As we enter the final game of the regular season with everything on the line, a prevailing topic has overcome the newspapers and airwaves. Namely, respect and the Dolphins being shown a lack of....Carlos Frias quotes Andre Goodman:
"I think everybody thought of us as a 1-15 team, and there was no point in the season where anybody took us seriously," he said after the Dolphins returned home from Sunday's 38-31 win in Kansas City.
Goodman said other teams have thought of the Dolphins as "a fluke" even though they can take the AFC East by winning at the New York Jets on Sunday (4:15 p.m., CBS).
"I think teams said, 'They're winning some close games but they're still the same Dolphins."
David J. Neal quotes Anthony Fasano:
''You don't just come back from 1-15 and all of a sudden you just gain respect because you have a new coaching staff and Bill Parcells is in the front office,'' Goodman said. ``It's about playing on Sundays. At the end of the day, that's what it's about.''
Dolphins tight end Anthony Fasano said: ``I think guys still walk in there and they think that we need to beat them. I think that we need to go into the park and think that we need to go beat them instead of them coming up to beat us up.
``Our mind-set has changed around here; I don't know if it's changed around the league, though.''
No doubt this classic motivational tool is flowing downward from the coaching staff and spreading throughout the locker room. It makes sense to push that idea, too, especially with a young team that could easily give into the temptation of self-satisfaction.
Yet coach Tony Sparano wasn't exactly owning up to the strategy Monday.
"I think there's been some of that," Sparano said of disrespect. "I feel right now more and more people have to respect our effort, but I think there's been points where ... people still look at you as a 1-15 team and we're screwing some things up for them."
And then there's the whole the national media don't gives us no props thing.
So is respect important? Should we care? Is it really an important motivational tool? I don't know. You guys are welcome to discuss it in the comments. All I can tell you is the other day I got lost driving and so started to look for signs that led me back to the highway, so I slowed down to about 30 MPH. And then this guy roars up beside me and is all, "Get the fuck off the road or drive faster asshole!!!" and sped away. Five and a half seconds after that, I yelled back, "Do you know how to get to 5th and Cornbread?.... Turkey!" I think we can all agree that if that guy had heard me, he'd respect me. Man, I am such a badass on wheels. Call me, ladies.
