After last season's traumatic 1-15 record, the installation of a new coach, general manager and VP of operations (Tony Sparano, Jeff ireland, Bill Parcells), the release of around 20 players and the signing of roughly the same amount, and a 2008 draft which was rated very good, things have been looking up for the Dolphins.
The one irritant has been the status of the 'face of the franchise', star defensive end Jason Taylor. A mainstay of average-to-poor Dolphins teams over the last 11 years, Taylor was acclaimed NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2006, a year when the Dolphins' overall record was a mediocre 6-10. Last year, disputes with new coach Cam Cameron undermined the team; this off-season, 'Twinkle Toes' Taylor has been participating - very successfully - on the tv show 'Dancing with the Stars'. Much to the chagrin, it seems, of Sparano, Ireland, and Parcells.
Parcells in particular is seen as an old-fashioned, macho type who would scoff at the 6-foot-6 Taylor dancing on national television, and who (it is assumed) holds Taylor's confessed desire to go to Hollywood after he finishes with football in contempt. Rumours have circulated for months that Taylor would be traded, despite the fact that soon after he was installed, Parcells declared that Taylor would play as a Dolphin next year or would retire. No trade has happened, and as he was dancing with the stars, Taylor did not attend 'voluntary' training activities. And this week...
Parcells' dictat seems to be coming true. At one of the Dolphins' OTAs (Organised Team Activities, off-season mini-camps)coach Sparano declared that Taylor would not be at the upcoming veterans' mini-camp, nor would he be at training camp proper in the summer. Taylor was, in effect, 'holding out' for a trade to a contender, wanting to finish his career with a shot at finally getting to a Superbowl. The Dolphins coaching team called his bluff by going public: and on the Dolphins blogs, even fans who were supporting Taylor before now seem to be turning. Nothing has really changed much, but tactically, the Dolphins' hardball approach seems to be paying off: the blame is switching to Taylor and his ambitions.
Most Dolphins fans had seemed to be happy with Taylor's desire to pursue a Hollywood career after retiring from football, but recent comments that he (Taylor) would rather be remembered in 10 years time for his Hollywood career, rather than for football, have put a lot of Dolfans noses/ beaks out of joint. The holdout, from a team which seems to be making great strides towards improving its roster and organisation as a whole, now feels much more like a betrayal.
What now? A trade to San Diego has been mooted, but whether this comes to anything, we will see. Why would even a contender, looking for that last piece in the jigsaw, risk taking Taylor when they know that he is looking at one year, two tops, of playing time, and when half his mind might be on his would-be career as the next version of The Rock? Miami have, by all accounts, been 'shopping' Taylor to see whether a trade was possible, but what the teams were offering (a fourth-round pick in next year's draft) seemed to massively undervalue Taylor. Whose fault? It's more Taylor's than the Dolphins, I would say - if he wanted to go to a contender, 'Dancing with the Stars' was a sure-fire way to scupper that deal by ensuring the Dolphins would get very little in return. If he was anticipating a goodwill gesture, as with the release of that other fan favourite Zach Thomas (who subsequently signed with Dallas), he read Parcells and crew all wrong. For someone who now appears to put his own career before the team, this doesn't say much for his ability to plan, or to strategise.
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