The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I'm disgusted.  The Giants and Redskins are the talk of the national media today.  It's a joke.  Honestly.

On top of that, nobody gives a crap about Tannehill -- they only want to talk about Geno Smith.

And my favorite, the Sportscenter headline: Dolphins shock Falcons (in a game we were at home and FAVORED.)

I hope to God that we beat the Saints.  I have very little hope in it, but it would be nice to force them to have to recognize us.

If we beat the Saints, the story will be about the collapse of the New Orleans defense, not about how the Dolphins played well.

Check this out... From SI.com yesterday:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BUzkQniCEAAuRtB.png:large)

The national media is sickening me.  I can't understand it.  This was evident more than ever with Tim Tebow.  ESPN, sadly, has become a joke.

eh, doesn't bother me. You don't erase a decade plus of being a bad franchise with just 3 wins. Gonna take more to make some people believers.

^ It has nothing to do with how good we are -- The Redskins are always bad.  The Jets are horrible, too.  Yet, they want to talk about them.

Perhaps we are looking at this all wrong. Perhaps the Dolphins being 3-0 isn't nearly the story nationally we all think it is. Perhaps the Dolphins have quietly become a pretty good team and it's no longer shocking when the Dolphins win.  ???

^ Is it when the Dolphins beat the Falcons and the headline is "Dolphins shock Falcons" despite being favored.  The national media covers a few teams and a few players and coaches, regardless of what the story is.

Turn on ESPN or the national radio shows, you'll get:
NFC East
Jets
Manning bros.
RGIII (w/ a touch of Shanahan fued)
Kaepernick rivalry with Wilson (that doesn't even exist)
Andy Reid (because of his association with NFC East)
Brady/Bellichek
Tebow (if he's even in the league)


These are the stories regardless of what happens during the week.  It's an embarrassment that RGIII is getting more airtime than Tannehill right now.

Things that the national audience is interested in. Teams that barely sell out games, don't get as much national press as teams with lots of fans. 

Henne directs Dolphins past Falcon to 3-0 start? Really on top of things at SI !!

 I noticed only KC Joyner from ESPN has picked us every week.  At least someone gets us!!

all this whining... enjoy the ride..

I would like to enjoy the ride, with some insight an analysis national sportswriters.  Instead, I get non-news about garbage teams in big media markets.

well... most of those guys are clowns anyways, so i dont care if i get a write up from then to be honest. but different strokes for different folks ...

Mike & Mike talked a fair amount about the Dolphins this morning...at least when I was in the car.  Either Mort or Jaws (can't remember which one they were talking to) predicted them to win the division so this is no surprise to him.

Just to clarify, I'm not looking for respect from the national media.  I don't want us to think that we're good or pick us to win.  That's not what I'm looking for -- but I do expect more TIME devoted to talking about us (positive or negative), because our play thusfar, has warranted it.

We are undefeated, beating good teams, with a 2nd year QB who has progressed greatly.  We are deserving of the story.

Meanwhile, the Giants, Redskins, and Steelers are undeserving, but will probably get more airtime.

We are undefeated, beating mediocre teams, with a 2nd year QB who has progressed greatly from below average to maybe pretty decent in a quarterback class with three guys who all outplayed Tannehill last year and all guided their teams to the playoffs in their rookie season.


Recently good/great teams suddenly suck. Not worthy of coverage?

Miami has been a nice surprise, no question, but it's not like the play is stellar and there aren't really any interesting storylines. Tannehill is boring, plays on a boring team that has been mediocre for so long any reference to greatness begins with '72 and ends with Marino.

The Steelers and Giants, meanwhile, have appeared in 4 of the last 5 Super Bowls and combined to win 3 of them. As if that weren't enough, the storylines surrounding the teams and their players abound. Accusations of rape, self-inflicted gun-shot wounds, brother to one of the greatest quarterbacks ever (and they played each other last week), horrific motorcycle accidents... The list goes on and on.

As for Washington, their rookie quarterback not only helped guide the team to a division title for the first time in over a decade, he did so in spectacular fashion (100+ passer rating) and just happened to be the "new style" of quarterback (dual-threat). A fall-to-Earth storyline is obvious and bound to receive plenty of coverage, especially coupled with the storied Super Bowl Winning head coach and his (perceived) part in getting his star quarterback hurt.

Is it any wonder Miami gets less coverage?

Indianapolis is mediocre? I guess the 49ers are pretty bad then. The Falcons aren't mediocre either.

And if Indianapolis is great that they thrashed San Fran so easily, then Miami must be elite because they beat them in Indy.  There's upsets, and then there's scores that make your jaw drop when they roll across the ticker.  That Indy-San Fran game was one of the latter.

News stories are not chosen based on what team is the best, but what story will generate the most interest.  

ESPN posted a story about the Dolphins going 3-0.  They posted a story about the Giants going 0-3.  Etc.   They checked the page counter number and then decided which story should get more air time on TV.  

More people care about the Giants than they do the Dolphins.  

The Dolphins have done exactly two things this year that is news worthy: 

1. Mike Wallace bitching about not being targeted enough.

2. Sparks flipping the bird. 

Look at what the headlines are;

Pacman getting arrested again.
Gore upset about not getting the ball more in the 2nd half
Rashad Jones injury
Nicks bitching he wasn't targeted enough. 

If you get to 5-0, you can be sure some one will ask Mercury Morris if he rooting for the Dolphins to lose.  And the headline will either be that he is or that he denies wanting the Dolphins to lose and you will have your big national story. 

For the record, I think the '72 Dolphins would be reasonably happy to root for another Dolphin team to go undefeated.  At a very minimum, you would not see Morris trash-talking them.

^^^ I actually had a conversation a few years ago with Mercury on the TDMMC show, and asked him that exact question. While I'm too lazy to dig into the Fins Radio archives, I believe his answer was along the lines of him not only having no problem with it, but that he would enjoy seeing Miami do the deed a second time.  Lil_B may remember his answer better than I do, but I think that was Mercury's basic position.

My understanding from an article I read during the 2007 season, is the first time he was asked the question he said he didn't want any team to go undefeated including the Dolphins, which outraged Dolphin fans and he changed his public stance to remain in the good graces of the one fan base that likes him.

So if I was a reporter looking for a story and the Dolphins were 5-0, I most certainly would ask MM the question again and then if he says he is rooting for the Dolphins go with the "MM denies rooting against the Dolphins" because it will get a hell of a lot more page hits than "72 Fins rooting for '13 Fins" 

Getting back to my basic point.  News coverage is determined not by who is doing well, but what story generates the most interest nationally.  And the 'Fins don't have the national fan based they had in the Shula era. 

It's kind of funny actually. I think I'm finding many people are rooting for the Phins who are not fans. That's probably based a lot on two big things. A dislike for Patriots domination in recent years and a hatred for the Jets.

The Dolphins are kind of squeaky clean or at least getting there. I also think that's why so many people don't have an issue with Green Bay and Denver being successful.

Because Green Bay and Denver didn't cheat their way to the top

I think maybe your own biases against Morris are bleeding through.  I've never seen him say anything bad about another Dolphin team going undefeated.

^^ Because it hasn't happened.  I think it'll be interesting when/if the Dolphins get to 12-0 and people start interviewing him.  We'll see where his true colors lie.

You do realize that the Dolphins got to 11-0 in 1984, right?

I remember it too. It was also talked about after the Morris interview with TDMMC.

He really did start out with an "us" against the world attitude ... Including current Dolphin teams of the time. Obviously someone talked some sense into him.

Credit where credit is due: Around the Horn did a very good and very fair job on Monday's show of discussing Miami.  They got their own segment and got reasonable coverage.  Reali even seemed to mock that we weren't getting reasonable attention from the panel, where other teams were.

PTI, on the other hand -- an embarrassment.  The lead story was the NY Giants.  Then, that led into the Colts and how good they are (guess who beat the Colts on the road, by the way) and gushed over Luck and how he's risen to the top of the young QB list, which included RGIII, Russel Wilson, and Kaepernick, who is 4th.  (No mention of Tannehill.)

When they finally do talk about Miami, it's part of an AFC East segment and it just devolved into Patriots talk.

ESPN should be talking about the Dolphins non-stop this week, because they are airing MNF starring the Miami Dolphins.  The other shows are a big commercial for their other programming.  I suspect that's the only reason why Around The Horn even talked about them.

This is the same crap that got me fired up about Tebow.  They talk and talk and talk about the topics they feel are "big" stories (like 3rd string QB's who can't throw and football teams that are 0-3) when, in fact, the real BIGGER stories get ignored.

That's not journalism, that's a commercial and brainwashing.

I'll never forget the time Jaws went on the air on ESPN and said that Kaepernick could be the best QB of all time. Then, for the next week, ESPN did story after story on multiple shows about how Jaws said Kaepernick was the best QB of all time on their own network!  Creating the news out of thin air?

http://deadspin.com/how-espn-manufactures-a-story-colin-kaepernick-edition-1185400028

I guess that is where we differ.  I don't expect journalism on the sports pages of the newspaper or in sports shows.  Or for that matter from Entertainment tonight, People magazine, or parody like The Daily Show or SNL.  I don't hold them to that standard.

I do expect journalism standards to be meet in the News sections of the paper and on shows purporting to be news.

FoxSports can spin non-stories all day and that would be  fine by me.

The fact that FoxSports in fact has more journalistic ingenuity than FoxNews pisses me off to no end. 

I expect SportsCenter to be a journalism experience.  It is a news program.  I don't expect Mike and Mike or PTI to be news shows.  They are talk shows.  SportsCenter is a news program, and ESPN is a news network.

The "E" in ESPN stands for ENTERTAINMENT. Don't forget that.  They aren't a news network at all.

Considering they are owned by Disney, that's not surprising

It's stood for ENTERTAINMENT long before Disney bought them.

Then that could be why Disney bought them

Yes, Disney purchased the network because they have the word entertainment within their name  ::)

^^ That's how I make all my milti-million-dollar decisions.  Based on name only.

That's why Brian hates Apple.  It sounds fruity.

Bah-dum-tiss!

^^ Yes, far more fruity than BlackBerry...

This screenshot is ridiculous. SI needs to get their act together

This morning on NFL Countdown, there was a segment called "Monday Night Preview."  The segment lasted maybe 2 minutes, during which time they talked about Drew Brees and Sean Payton and said exactly 1/2 a sentence about the Dolphins.

Then they went on to gush about Tom Brady and Bill Bellichick for the following 10 minutes.  All this came after gushing about Peyton Manning for the previous 10 minutes.

This is getting disgusting.

Oh come on. The Dolphins may be 3-0, but are they're not really a top tier team and there are no compelling storylines.

I disagree with this.  These stations are making their own news.  It's circular arguing.  It's not compelling because they don't talk about it, but they don't talk about it because it's not compelling.  Philbin or Tannehill are both pretty good stories.

I like the Phins well enough, but this statement is ridiculous. Philbin is a pretty good story? What part about Philbin is a good story? The fact that he has zero personality? Or speaks in a monotone? A story on Philbin would be as exciting as a story about the manufacturing of cat litter. Don't get me wrong...his blah-ness is fine, as long as the guy gets his team to win football games.

Exciting aspects of Tannehill that the world is waiting on the edge of their seat to hear about?  Nope, nothing there either.

Miami being 3-0 is a nice story of an underrated team getting off to a nice start to the season. That's really the only story this team has that anyone other than Phins fans have any interest in hearing about.

Yes, his "blah"ness is a story.  Bellichek isn't exciting, either....but the fact that he's a robot becomes the story.  Philbin's meticulousness and the way that he cleaned house of anyone who seemed to question his is noteworthy if you make it noteworthy.


Again, circular logic.  People aren't excited because they don't know about him.  The Dolphins have the highest red zone efficiency in the NFL.  That's worth talking about.  My brother was arguing this with me yesterday and he said "most people can't name two players on the Dolphins."  And he's right.  But shouldn't the media then start to educate people on this stuff?  I guess we just want to hear about the same 15 players over and over again.

There are 32 teams in the NFL.  If news shows were totally fair in a half hour show each team would get a little less than one minute of coverage each.

In the shows I have seen, the Dolphins are getting more than a minute.  They might not be getting as much coverage as Denver, but they are getting more than the majority of teams.   

Yes, he's a robot who has won 3 Super Bowls. Prior to that first Super Bowl win, how much did you really hear about Belichick? Yep...nada. Robots are boring...but champion robots are newsworthy.


You're too close to the subject matter to make an impartial assessment. You think a story about Miami's red zone efficiency would be an "on the edge of your seat" feature? Bushwah!  You can sling around terms like circular logic all you like, but until there is something really interesting to report on for the Dolphins...something more intriguing than "Tonight on Sportscenter, Miami is really good in the red zone," they won't get the national media attention you're craving.

"...and in related news, Miami coach Joe Philbin passed gas in a team meeting...film at eleven."

^ It's not my love of Miami.  It's the comparison to what is compelling news.  Giants losing is compelling news?  RGIII sucking week after week is compelling news?  Pittsburgh sucking is compelling news? 

There is nothing inherently interesting about these stories except we're all familiar with them because that's what's always talked about.  Yet, here we are.

I just feel like the media MAKES the stories, rather than reports on them.  I don't like that.

Why is it that the conversations about RG3, Andrew Luck, Kaepernick, and Russell Wilson never include Ryan Tannehill?  Its like he doesn't exist?  Sure, he didn't step into a winning team and have a stellar rookie year, but he's doing pretty well now, and its going largely unmentioned.  Instead, they'd rather talk about how terrible Eli Manning is.

Why does the media latch onto failure and beat it to death, rather than praising the successful underdog?

Pittsburg has a much bigger national fan base than the Dolphins.  And the last time the Steeler went 0-4 was 1968.  The Dolphins do something that has been done since 1968, it will be news too. 

I think the media is on a wait and see approach with Miami... it's been a long time since the Dolphins were relevant so they're waiting to see IF Miami is for real.  We win this game tonight you best believe the media will start talking about Miami!  You'll have all the bandwagon media guru's and fans alike coming out the wood work..

You guys are using two different arguments to make the same point.

So, which is it?  Is it because the stories are more compelling or because the teams are more popular?

Both.  The Dolphins are neither particularly popular, nor do they have any particularly compelling story lines.  Nor do they have much in the way of big name players. 

People are interested in Geno Smith failing because of what he did on draft day. 

People are interested in RGIII vs. Luck for the same way people were interested in Marino vs. Elway vs. Kelly vs. OBrian vs. Blackledge vs. Eason. 
 

I'd settle for 1972 ... or even 1971 for that matter!!

Personally anytime 2 3-0 teams get together on a Monday that's a compelling storyline no matter who the teams are.

Considering you included Ken O'Brien, Eason, and Blackledge in that conversation, I assume you think Weeden and Tannehill should also be included in the Luck vs RG3 vs Wilson vs Kaepernick conversation as well?

Before the season started people were saying by the time we reached the bye week dolphins would be lucky to have one win.They are getting the pieces in place making the right moves etc. A win tonight and they will have to eat a little crow but a loss and they will throw out their shoulders patting themselves on the back claiming they were right all along.I am happy the dolphins are improving and I give credit to Philbin he reminds me a little of Shula.No nonsense wont stand for stupid penalties. Win or lose tonight I am proud of the dolphins and stand behind them. I hope we protect Tannehill a little well a lot better.

And exactly what did he do? His draft stock plumeted. I am a WV guy. There is absolutely no compelling story to Geno Smith.

Geno said he was going to go home and not return for Day 2 of the draft because he was pouting like a baby after not getting picked in the 1st round. Had to have his mommy talk him into showing up on Friday to the Draft. That's what he did!!

^^^You can read Hoddie's mind? Thanks for stepping in Mike.

Miami is a 7-9 2012 team that has beaten 3 teams with a combined .500 record. That's not news. If they win against NO tonight, then they're a story. When Manning and Ben are a combined 0 for the season having 4 Superbowls between them, that's a national story.


First this board bitches non-stop about the praise Tebow got in the media as a pro for doing just that, then it bitches about praising failure too much? Pick a side. When Tebow was winning in the most improbable ways imaginable, and was the definition of an underdog as a pro QB, this board predominantly vilified him and the media for all the stories, but now you're asking for more of the same? How's that work? -EK

Well if Miami didn't beat them they'd be a combined 9-3.

I get that, but that's not what happened, thus there's no story coming out of Miami. -EK

Wish granted. 


The Dolphins are being discussed.

Brian brought that up a couple of days ago when he started the "What will it take to make this story go away?" thread. You were the second post. Thanks for paying attention.  ;)