I've been a fan of the Miami Dolphins ever since I was a fan of football. Remember when the 'Phins beat the 1985 Bears? I was 6 at the time and predicted to my dad that the 'team with white helmets would win'. And he told me that was pretty unlikely because the team with 'black helmets was pretty good'.

As we all know, the Dolphins were the only team to beat the Bears in '85, maintaining Miami's place in history as the only undefeated. That is where my Dol-fandom began. Those were special times for Dolphins fans. You couldn't watch Dan Marino play with feeling his competitive drive. You always felt like we had chance to win it on Marino's arm. We didn't win any Superbowls, but we had an exciting team to watch. And there was always hope that Danny's Golden Arm could carry us to the Superbowl next year...

That was just a build-up to a question that has been rattling around in my head all week. I want to bounce it off my fellow Phinsiders. Take the temperature of our community. And hopefully, someone will post a comment that can sway my opinion.

Here goes:

Does a fan of the Miami Dolphins Team necessarily need to be a fan of the Parcells-Ireland-Sparano Regime?

I knew it would sound bad when I typed it, so allow me to clarify. I wish nothing but success on the Miami Dolphins Franchise. I'd love to see us make the playoffs regularly and contend for championships. I'd even settle for an exciting team that gives us hope for the future. Which is pretty close to where we are at, IMO.

Here's where I express my concerns about our current Front Office. To their credit, Jeff and Tony have assembled a defense that should be very stout for years to come. To my concern, we seem to rebuilding our offense in the image of Parcells' past successes. Big. Slow. Power. Run First. Defense.

This year's run up to the Draft had Ireland discussing the need to add playmakerss and team speed. In my opinion, we added 1 player for sure (possibly 2) that improves our team speed. Edmond Gates, of course, and potentially Charles Clay and only because our current group of TE seems to be painfully slow.

And now to the point:

Would you rather see the 'Phins make the Playoffs this year and potentially extend the life of the Ireland-Sparano era or would you rather see us fall on our face and install a new Front Office?

My take on it is this: We are not building an offense that I think can contend for Championships. We will not be able to build for long-term success until we replace our current GM/HC with personnel who pursue a top-tier passing game. Who is the last SB Winner that had a power-running game without an explosive air attack?

Please respond to the poll and let me know what you think in the comments.