Football therapy

[dolphins4life]

I'm torn by how I want the rest of the season to go.

On the one hand, Miami is not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, so you'd think I would want them to win.

However, I don't want to go through one of the many years where we look back at the end of the season and think of what might have been.

Miami could easily be 2-1 right now instead of 0-3.

I would rather go 3-14 or something, rather than miss the playoffs by a game or two and look back on what might have been.

[Dave Gray]

I think that wanting to be bad doesn't make you good.  With the way that contracts are constructed, sucking doesn't help.

As I said elsewhere, the Jets have been under .500 for a full 10 years and they still suck and have no prospects.  I think that losing creates organizational rot.  You're best to try to do well, keep your fans, keep the temperature down, encourage a healthy working environment where people like to come and play.

[Pappy13]

On the one hand, Miami is not mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, so you'd think I would want them to win.
However, I don't want to go through one of the many years where we look back at the end of the season and think of what might have been.
I would rather go 3-14 or something, rather than miss the playoffs by a game or two and look back on what might have been.

I'm not sure you should call yourself a true Dolphins fan then. Before you disagree, let me explain my reasoning.

Being a fan of a sports team means accepting the inherent risk that the team you are a fan of will not have a successful season as it's simply not feasible that the team will always have success. While I do acknowledge that the feeling of disappointment when the team doesn't have success builds the more years you have to suffer through it, it's also true that the relative excitement of a good season is greater the longer you've had to wait for it. It's a risk-reward that you have to accept to be a true fan of a team. If you are not willing to accept that risk, then it's probably time to admit that you are not really a true fan, merely a fair weather fan. Please understand that I'm not judging you in any way, there's nothing wrong with fair weather fans, I myself am a fair weather fan for most of the sports teams I follow, it's only the Dolphins that I'm a true fan. It has been exceptionally hard to follow the Dolphins for around the last 2 decades, but I'm hopeful that soon things will turn for the better and I'm always rooting for success even though it's terribly disappointing when that doesn't occur.

[Spider-Dan]

If losing a lot led to better chances of success later, the Browns and Jaguars would have multiple titles.

The only think that losing guarantees you is a loss.  One would think the whole "Tank the season specifically for Tua Tagovailoa who will save the franchise" experience would put most Miami fans off of the losing plan.

[masterfins]

^^^ For the most part I try to stay positive; but... there has been three years of zero growth heading into a fourth season that is not looking good; so I'm a bit of a downer this year. I think the top three positions need to be replaced. 1) Chris Grier - he's been decent at draft picks,  went after some FA's that didn't work out (not entirely his fault), but he has given some high priced contracts/extensions to players that didn't deserve it - and this is where he has failed.  2) McDaniel - never a great fan of his style, but he had some success.  Now he's just over his head; IMO a HC needs to be tough on their players to earn respect (i.e. keep them a little scared) and he just doesn't have that; among other things.  He'd be a great OC in any organization but he's not cut out to be a HC.  3) Tua - never liked drafting him (under sized, lefty, coming off injury, got too much credit in college coming from an overall great team).  Has received many benefits - blamed Flores, extra time given because of injuries; if he had been with any other team he would be gone.  Tua is a good QB, but he's not a great QB that will advance your team.

Good win tonight against the Jets, BUT it took several turnovers to accomplish the win, if the Jets held onto the ball Miami loses this game.  Miami could easily go 3-1 against the upcoming teams, but that won't make them good.

[Phishfan]

I would have to look backwards but I recall a lot of voices from this site spouting the positives of losing games for the purpose of draft position. I can't guarantee it is anyone who has stated differently in this thread but I think some are. J E T S suck suck suck. Win the games we can and sort the rest out.  Culture is absolutely a thing.

[Spider-Dan]

I'm pretty sure that I've previously been on board with losing games to have a better chance of drafting a generational prospect.
The current starting QB of this team, in fact.

But it makes no sense to me for fans to call for that kind of action while the last such prospect is still on the team!  If you don't think Tua is worth keeping, how can you still think tanking works?

It is worth mentioning again that in the salary cap era, the only QB picked #1 overall to win a Super Bowl for the team that drafted him is Peyton Manning.