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WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT MARINO..........THEN
By CHARLES JAY, Editor/Publisher, TotalAction.com
April 14, 2000

The recent retirement press conference for Dan Marino was a lovefest. A sad lovefest, but a lovefest nonetheless. And the sports celebrities (who were there in profusion) waxed poetically about Dandy Dan, with a reverence usually reserved for heads of state (or heads of cities - like the Vatican City).

I mean, we heard about all the NFL records, the great arm, the great competitiveness, the quick release, all those comebacks in the fourth quarter. Not too much talk about the lack of a Super Bowl ring. But the phrase "greatest passer in history" was tossed around quite a bit.

And then I'm thinking - we're in the NFL draft season, so maybe it's appropriate to question how it was possible that Dan Marino could have been available for the Miami Dolphins to draft in the first place.

Certainly scouts have made their share of mistakes, and will continue to. They're human, and it's the nature of the business. But it's not as if Marino was ever a secret; he was a high-profile name at the University of Pittsburgh, and I assume, always had a strong arm, good size, and a quick release. Those seem to be the things scouts love to see in a quarterback. That obvious a talent would seem pretty hard to misjudge. So I asked myself - how was it that 26 players were drafted ahead of him, almost pushing "the greatest passer in history" into the second round? How could any scout worth his salt have Marino rated behind the likes of Todd Blackledge, Ken O'Brien, and Tony Eason at the quarterback position?

I decided it might be interesting to go back into some of the press archives just to satisfy my curiosity.
I think you'll find it interesting too.

First of all, Marino had a monster junior season at Pitt, completing 59% of his passes for 2876 yards and 37 TD's, with just 23 interceptions, in the propelling him to the top of the list as far as prospects were concerned entering his senior year. Jackie Sherill, his coach as a junior, weighed in heavy - "I played with Namath and Kenny Stabler at Alabama and coached Matt Cavanaugh, and Marino is better than ANY of them at this stage in his career."

Marino looked like a surefire top-five pick going into his final year, certainly a Heisman Trophy candidate, with his team expected to contend for the national title.

But as good as his junior year was, that's how disappointing he was as a senior. Marino again completed 59% of his throws, but threw just 17 touchdowns and a whopping 27 pickoffs. And his team found itself relegated to the Cotton Bowl, a non-contender and major downer for the program. Observers searched for explanations.

In a column published just after the '84 NFL Draft, the Miami Herald's Edwin Pope wrote, "The word from Marino's hometown is that the Panthers' all-time passing leader declined last year as a twin result of a) inflated ego, and b) pressing to impress the pros after he finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting as a junior."

It goes on to quote an unnamed source close to the Panther program. "He developed the idea that he was God's gift to football. Dan was a down-home Pittsburgher who started thinking he was Joe Namath. It hurt the team, along with some other things, like losing some top receivers and also that head-coaching switch-over from Jackie Sherill to Foge Fazio."

There were also rumors about alleged drug use on Marino's part - rumors that were never substantiated but which always seem to crop up when a guy takes a dive in his level of performance.

Despite all this, Marino was indeed drafted #1 - that is, in the January 1984 draft of the fledgling United States Football League, whose Los Angeles Express franchise thought it could sign Marino to a three-year contract for $1 million. It could not (and subsequently signed Steve Young). Interestingly enough, one of the reasons the Express drafted Marino first is that they figured he would be ready to step in and play right away in the USFL, where he wouldn't be in the NFL. "I might be the #1 pick there, too", said the brash Marino, referring to the NFL Draft that would come a few months later.

Obviously that wasn't the case.

Approaching the draft, word on Marino was mixed. Different evaluations revealed different things.

Joe Stein, who rated all quarterbacks and receivers for The Sporting News - "Marino is an enigma, a sound young man who has almost as much raw talent as (John) Elway, but who hasn't progressed in the manner football experts had expected.....He suffered through a disappointing senior season, but it might not have been all his fault. Poorly run patterns and dropped balls hurt him. He does tend to force his passes and is wild high at times. On the plus side, the 6'3-1/2", 215-pound Marino has a strong arm, a take-charge attitude and surprisingly good mobility for someone his size."

Larry Dorman, who at the time was football writer for the Miami Herald -- "After Marino's inexplicably poor senior season, he's lucky to still be considered a first-rounder. Still, as a prospect, he's worth taking a chance on." And, "Classic dropback passer with a very strong arm, Marino worked to develop a touch on short passes. Adept at avoiding rush but not a scrambler in the David Woodley mold."

Gordon Forbes of USA Today -- "Stands tall in the pocket and has a good view of the field. Sets up quickly and gets good, deep pass drops but lacks a classic delivery (uh, I think it's that 'quick release', Gordon). Scouts say he often forces the ball into a crowd and is frequently intercepted."

Howard Belzer of The Sporting News had Marino projected to go to Cincinnati with the 25th pick, with the comment, "Unsettled backup QB spot needs stability" (Didn't anyone tell him Marino doesn't want to be a backup?).

Forbes had him going to the Jets with #24. Dorman also had him going #25 to Cincinnati.

A chief scout for one of the NFL teams, who remained nameless, told USA Today's Phil Musick, "There's no question people were somewhat disappointed in how he played at times, but you look for reasons. In some games, Pitt didn't catch the ball very well. He'll go in the first ten in our draft."

No he didn't. In fact, oddly enough, Marino's stock seemed to drop despite the fact that he pulled off the rare quinela of being chosen the MVP of both the Hula Bowl AND the Senior Bowl.

Of course, Marino, and all the other potential draftees, were completely overshadowed by the talk of one individual - John Elway. The battle of wits and will between Elway and the Baltimore Colts, who held the #1 pick in the draft, was front-page news. Elway steadfastly insisted that he would not play for the Colts, using a baseball offer from the New York Yankees as leverage. The Colts didn't see this as a major impediment, and indeed, on draft day, Baltimore chose him with their pick, despite the fact that they had chosen QB Art Schlichter with the #1 pick the year before. Elway, as many expected, said "no" to Baltimore that day. As he so eloquently put it, "They knew I had a royal flush, and still they called me on it." And we obviously know how history played itself out from there.

As for Marino, Dolphins' coach Don Shula, who went into the first round looking for help on the defensive line and at the wide receiver spot, was pleasantly surprised that Marino was available. he told the Miami Herald, "He didn't have the best senior year, but when you look at him and evaluate him throughout his career, you have to be pretty impressed. When you can get a guy the caliber of Marino as late as the 27th pick, you've got to be able to make that move."

The Jets, who were looking for a quarterback to replace Pat Ryan, had a chance at Marino, since they picked three spots ahead of Miami. Instead, they opted for Ken O'Brien, who played Division II ball at Cal-Davis. When asked about this, Shula grinned. "Apparently, the Jets felt he (O'Brien) was better."

Don Strock, one of Miami's signal-callers at the time, along with David Woodley and Jim Jensen, said, "There's definitely a logjam at quarterback, and I'm sure they have something in mind."

Yes they did, Don.

Edwin Pope, the sports editor for the Miami Herald, wrote in his column, which carried the sub-headline, "Shula May Tame Marino's Ego", "Even as shockingly as Marino popped into the Dolphins' future, I suspect he could pan out as their handiest offensive choice since fullback Larry Csonka in '68."

The coaches who had worked with Marino were even more effusive. "He's probably the best pure dropback passer I've ever coached, and that includes a lot of people," said Wally English, a former Miami assistant who was offensive coach for Pitt, "He has a lot of the tools and the potential to move in and play in the NFL very early. In the Pittsburgh offense we ran, he showed the ability to come up and recognize what a defense was going to do before the snap of the ball."

Foge Fazio, Pittsburgh's coach in Marino's senior year, said "Every aspect of Danny's game - his long passes, his short passes, reading defenses, playing in the rain or snow - I don't know of anyone's that's better."

More than 60,000 yards and 400 touchdowns later, neither do we.