Miami Dolphins Are Gunning To Play Home From Super Bowl LIV

As a parade snaked through Boston’s streets on Tuesday to celebrate the winning of another Super Bowl by the New England Patriots, Brian Flores was considering how to make something similar happen in Miami.

Miami will be the site of Super Bowl LIV next year and the Dolphins surely won’t be in it. The biggest question surrounding the team is not whether it can compete for a title – it can’t – but how extensive and lengthy the teardown and rebuild will be.

Flores, who was the Patriots linebackers coach and defensive signal-caller, steps into replace Adam Gase, fired after three seasons and a 23-25 record (and now the New York Jets head coach). Flores is accustomed to winning; the Dolphins are not.

They haven’t won a Super Bowl in four decades or a playoff game in 18 years. They’ve won the AFC East, the division owned by the Patriots, once since 2000. They’ve had one 10-win season since 2009 and have been outscored by their opponents each of the last four years.

This will not require culture change. It will require an entirely new mind-set for a team that has questions at quarterback, running back, offensive line and defense. Where do we begin?

“You fix that on a day-to-day basis. Everyone tries to improve every day. You take it one day at a time,” Flores said in his introductory news conference. “There is a selflessness and a ‘put the team first’ attitude that you have to have, and that goes from the owner to the general manager to the head coach to the people who clean up at nighttime. If you can get everybody to buy into that, then good things will happen. I believe that.”

The Dolphins have not improved on a yearly basis. Maybe one day at a time, boring as that sounds, will be the way to go.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman