult the course.
00:14:07
Speaker 12: Of the game, and the flutters are going to be key to the success of both teams today.
00:14:11
Speaker 20: That is probably one of the worst conditions you could ever play. It rained so much that the field was completely muddy.
00:14:18
Speaker 6: The mud on the infield was just terrible.
00:14:21
Speaker 14: That's for guys that played wide receiver or part returner and things like that.
00:14:25
Speaker 18: I had started everybody in three quarter inch cleats, and during the game we were actually changing you guys into inch cleats because the field conditions were so bad.
00:14:40
Speaker 7: So during the game, Jim Mandage goes on a rant about how the baseball guys should just give it up, fill that dirt in with grass.
00:14:49
Speaker 4: And let's play football.
00:14:51
Speaker 7: Well, Wayne Heisange also owned the Florida Marlins, and it gets to a point where I'm feeling something happening behind me in the booth. There's some kind of ruckets going on, and I turn around and Wayne Heissanga is in the booth with veins popping out of his head, saying some things that went very nice about Jim's muff.
00:15:12
Speaker 1: At that time, Wayne down the Marlins as well as the Dolphins, and I don't think he took lightly to anybody complaining about what he was doing.
00:15:19
Speaker 18: And then obviously anytime that there was a time out, we'd run out the field and try as hard as we could to get to clear the player's cleats of mud. In addition to that, you're worried about keeping those balls as dry as possible under those conditions, which was a challenge in and of itself. The problem with this game was not only the weather, not only the abhorrent conditions of the field, but the tension that surrounded Dan's comeback and whether or not he'd be able to return to form after suffering that type of injury.
00:15:55
Speaker 1: So there was a physical fear that because of that mud it would rarely limit Dan's ability to a point where if he was trying to lift his foot out of the mud as he was trying to move around, it would put additional strand under the kellies and might even rip again.
00:16:08
Speaker 5: The baseball infield section of the field.
00:16:10
Speaker 10: Is a black min They're having problems with footing, but you're having problems with foot as well, and last thing you want to do is slip and fall and then a guy get a free you know, run just target, you know, to the quarterback while.
00:16:22
Speaker 18: You're worried about all of the players, and certainly you're tending to everyone's needs, your primary worry is number thirteen. So every time he came off the field, I was on hand with a flat heead screwdriver, taking mud right from under his cleats and then changing cleats if he needed it.
00:16:47
Speaker 24: From the shot gun, Marino looking steps up in the pocket. He's gonna run it. Dad is down to the thirty five and dives down of the thirty two.
00:16:53
Speaker 4: That's enough for the first out. And what a round of applause he gets from the crowd.
00:16:58
Speaker 5: Here, my god, what's that career?
00:17:00
Speaker 23: Just?
00:17:00
Speaker 17: What do I remember about it?
00:17:02
Speaker 20: Is?
00:17:02
Speaker 17: It just opened up and I think they played man under too deep, so there was nobody there really basically, And to get seven yards in the mud too, it wasn't it wasn't just dirt, It was mud. It felt pretty good and it got me kind of a little dirty and just kind of ready to go.
00:17:16
Speaker 5: You think he wants to win the first quarter.
00:17:19
Speaker 25: There's a lion hearted player underneath that number thirteen Jersey.
00:17:23
Speaker 4: I'm impressed.
00:17:25
Speaker 24: And that's the final player of the first quarter here at Joe Robbie Stadium.
00:17:28
Speaker 6: He's a quiet guy.
00:17:29
Speaker 14: On games, you don't hear much at all when the lights are on, when the clock starts.
00:17:34
Speaker 6: And Danny's ready to go. So I knew that he was focusing, ready to go.
00:17:38
Speaker 17: You know, once the game started and I kind of got into the game, I didn't even think about it. It was about just playing the game, playing the best you possibly can and winning and beating the Patriots.
00:17:46
Speaker 24: Fires are the word right, Sideway Kirby the loan setback Marinos back throws in the quick one the Fires. It bounces in the air and is intercepted by Dwayne Sob.
00:17:54
Speaker 25: We're all a huge turnover is gonna go upgains to the Miami Dolphins. So an interception for the Patriots to a berth the Dolphins scoring prep.
00:18:02
Speaker 4: You see Dan Marino's anger, but I.
00:18:04
Speaker 10: Remember it was like he got pissed off and I seen the look in his eye, And anytime he did that, it was just.
00:18:11
Speaker 6: Like this, let's go. It changed from that point on.
00:18:16
Speaker 10: It's like flipped the switch and then he took off and he ate him up.
00:18:21
Speaker 6: He ate the Patriots up.
00:18:22
Speaker 14: We knew he had a score points, and we knew he had the offense that could score point.
00:18:26
Speaker 20: You got Irvin Frar, you got Keith Jackson, you got mark Ingram, you got O J mc duffey. You know, I was catching the ball. It was one of those games where it's like, you know what, let's go, let's go, let's score some points, because they were gonna score points.
00:18:38
Speaker 11: We never had a great defense. We had a good defense, but we always had to score a lot of points, and most of our points had to be scored through the air because we never really had Pro Bowl running backs or an elite running game. I knew in order for us to win this game that we would have to throw it, and we got to keep throwing it.
00:19:00
Speaker 24: Marino slogging in the ball back to pass, he throws down field.
00:19:02
Speaker 4: Has it had open?
00:19:03
Speaker 5: Mark Agrub has it at the thirty he's still the twenty ten. He is God, Oh that guy. Yes, Daddy, Marino is back. Baby. That is sweet.
00:19:18
Speaker 25: And the momentum of this game has changed dramatically.
00:19:22
Speaker 6: I felt good.
00:19:23
Speaker 17: I mean, anytime you throw a touchdown and you throw it that way where we split the defense, it does give you confidence. It gives you a sense of Okay, we can do this, and let's roll. You know, I felt like it was a really good throw.
00:19:35
Speaker 2: What was I think very signature about that throw was that he didn't put a lot of arc on it. He threw the ball on a hot line, pretty far downfield. Dan had such trust in his arm, and with good reason.
00:19:47
Speaker 20: You had two great quarterbacks in that game. You know, you had Marino and Bletzo going at it. You couldn't ask for anything better than a shootout in a game like that.
00:19:56
Speaker 22: So for me, man, it was kind of a mind bending, you know, situation where like, holy crap, man, that's Dan Marino over there, and I'm going to take the field across from him. I always felt like, regardless of who it was, even though it's Dan Marino over there, that I was going to be the best quarterback in that game. And then afterwards I tried to get his autograph.
00:20:14
Speaker 24: Everybody in tight Bledsoe's gonna throw a gad fires out of the ends, all Ben Coates has it touchdown.
00:20:21
Speaker 8: I don't know if Dan Marino needed Bledsoe matching him touchdown for touchdown, but I'll tell you what.
00:20:26
Speaker 6: The script needed it.
00:20:27
Speaker 8: The drama needed it, the excitement to the game needed it. It was always okay, Bledsoe can Marino answer, then can bleedso answer, and it was like a two heavyweight fighter throwing punch after punch at each other.
00:20:40
Speaker 1: And I remember at halftime was pretty clear that Dan Marino was Dan Marino. I went over to Greg Cody, who wrote one of the original stories months ago, saying, Hey, maybe we should keep Scott Mitchell and maybe we should think about wedding Dan go. I went over to Greg, I said, Greg, so, what are you going to write now?
00:20:56
Speaker 20: I think with Danny in that huddle that we knew Danny was back was when Danny walks into that huddle and he has that attitude and he has that fire in his eyes and he goes, listen, this is what we're gonna do, and this is how we're gonna do it. I don't think I've ever played with any other quarterback that could actually come into the huddle, and you know, like even right now, you know, I get the chills talking about it, because that's the attitude that Marino has and you know that you're gonna win that game.
00:21:26
Speaker 24: Blood shoe straight back to pass, fired one deep down middle for Coats. He's got a at the thirty five to thirty twenty five twenty. He's at the fifteen ten five touchdown patrias hey sixty three yard touchdown pass led sew to Ben Coachs.
00:21:40
Speaker 22: It became one of those like hey, just give me the ball back, Just give me the ballbacker, We're going to score again, you know, And I know Danny was feeling the same way. One of those games where you just feel like, hey, we're unstoppable. Unfortunately they were unstoppable also, and.
00:21:52
Speaker 5: The momentum now belongs to the men in.
00:21:54
Speaker 21: Blue hits him down to the twenty two yard line.
00:22:03
Speaker 9: I was thinking about Tom y'all Tholby the freaking ball. That's why I was thinking, Shoot, I got this all day.
00:22:09
Speaker 6: This like this all day.
00:22:10
Speaker 17: Sometimes they'll take guys away, and I'm sure they were taking them away in the first half. But knowing Irving and how you know competitive he is, that.
00:22:18
Speaker 5: He was going to be there.
00:22:19
Speaker 9: It was just a beginning, and it was a relief. It was a relief. I'm like, Okay, I got the first one on my belt. Let's let's keep going. So now we're off to the races.
00:22:29
Speaker 24: Let's snap in the shotgun to Marina. He's looking has time throws it into.
00:22:33
Speaker 4: The ends all. Keith Jackson has a touchdown Dolphins.
00:22:36
Speaker 5: Oh, yes, that's the one we've been looking for. Keith Jackson says.
00:22:41
Speaker 25: Oh, mister Coats, there's more than one tight end on this field.
00:22:45
Speaker 21: Marino becomes the second ever to throw three hundred.
00:22:49
Speaker 23: Touchdown passes, and now the crowd here in Joe Robbie Stadium responds to that announcement.
00:23:00
Speaker 4: Out and go, let's all short drop.
00:23:02
Speaker 24: He's looking to throw fire straight undo the en zone, complete for a touchdown of Michael Timpson.
00:23:06
Speaker 22: I think at that point in the game, I don't think anybody felt like a lead was safe. You know, it was just going to keep the lead, was going to keep swapping until the clock.
00:23:14
Speaker 2: And it was quite a statement on the New England offense that they were able to keep up.
00:23:19
Speaker 10: I always though Dan look forward to somebody trying to match his level of play, and I thought Blesso did a pretty good job. But it was just his day that day, and he wasn't gonna be denied.
00:23:35
Speaker 11: Whatever the field conditions are is always for a receiver, it's always to our advantage. Why because we know where we're going, we know what we're going to do, and a defensive back always has to respond to react to what we do.
00:23:49
Speaker 9: I had played on turf all of my career.
00:23:52
Speaker 11: When I came to Miami, man, I was so happy to be able to practice on grass and play on grass.
00:23:58
Speaker 9: I didn't care whether money or not.
00:23:59
Speaker 24: Marino takes the snap, he's under pressure, dodges the rush, now throws deep downfield, has a man open, It's caught.
00:24:05
Speaker 5: Irvin Fryer touchdown, grunting us. Gracious, what a big play by the Dolphins.
00:24:12
Speaker 17: I think the first one I threw to him, I had to kind of scramble a little bit and the coverage just dropped him, and then the safety start coming over and he just turned and went deep.
00:24:21
Speaker 6: And when that happened, I just let it go.
00:24:22
Speaker 11: There's nobody on that defensive backfield that we played that year that could cover any of the receivers that we had, and I knew that, and I knew every last single one of those cats in New England none of them could cover me.
00:24:35
Speaker 17: You start getting that field and you feel in the game, and it was just starting to feel like Irving was going to take the game over.
00:24:40
Speaker 11: I wasn't anticipating things going the way they did, but man, when things started popping man at the top blu.
00:24:48
Speaker 24: Off, second down, five to go, England in motion. Rife stops those back left the pitch took Kurby.
00:24:53
Speaker 4: Here comes with Holly Breger.
00:24:55
Speaker 5: He's got fire light open. Marino to Friar at the fifteen ten to five down by.
00:25:05
Speaker 25: The old fleet Fronter pearl, and he caught that Patriot defense dead asleep.
00:25:11
Speaker 15: That's all I remember from the game. It's just bing, bing bing is Marino de Frio deep deep, deep, got open every time.
00:25:18
Speaker 3: So from a journalist's perspective, it was hell to.
00:25:21
Speaker 4: Right, go ahead and strite your stuff.
00:25:23
Speaker 5: Burbank, Bryer, now you bad, you bad.
00:25:32
Speaker 24: Let shows back to pass. He's looking throwing one into the end zone for Crittendon. He dives, he makes the grab touchdown, and.
00:25:40
Speaker 21: The Patriots had the lead again, New England thirty five, Miami thirty twos.
00:25:45
Speaker 5: But what will Marino do next?
00:25:47
Speaker 15: And it's one of those games is that September humidity is just everybody is drenched, and you know teams are gonna kind of just wilt.
00:25:54
Speaker 6: In the fourth quarter, We're dying.
00:25:57
Speaker 13: We're in the huddle just like, oh my god, this is like the hot the most humid game, and you know we're all sucking when we looked over at the defensive line for New England.
00:26:06
Speaker 15: They quit and Dan just looked fresh as a daisy when he kept throwing those balls.
00:26:10
Speaker 6: And what a game. I mean, it was classic Marina. You've got the whole crowd.
00:26:14
Speaker 4: Everybody's waiting to see.
00:26:16
Speaker 8: Are the Dolphins of Marino gonna have that fairy tale ending to his comeback that everybody was in the stadium wanted.
00:26:26
Speaker 23: You see the numbers there, New England leading by a field goal seven minutes, fourteen seconds to go in the game. The Dolphins get the football back with eighty yards to gold.
00:26:36
Speaker 21: Dan Marino has had a red hot day, particularly throwing the deep bowl.
00:26:43
Speaker 23: New England with Pretzer well timed play by Hurst as he was able to knock the ball away.
00:26:50
Speaker 12: Now the big decision, the way this guy has been so hot, I say they got to.
00:26:54
Speaker 5: Go for it. You've got pets do on it. Some fifty two yards is certainly within his range, and.
00:26:59
Speaker 7: You could try a long field goal.
00:27:01
Speaker 3: And if you're gonna go for.
00:27:02
Speaker 7: It, maybe you try a little short pass and pick up the first down.
00:27:05
Speaker 17: There's no doubt when you're playing a game where you're going back and forth and scoring back and forth. You know you're in that kind of shootout situation. You don't want to be conservative.
00:27:13
Speaker 5: But instead they'll go for the first down, fourth down five. I do the same.
00:27:17
Speaker 1: I know coach Shua and he's sometimes cautious, but I al saw Dan Marino and I think there's no way Dan Marino is looking to think about let's get the first down. He always always thinks let's get some touchdown.
00:27:29
Speaker 2: It didn't surprise me if I had Dan Marino and I'm the head coach at that moment, I'm saying.
00:27:33
Speaker 9: Yeah, go for it.
00:27:34
Speaker 11: We're behind. It's fourth freaking down. We needn't. If we don't get the first down, the game's over for us because we don't have any timeouts.
00:27:43
Speaker 10: I think we were in such a rhythm that coach Shuler say, hey, we're going to win.
00:27:48
Speaker 6: We're not playing for the time.
00:27:50
Speaker 20: That last play, fourth and five, Danny walks in and he sits in that huddle and he goes I mean, I can't say it on TV, but you can only imagine what he told usson. Let's let's basically y'all guy, so it doesn't matter listen, and now he goes, listen, We're getting this fucking first down right here. This is the game winner right here. And that's the attitude that you have with them, Marino.
00:28:13
Speaker 17: In this kind of game, you might not get the ball back if you don't get that first down and score games over. Really, so you're you're you're going for it the whole way.
00:28:21
Speaker 21: All it's just downside the thirty five, and they've got to get it almost to.
00:28:25
Speaker 11: The we're going it's fourth and five. I'm at the line of scrimmage and we're going I don't remember exactly what the verbiage was on the call, but it was a trip's left, and the trips was I was Keith Buyers, Keith Jackson and mark Ingram and I was split a split in off by myself to the right. The ball was supposed to go, the original call was supposed to go to them. Today, when I watch it, you watch the three of them go and run their routes, and thank god he didn't throw the ball to them because.
00:28:54
Speaker 9: None of them got open.
00:28:56
Speaker 11: And again, here's this whole scenario where Dan can change the play and it's just you and him, and he can do it at the line of scrimmage, and I had never never experienced that before, and this was actually the first time that happened.
00:29:13
Speaker 17: I remember we were doing a combination on the front side and then he goes to me. He says, if he plays bump, let.
00:29:18
Speaker 9: Me go deep.
00:29:19
Speaker 6: I'm like, okay, yeah, go.
00:29:21
Speaker 17: I'm like, right in a huddle, he said that, and I'm like, yes, if he's in bump, run to take off.
00:29:27
Speaker 11: And there were a couple of signals that he had five wass ago. He'd give you two that was a slant, or he'd give you one which was a hitch.
00:29:35
Speaker 9: And you gotta pay attention because it's real quick. Come up to the line. He looks and does that boom. I just I put my hand down five. He looked at me there like that and put his hand down. I'm like, it's us. It's me and him.
00:29:46
Speaker 11: If you were the receiver to that side, only you and him knew. Everybody else was still running the play that was that was in the call in the huddle and bang, it's on boll snap.
00:29:57
Speaker 6: I just run fast knock.
00:30:10
Speaker 5: Shotgun.
00:30:11
Speaker 24: Marino throws deep downfield.
00:30:13
Speaker 5: It is caught by fire, touch down, touch down. Dolphins doreno arageous calm.
00:30:23
Speaker 11: That's on fourth of five and he threw it man right where it needed to be.
00:30:28
Speaker 9: I mean it was the thrown was crazy. I mean Dan with Dan's a bad.
00:30:32
Speaker 5: Boy, unbelievable.
00:30:35
Speaker 25: Got a game by Irving Friar, won a game by Marino.
00:30:42
Speaker 5: You talk about championship courage, you talk about a will to win.
00:30:48
Speaker 25: A flame burns inside that man, Dann Marino.
00:30:51
Speaker 11: It was a handketch. It was way out in front. I had to go get it. Dan threw it. I had to go get that ball. I was able to do it.
00:30:59
Speaker 17: He was in bump, single high safety.
00:31:01
Speaker 6: Just keep him there.
00:31:02
Speaker 24: And yeah, absolutely incredible. Fourth and five, Marino long to Friar thirty five yards and a touchdown.
00:31:16
Speaker 4: Fryar ran right underneath it.
00:31:18
Speaker 1: I don't think he cared what he saw. All he cared about was Irving Friar running down that sideline. If he thought he can get the ball to Friar, and then he always thinks he can get the ball to somebody. He was gonna take that shot, even with the game on the line.
00:31:30
Speaker 6: Irv of you know, of all the people never wore gloves.
00:31:34
Speaker 14: Pate his fingers up perfect fingertip catch and man, what a perfect route, what a perfect path.
00:31:39
Speaker 11: Either I was gonna get it or nobody was gonna get it. He stretched me because he made me one. I had to run to get that ball. I had to open up and go get it, and I did. Man, that arm, that arm was special. It was always special.
00:31:52
Speaker 13: So you always knew something could happen. But again, when you're thinking fourth and five, you just want to get a first down. But we've practiced this play. We're gonna get a first down and stay alive. And Austin's like, wait, where's the ball? When you look at the other side and there it is. Touchdown, We're as surprised as anybody else in that stadium.
00:32:09
Speaker 20: And to pull that fourth and five off at that time in the game, in that atmosphere, nothing better.
00:32:17
Speaker 22: It just elevated my respect for Danny even more. You know, I mean, how many how many quarterbacks you know in the history of the NFL. It's fourth and five. He looks out there and sees press coverage. He's like, nope, we're going, We're going, you know, and then throws it. Just an absolute perfect strike.
00:32:32
Speaker 14: The timing was perfect, the ball was perfect, and of course me. I celebrated like I scored a touchdown.
00:32:38
Speaker 18: And I remember kicking my little legs. I couldn't move them fast enough. I was just sighted. That was unbelievable. I felt like somebody had handed me a playoff check.
00:32:47
Speaker 9: It was like a big weight wasnifted off me. And that smile was just absolutely genuine.
00:32:52
Speaker 22: We're trying to win the game. But also as a quarterback, I'm like, man, that was great cool, you know, like you look over like, man.
00:32:59
Speaker 1: That's a big It showed everybody that Danny was back, both mentally and physically.
00:33:03
Speaker 5: He knew what he needed to do and he did it.
00:33:05
Speaker 8: And from that moment on, there was never a question of will he ever be Dan Marino again.
00:33:10
Speaker 3: It was the story you wanted to tell. It was the story that thirty years later you want to remember.
00:33:15
Speaker 17: Lights come on and we lit him up.
00:33:17
Speaker 23: And look at the numbers on Irving fire against his teammates.
00:33:26
Speaker 17: When you have four or five catches in the game for two hundred yards, I mean, that's crazy. You never know when it's gonna just pop up and you're gonna be the guy that's gonna have to, you know, make those plays, and he made them.
00:33:35
Speaker 11: It was just a freedom that I experienced that I had never experienced before in playing the game of football.
00:33:41
Speaker 9: And it was it was awesome. It was just awesome.
00:33:44
Speaker 11: I don't think I've ever had a high like that, and emotional high like that.
00:33:49
Speaker 9: Like that particular game.
00:33:50
Speaker 11: The next day we come in and we watch film and Coach Schule is talking about it, and Shula said, and it's just made me happy.
00:33:59
Speaker 9: He said, never seen anything like that before. And I was like, wow, I said.
00:34:04
Speaker 11: All that this man has seen football wise, all the players that he's coached, all the time that he spent, all the film that he's watched, and he's never seen anything like that before. That made me feel real good. That made me feel real good. I had never done anything like that before.
00:34:19
Speaker 5: Let's well, now have eighty yards to go. Pristase Marino did four minutes ago.
00:34:24
Speaker 4: Let's always back. He's looking. He throwed completes at the coach at the fifty.
00:34:29
Speaker 5: He's to the.
00:34:29
Speaker 4: Forty five to forty the thirty five.
00:34:31
Speaker 5: He dropped the ball. It's losing the.
00:34:32
Speaker 24: Sideline recovered by Michael Stewart.
00:34:35
Speaker 5: The Dolphins have the ball.
00:34:38
Speaker 25: The Dolphins get the bit turned over the Miami Dolphins, on the strength of Dan Marino's five touchdown passes and nearly five hundred yards.
00:34:48
Speaker 23: In the air, hold off the New England Patriots in an extraordinary battle thirty nine to thirty five.
00:34:55
Speaker 18: We walked into the locker room after the game, it was you for it. You would have thought we won a super Bowl, and nobody gave a shit about how muddy everything was, in the mess that everything was, and the fact that we were going to have to clean and do laundry for ten hours the next day because we won and Dan Marino was back to being Dan Marino.
00:35:15
Speaker 6: That locker room was so lively. It was so much fun.
00:35:18
Speaker 26: Almost thirty years later, I did say to myself, Wow, this is this is certainly as good a game as you ever called, maybe the best professional game that I ever called.
00:35:29
Speaker 22: That was super disappointing, but there was also no piece of it was like, wow, man, I just went toe to toe with one of my heroes. Be out there competing with him was a surreal experience.
00:35:39
Speaker 9: And it was fun as hell.
00:35:43
Speaker 8: And I remember staying on the sidelines that he's coming off, and you know, Bill Parcells tells him, not bad for a guy. On one ankle.
00:35:51
Speaker 1: There was a lot of things that happened during and after the game, but the end result was I think everybody realized that Dan Marino was Dan Marino. Whether it was Greg Cody or Bill Parcells.
00:36:00
Speaker 3: It was the dream with the happy ending and the perfect ending. And when I think about epic games in Dolphins history, the way that game went, the way it ended, the statement it made I'm back epic, chilling, really emotional to be there.
00:36:16
Speaker 1: I knew Danny was thinking I showed everybody. He didn't look at people and say, see, I told you so, that's not Dan Marino. He went his actions say that, but you know he was thinking, see, I shut them all up. They should never have doubted me in the first place. I didn't doubt myself. They should have done it.
00:36:33
Speaker 17: There's always a little bit of thing, and no matter what the circumstances are, you know where you you know, you feel like some people were criticizing us a little bit me in the preseason. Maybe I shouldn't be playing Achilles not there. So there's a little bit of that. Yeah, I get back at you some for sure.
00:36:51
Speaker 10: I think that game he took the crutch and threw it to the sideline and never went to pickyback up again, danced back and we never looked back after that.
00:36:59
Speaker 9: I think that was the greatest thing to be a part of that.
00:37:01
Speaker 16: I was happy for him that he was playing at the level that he expected to play at, and it was just an iconic game.
00:37:10
Speaker 20: And for him to come back and to do it in that kind of fashion in our home stadium, with him throwing a thirty five yard touchdown on fourth and five, you couldn't ask anything better.
00:37:22
Speaker 17: Winning that game was different because of what I went through in the summer, in the offseason and all that with my achilles. It was a big deal to go out and perform like I performed for us to win at home. You know, at first, they didn't really hit me that much about it, but you know, when I got home later in Atlanta, I was I guess I kind of just relaxed a little bit, you know, saying, Okay, you know I got through this. Now I proved to myself I actually do it. It was a feeling of relief.
00:37:44
Speaker 8: It really was so to come out and from the first game, throw five touchdowns and have a remarkable comeback win. It had to be as big a game as he had in his career.
00:37:55
Speaker 17: Yeah, for me, it ranks pretty damn high personally because of coming on the injury, you know, and just feeling like, okay, now I'm gonna be all right.
00:38:05
Speaker 14: Just one of the best peer of passes you ever run into, and that game proved it.
00:38:09
Speaker 17: What made that game awesome was I think the fact that everybody was questioning whether I was gonna come off my achilles or not.
00:38:16
Speaker 6: And the way it was played.
00:38:19
Speaker 17: I mean the game, you know, nine touchdowns, I threw five, he threw four, back and forth and we end up winning at the end. It was special, really special game. It was one of my favorite games, you know, I ever played it.
00:38:29
Speaker 14: Whenever you win in that fashion, I mean, there's nothing like it.
00:38:32
Speaker 6: It becomes that comment.
00:39:20
Speaker 5: To the.
00:39:29
Speaker 17: To thirty years that's pretty Yeah, So how do I look?
00:40:47
Speaker 5: All right?
