Sking29 is an admin @ Pile of Wit and a contributing member of Phinzmania

Now I don’t claim to be a professional writer or journalist but what I do claim to be is a professional Miami Dolphins fan (but without the getting paid part which professional usually means). Furthermore since it is the off sesason new Fins information is hard to come by so what do I do? Create my own. That’s what.

 With that said I want to welcome everyone to my, “Top 10 Moments that Changed Miami Dolphins History…with a few honorable mentions and in no particular order other than chronologically.” Also I want to welcome everyone to extremely long titles. :)

So let’s begin:

1960: Ralph Wilson Fails to Place A Team in Miami

Many Fin fans know that in 1960 the eventual owner of the Buffalo Bills, Ralph Wilson, requested to have his AFL franchise be placed in Miami. However in a major stroke of luck for millions of future Fins fans the city of Miami turned away his bid sending Ralph to Buffalo and leaving Miami a barren wasteland for professional football (like a 1960s Los Angeles). Apparently Miami who had a taste for professional football before with the Miami Seahawks wasn’t quite ready to give it another go after that colossal failure. It was this decision to reject Ralph Wilson that would five years later give birth to our glorious Miami Dolphins.

You cannot beat the draft.  We are all like kids at Christmas in the days or weeks leading up to it.  Anticipation builds as the off-season wears on and finally we get to the moment where we make our first pick.  It’s like opening a present and seeing what you got.  We get a new bunch of toys on draft day and then comes the scramble to find out what they can do. It’s like reading the directions and putting those new toys together.  Now as camps are on the horizon, we will get a glimpse of what those toys can do by themselves skill wise, then in more team oriented drills. 

Unfortunately, like Christmas presents, some will possibly disappoint us.  College football can be like the television commercial when we were kids that showed us how great the toy was, but when we got it home, we realized it just didn’t do what we were led to believe.  However, some of our new toys will perform and one or two may be better than we ever could have hoped. 

The Miami Dolphins have filled a major need with the acquisition of Brandon Marshall from the Denver Broncos. This now gives the Dolphins a legitimate "go-to" receiver for the first time in recent history.

The ripple effect of Marshall heading to Miami should be equally interesting. Denver now has a need at receiver and could take Dez Bryant, should he be available in next week's draft. Since Denver picks immediately before Miami and was expected by several draft experts to select Safety Earl Thomas this may leave Thomas available for Miami at 12.

As many of you already know, THE Dolfanatic, Ron, decided to shut down the servers a few weeks ago. This is a huge loss to the Dolphin Web community as Ron has always been a great contributor and Fan. His presence will be missed.

Phinzmania is happy to welcome you to our internet home. In the next few weeks we will be integrating much of the content formerly found on Dolfanatic.com into Phinzmania. Ron has graciously allowed us to give his work a permanent home on Phinzmania. Our intent is to preserve the work of a passionate Miami Dolphin fan and to give his site followers a place to access Dofanatic.com archives.

I can't believe it.  One of the worse times of the year is almost over and, looking back, I am shocked at how fast it has gone.  February.  Yes, February has the Super Bowl,  and although I really enjoyed watching a still healing New Orleans grab a championship against another team I admire, it didn’t have my Dolphins, sorry, our Dolphins.  And after the big game, what is there?  Nothing.  The silence is almost deafening for football fans in February.  Fan sites go from fever pitch in the playoffs, to a smaller group who like to speculate on other teams once their own team is eliminated, to the die hard core that we see now.  People like myself and you, if you are reading this near the time of posting, who will dig for any little tidbit or rumor no matter how insignificant it may seem so that we can talk about the sport we love.  Just so we know it is still there.