A friendly reminder that the past needs to stay the past

I got into an arguement today about the current state of the Miami Dolphins. It is something that tends to happen to me with the things I am passionate about, and let’s just say I am passionate about this team. The argument was a simple one, and it was with a fan of another team. A Buffalo Bills fan to be more specific.

The argument was a simple one to be had, and it basically revolved around the idea that Miami does not have a poor history when it comes to the team making the playoffs. He cited several years of sucktitude being the basis of his argument, and rather than spout off the fact that they made the playoffs last year, my response was totally unexpected, and one to which he did not habe a retort.

The response was as follows:

We are currently evenly matched with every other team in the NFL as far as records go.

His response at first was to tout off the many other teams histories, including his own Buffalo Bills four consecutive trips to the Super Bowl.

My response?

Currently every team is 0-0, and every team has a chance at the playoffs.

You see, the season has not started yet, and the history of both clubs does not matter. At the end of the day, any reference we can argue is slated as the past, and does not really matter in the grand scheme of things.New England sure is the last team to hoist the Lombardi but even they themselves boast a healthy 0-0.

What ESPN, Las Vegas, the NFL network, fans, media, and even other coaches and players speak of right now does not matter. No amount of rings or records can add to the current state of a team’s situation. If the Dolphins taught me anything last season, its that the so called experts cannot ever truly predict how much drive a team has to succeed. They sucked on offense, they sucked on defense, and still somehow scrapped their way to ten wins, and a trip to the Wild Card. However, that says nothing about how they will do this year. Will they do better? Who knows. They upgraded and downgraded the roster in a few areas, but the core remains the same. The mindset remains the same.

As a team, the Dolphins have decided to not hang their heads on the previous seasons. Whether it be the team’s multiple losing seasons leading up to last year, or the current win percentage of last season. The team admits that it has won nothing, but in essence, they also admitted that they have lost nothing either. We as fans need to adopt the same mentality if we are to remain hopeful this year, and in the years ahead.

This means no more remembering the wild card loss to the Steelers, or the ten games we won leading up to it. This means forgetting how long it has been since we had a playoff win. Those that live in the past, are doomed to repeat it, and I do not know about you, but I am tired of allowing our past, control how I feel about the team I was born to love.

So just a reminder to all fans, last season, the last twenty years, and the entire history of the franchise means nothing when it comes down to how they will do this year. The Dolphins won a lot with Shula, and lost a lot with Philbin, but none of those games, none of those players mean much to what they have cooking this year.