PLAYOFFS?! Don't talk about PLAYOFFS!

[Bloodline666]

As a Dolphin's fan, I have every reason to want to see the Pats lose. I hate the Jets out of obligation, but ever since I've started caring about football, it's the Patriots that constantly dismantle us. I hate the Patriots by choice. Further, I'm sure everyone knows that the Pats are on their way to joining the '72 Dolphins in their pursuit for perfection. I'm not the kind of fan that claims stuff his team did seventeen years before he was born, but damn it, it's nice for the Dolphins to hold on to something these days.

Despite all that, I want the Pats to win. Although I hate them, I find myself wanting them to win. I want to see them go undefeated through the Super Bowl. The Patriots are almost undeniably the best football team ever assembled, and damn it, I want them to win. I hate myself for it, but I want to see perfection in my lifetime.

Actually, if the Pats win the Super Bowl, there goes your Dolphins' badge of honor as the only TRUE undefeated team in NFL history (The 34 and 42 versions of the Bears went undefeated in the regular season, but lost the NFL championship game both times, which is why those two don't count as "Perfect Seasons").

By the way, good luck in the draft; you guys have the top pick, AND have Bill Parcells in your front office. He's already begun his shake-up of the organization, and I am confident that he will rebuild your Dolphins franchise to challenge the Pats' status as kings of the AFC East. Look what he's done to the Giants in the 80s, Pats in the early-to-mid 90s, Jets in the late 90s, and my Cowboys from 03-06. He is damn good at turning bad teams around, and he's very good at rebuilding teams that are leaking oil. His role in rebuilding the Cowboys organization is responsible for them going 13-3 this year. As Parcells once said after a personnel dispute with Pats owner Robert Kraft during his tenure there, "If you want me to cook the dinner, at least you ought to let me shop for some of the groceries, okay?" Parcells is VERY good at shopping for the groceries. He did just that with the Cowboys (albeit with Jerry Jones' credit card), but Wade Phillips was cooking the dinner this season to the tune of 13-3, an NFC East title, a first round bye, and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Trust me, your Dolphins will be in good shape. I have a feeling Parcells will be stockpiling draft picks this year, whether he uses the first overall pick to do that, or if he uses Ricky Williams (who has been known to command draft picks in trades; look what the Saints gave up just to move up a measily two spots to draft him).

I'm well aware that the Pats winning will get rid of our, as you put it, badge of honor. Hence the internal conflict.

I don't doubt that Parcells is going to turn the Dolphins around. I'm just not expecting it to happen overnight. There's a lot that needs to be fixed, defensively and offensively. I definitely expect that we'll trade down with the first draft pick. There's too many posi<b></b>tions we need to fill. The first pick is great, but one superstar won't fix enough of our problems.

Also, I think you're overly optimistic about Ricky Williams. I love the guy, to be sure, but he's not proven himself to be reliable. I'd hoped that had he stuck around this season, he might have done enough to attract attention for a good trade. As it stands, he's an unknown commodity, and I don't think anyone is going to be willing to make any big trades for someone who may or may not perform (or, in all actuality, even stick around). I don't expect to get anything of value for Ricky, so I think it might be best to hold him for a while longer. Besides, rushing-heavy teams is Parcells football; one could do a lot worse to start with than Ronnie and Ricky. Unless I'm entirely wrong and someone really wants Ricky, I don't see much value in trading him for less than he may be worth.

During the last game of the Dolphins season, there were some stats about teams turning around from a 1-15 season to the play-offs. The shortest was two years. The longest was four. At this point, I can stand to wait for either. I'm just glad to finally see some acknowledgment that change is necessary. The franchise has been jumping from one failed quick-fix to the next for too long. Picking up the Big Tuna was a step in the right direction; the Dolphins have been in sore need of an executive with Parcells's experience for a damn long time.

Ahh...1-15 turnarounds! I vividly remember when the Cowboys went from 1-15 in 89, to the playoffs in 91. That was the record for shortest turnaround for 1-15 turnarounds. That was around the time I first started watching football, let alone became a Cowboys fan. And, that particular turnaround...produced not only a Super Bowl on the THIRD YEAR AFTER THE 1-15 SEASON, but it also spawned THREE Super Bowls in FOUR seasons. That alone should make two years a short time to wait. Don't think that the Dolphins can't go from 1-15 to a Super Bowl in three years, because it happened before. But what the Dolphins need for that to even be a remote possibility is a bonafide solution at quarterback. I, myself, have had to suffer with my team not having a franchise quarterback for 6 years (we are on QB number NINE since Troy Aikman's retirement, and that QB just happens to be that franchise QB we were looking for, and look what it did for the Cowboys). I can't even count how many QBs the Dolphins have gone through (including this season) since Dan Marino retired.