Or:  If a pass falls in the secondary with no fan to watch it, is it still cause for panic?

Excited about the beginning of the season, like everyone else here, I've been doing what I suspect we all do; reading stuff on line, watching highlights, NFL total Access, boning up for my fantasy draft (the Running Shulas hope to improve on their 3rd place finish of a year ago) and coming here.

Something I've never done before is follow a game on line and flip over to the game thread here. I've done that two weeks in a row and I've been a little surprised at what it was like.

Phinsiders are passionate, that was a given, they are knowledgible, also not unexpected, but we are way more…how to put this?... mercurial in our reactions than I would have imagined. Last night reading the reactions to every miscue or play that didn’t go our way I was suddenly reminded of my father (God rest his soul.)

Dad was a die-hard Toronto Maple Leaf (you have no idea how hard that is) and Toronto Blue Jay fan. We both followed the Jays from their birth in 1977 to his death in 2001. In the 1990’s despite the fact we live 100 miles away from Toronto he went in on seasons tickets and we watched a lot of baseball. And it was great except he would live and die on every pitch. The great thing about driving two hours to see a game is you think long and hard about leaving early. The bad thing is you have to endure two hours of gloom on the trip back if they leave.

The Jays in the early 90s were really good and cheering for a team 30 games over .500 isn’t all that stressful, or at least it shouldn’t have been. Dad suffered more in 1992 and 1993 while the Jays won back-to-back World Series than he did in the late 70’s when they were doormats. Watching games on TV he would leave the house and go for a walk when they fell behind. He literally could not stand to watch anything other than constant success.

The ’92 WS almost killed him. In the ninth inning of game six, leading the series 3 games to 2 and leading the game 2-1 Tom Henke gave up a single to Otis Nixon, which allowed Atlanta to tie the game. That was it, off dad went. To this day I don’t know where he was when the Jays won in the 11th. All I know is he deprived himself of watching the greatest moment in Blue Jay history.

The question occurred to me then: why did he put himself through this?

I would ask him.: Why spend a lot of money on season’s tickets, gas, and $5 hot dogs (a lot in ’92)? Why sit in the fifth deck at the SkyDome when you’re terrified of heights?  Why drive to Toronto and back, getting home at 12:30, 1 sometimes 2 am on a week night when you had to work the next day? Why arrange your day around being able to watch every other game on TV? Why do all this if the primary result is self-torture?

I never really got an answer. As my Mom still says: "that’s your father."

The same questions occur to me now in terms of this place.

There are some people here who remind me of my Dad and it makes me wonder why do they come here?

I think it’s a given that we’re all fans and we all care deeply about the team, but that’s really only part of it in most cases I suspect.

I come here because it feeds my need for a Dolphin "fix." I love the Phish and I love talking sports with people who know what they’re talking about. I also like a good natured debate and I like it when I walk away from one having learned something or being shown another way to look at things.

It is apparent to me now that not everyone is here for the same reasons and people take enjoyment from different aspects of our Aqua coloured world. There are people here, like my Dad, who seem to feel the blows more intensely when things go bad. I hope you’re getting more enjoyment out of the highs than the rest of us, otherwise it doesn’t seem fair.

There are people here who want to share what they think and think what they think is worth sharing.

There are people here who want to vent their frustrations.

There are people here who have become imbedded in the community and obviously enjoy the regular give-and-take connecting with a familiar group provides.

I suppose there are people here who like to sit and watch, better here than Jersey Shore.

There are people here, as in any on-line community, who are looking for a little mental satisfaction and who, as Puck would say:  "And those things do best please me. That befall preposterously."  (they like to stir up stuff)

As Dolphins fans we all have something in common. We also, by coming here, have a common interest in (if not responsibility to)  each other’s enjoyment.

So I ask, just in order to find out, why do you come here? And in the words of Count Rugen "And remember, this is for posterity, so be honest."