The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Miami has always dominated the Orlando area which is the only large town without a football team. I don't know that will be the case this year as I hear a lot of Tampa talk these days. It might be short lived but Miami may be the second favorite team in this state. This is really weird to hear for us Don Shula era fans where we only had 2 losing seasons.


By Hal Habib

Tom Brady and Tua Tagovailoa are involved in quite a tussle over who’s selling the most merchandise since arriving in Florida.

There’s something happening here.

But what it is ain’t exactly clear.

With apologies to the classic 1960s protest song, there’s a man with a cannon over there in Tampa. His name is Tom Brady, and whether we realize it or not, he has boarded that pirate ship at Raymond James Stadium, he has his weapon aimed at South Florida, and he’s firing.

The guys assisting him — they’re television network execs. When the list of prime-time NFL games came out, Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers appeared five times.

The Dolphins? Tua Tagovailoa’s jersey number answers that question. One.

Question: If two teams occupy one state and never play each other, can it still be considered a rivalry?

More to the point: Is Florida still a Dolphins state?

The answer depends on how you look at it. If you’re a Miami fan, you can point to the 10-year head start the Dolphins had in establishing a foothold in Florida, maximized by the dynasty of the early 1970s and cemented in the Dan Marino era.

But that’s tradition. That’s yesterday. Today, all around Tampa, there are billboards trumpeting Brady’s arrival. Chances are, many face southeast, just to rub it in. Meanwhile, Brady was running around, seeking trademarks to capitalize on the fact that his new club’s founders had the foresight to name the team “Tampa Bay,” suspiciously matching his initials despite often playing on land.

Brady even coaxed his old tight end, Rob Gronkowski, to relinquish that WWE championship belt he’d just won to join him on the Buccaneers.

Next thing you knew, on the list of the hottest NFL jerseys, the Brady-Gronk tag team was accounting for 13 of the 21 best sellers.

“I love it,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians told USA Today. “I think it’s great for our group, that batch of excitement. You’ll feel it from the first game. I’m sure our guys are already talking about it. Let’s roll.”

Fat chance Brian Flores would ever feed the hype machine like that. Regardless, this is a lot of ... stuff ... for the Dolphins to overcome.

The guys assisting him — they’re television network execs. When the list of prime-time NFL games came out, Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers appeared five times.

The Dolphins? Tua Tagovailoa’s jersey number answers that question. One.

Question: If two teams occupy one state and never play each other, can it still be considered a rivalry?

More to the point: Is Florida still a Dolphins state?

The answer depends on how you look at it. If you’re a Miami fan, you can point to the 10-year head start the Dolphins had in establishing a foothold in Florida, maximized by the dynasty of the early 1970s and cemented in the Dan Marino era.

But that’s tradition. That’s yesterday. Today, all around Tampa, there are billboards trumpeting Brady’s arrival. Chances are, many face southeast, just to rub it in. Meanwhile, Brady was running around, seeking trademarks to capitalize on the fact that his new club’s founders had the foresight to name the team “Tampa Bay,” suspiciously matching his initials despite often playing on land.

Brady even coaxed his old tight end, Rob Gronkowski, to relinquish that WWE championship belt he’d just won to join him on the Buccaneers.

Next thing you knew, on the list of the hottest NFL jerseys, the Brady-Gronk tag team was accounting for 13 of the 21 best sellers.

“I love it,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians told USA Today. “I think it’s great for our group, that batch of excitement. You’ll feel it from the first game. I’m sure our guys are already talking about it. Let’s roll.”

Tagovailoa not only has the top-selling jersey in the league (the aqua version), but his white jersey is No. 2. Tagovailoa hogs five of the nine hottest T-shirts, too. He also takes the gold, silver and bronze of the top-selling autographed replica and authentic helmets, some going for $549.99.

Speaking of the high-rent district, if you’re going by Forbes’ rankings, the Dolphins rule by KO. Forbes rates the Dolphins as the 16th most-valuable franchise in the NFL, worth $2.76 billion. The Bucs are 27th, at $2.2 billion. Worse, they’re not even second in Florida; the Jacksonville Jaguars are No. 23 ($2.325 billion).

Where things really get lopsided is supremacy on social media, where the Dolphins rule on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The Dolphins’ combined followers are 4.2 million, which dwarf the Bucs’ 2.46 million and the Jags’ 1.83 million.

This kind of circumstantial evidence is about all we have. Ideally, state supremacy would be settled on the field. For two teams separated by just a couple of hundred miles, the Dolphins and Bucs are strangers, meeting just 11 times. There are only four teams the Dolphins have played less, and three are relative infants in the NFL. The most memorable Dolphins-Bucs game? Was there one?

Neither franchise has won a playoff game in a generation, which makes it all the more noteworthy that there’s buzz around Tampa that the Bucs could be the first to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium.

And as for those five prime-time assignments, consider that when Dan Marino was lighting it up in 1983-85, the Dolphins were budgeted to three prime-time appearances per season, although Monday Night Football was virtually the only option at the time. By the way, the 17-0 Dolphins were the original not-ready-for-prime-time players, making only one appearance under the lights.

So is Florida still Dolphins territory? Your answer probably depends on which part of the state you’re from.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/20200513/do-miami-dolphins-still-own-florida-or-has-tom-brady-tilted-it-in-favor-of-tampa-bay-buccaneers?rssfeed=true

The state and Orlando are secured as Dolphins territory. Brady will create some hype for a minute but he won't be there for long.

when tampa misses the playoffs .. hype over

When Tampa goes back to 7-9 when Brady leaves, the fans go with him.

This Brady thing may very well not work out, too.  He's only got a couple of good years left.  And it's like when Favre went to Minnesota or Manning went to Denver.  That stuff wears off after the initial shine.

Manning was extremely productive with Denver including a superbowl victory. I can see your analogy with Favre, but not Manning. Maybe you were thinking of Montana?

Manning wasn't productive his final season with Denver.  He could barely throw the ball downfield and had 9TDs vs 17INTs.  He leaned on the defense to win that Superbowl.

Yep.  Manning was a great QB, but it was painful to watch him in his final year of 2015.   Defense carried that team and it was the worst statistical season of his career.  Including his rookie year.  But stats aside, just watching him was tough.  When a QB falls off, they fall off fast.  As Tenshot said, he had no zip on the ball, couldn't throw it downfield, was pretty much immobile, etc.   It is always sad to watch the superstars hang on too long.  The same may happen with Brady.  He was obviously no longer the Brady of previous years even last year.  I expect more of the same from him this year.  I remember as a little kid watching the great Willie Mays try to play one last year with the New York Mets.  Poor guy couldn't run, couldn't get his bat around on a fastball.  To watch the great Willie Mays bat .211 in his last year was depressing even to a 9 year old.  Not saying that Brady is to the point of that yet.  But he definitely isn't Brady anymore. 

Tampa fans are so hyped up about this.  But I'm seeing it the way you guys are.   This move could very well backfire, and if it does..... and especially if Jameis finds his groove and becomes a star in New Orleans, the fallout at One Buc Place is going to be tremendous.  It will be the end of Arians and Licht's careers.  Ownership may even sell.

Prior to winning the title in 2015, Peyton had 3 solid years in Denver, including 3 Pro Bowls, 2 All-Pros, and a season where he broke every record in the books.  When did the "initial shine wear off" in Denver... right as they won the Super Bowl?

Peyton Manning is the single worst example to cite of a QB moving on to another team after his gas tank is already empty.  If Brady does as well in TB as Peyton did in DEN, the rest of the league is in trouble.

The main takeaway for me was:

:o :o :o

Am I the only one thinking it's crazy to be out there spending big bucks on a guy's jersey who may not even see the field for another year? I do realize some of them are Alabama fans but Miami fans are so starved for a star it doesn't seem to matter.

If Tampa fans are willing to take the bandwagon obnoxious New England fans on board the Brady jock sniffing train more power to them.  This is just going to fuel the fire for me when the back and forth I have with my Tampa friends start.

I imagine Andrew Luck sold a jersey or two when he came into the league, and I think Trevor Lawrence will sell quite a few next year, too.

When you have these kinds of generational talents that are scouted for pro teams years before draft availability, the fanbase is going to get excited.

But as Spider said the 3 years prior to that, top notch and even in the last year, he was decent in the playoffs and helped them win the championship. No Manning is a very bad example of a QB doing poorly after he left a team.

You and Spider are correct about the previous two years, but both Tenshot and I specifically said in Manning's LAST year he was bad.  Neither of us were referring to the previous two years.  I know that some of the other comments in this thread were more general about QBs after they left a team.  And I don't want to speak for Tenshot, but he and I did both specify that we were talking about Manning's final season. 

Then Favre is a poor example too by your standards.  He was stellar his first year with the Vikings (4202yds, 33TDs, 7INTs) after leaving the Packers, then had a poor year his final year.  Almost identical to what happened to Manning, but Manning had a defense to lean on.

Manning had 3 stellar years, not 1 and won a Superbowl in his 4th. Favre didn't even approach that and I said I could see it with Favre, I didn't say he was the poster boy for falling down after leaving a team. Truth be told neither is a great example of the "shine coming off a player after leaving a team".

That doesn't change the fact that Manning was terrific for 3 YEARS before that. It's a bad example anyway you slice it.

I don't think I was clear on my point.

Manning absolutely worked out for Denver...no question.  Bailed them out of Tebow, too. 

What I meant by using him as an example was that Denver didn't become America's team after Manning left and that situation was over.  If the question we're asking is whether or not Tampa is going to take over Florida as the team, the Manning example is meant to say "maybe while Brady is here they'll be interest, but that will wear once he's not here."

Ah, OK. That makes sense.

I interpreted the original question as asking whether TB will take over as Florida's team while Brady is in TB.  After Brady is gone, I think it's obvious TB will return to its normal spot in the pecking order.

I don't know how many Super Bowls the Bucs would have to win to fully take over as Florida's team, but I imagine it's quite a few.  It's like asking how many titles the Nets would have to win to fully take over as "NY's team" from the Knicks.

I would say it is at most 3.  As two SB wins would tie Miami’s record.  While Dolphins have a decent history let’s not pretend they are the NY Yankees. 

Dolphins will keep Mia, Jags will keep Jacksonville.  But it wouldn’t take much for their to be more folks wearing Bucs gear than Fins gear in Orlando. 

Do you also believe that if the Nets won 3 titles (passing NYK's 2), they would become NY's NBA team?

It's not just about titles.  The Oakland A's have always had more titles than the SF Giants, but the Giants are the team that gets the shine in the Bay Area (even before 2010).

To your point, Chicago has always been a Cubs city.  They just recently tied the White Sox with 3 World Series wins.

I don't know about that. There are quite a few Sox fans as well. The Cubs have more backing outside of Illinois, but not sure about inside of it. And it may have changed in the last 10 years or so which have been down years for the Sox and up years for the Cubs, but prior to that I would say it was pretty even.

I know this is off... I been living here in South Carolina for the past 5 yrs. And I see more Dolphin fans here than Panther Fans or falcon fans due to the geography of the Area.  Most of the people I talk to that see When i Wear my Phins gears say the reason why MIA so popular here is the influence the MIA organization had during the 80's, 90' and early 2000.