Tuesday night, former Miami Dolphins president and COO Bryan Wiedmeier passed away after a four-year battle with cancer. In 29 years with the Dolphins, Wiedmeier accomplished a lot and was highly respected in the local media, the NFL, and just about anyone who had ever crossed paths with him. He will definitely be missed.
One thing many people do not know is, Wiedmeier was a big part in the Dolphins reaching out to fan websites and starting a relationship between them and the team. It is a relationship that has built over the last 13 years with the annual Web Weekend, with the team welcoming website authors and editors to Davie to give them a little closer look at the team, and has reached the point now where the team has started a direct sharing program with several fan websites, including us here on The Phinsider.
Thanks to Wiedmeier's work, we now have a closer relationship with the Dolphins than most other teams' fan sites have with their respective franchises. It allows us to bring you content that other teams may not allow from a "blog" as well as the team providing us exclusive opportunities to talk to the players and executives.
Wiedmeier was diagnosed in 2012 with brain cancer and was given 15 months to live. He refused to be beaten like that, and he battled for four year - while continuing to work every day for the Cleveland Browns, who hired him in 2010 to be their Executive Vice President for Business Operations. Sadly, cancer did what cancer so often does, and stole the 56 year old away from us well before he should have passed.
As so many of us have been touched by cancer, either ourselves or by immediate family or friends, I thought it might be appropriate to share this. While the Dolphins so so much to fight cancer with the annual Dolphins Cancer Challenge, there is always more that can be done. As such, Wiedmeier's family has asked, in lieu of flowers, for friends and fans to consider donating to the following organizations:
Blast GBM (Glioblastoma)
BlastGBM
2383 S. Main St., Suite D-106
Akron, Ohio 44319
National Brain Tumor Society
http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/goto/TeamWiedmeier
Los Angeles Brain Tumor Walk - Bryan Wiedmeier
C/o National Brain Tumor Society
55 Chapel Street, Suite 200
Newton, MA 02458
You may not be able to give a lot, and you may choose to give to the DCC or to another charity, but whatever any of you share could end up being the amount that finally solves the cancer problem, so I felt it was a worthy cause to share.
Rest in peace, Mr. Wiedmeir, and our continued thoughts and prayers to you and your family.