Last week I saw a recent photo of Don Shula and Dan Marino
together and I started reflecting on Shula’s influence on me, so I decided to
write this tribute to him. Often people
reflect on a person’s influence on them after they’ve passed, but I figured,
why wait? Shula’s 87, and who knows,
maybe through the magic of the internet, Shula will read this, and it’d be nice
to be able to thank him for the 25-year career I’ve had in sports (so far).
To start, since I was a kid, I’ve always loved sports. I wasn’t exactly blessed with athleticism, so
college athletics was never a consideration, but I always wanted to be a part
of sports. I was a Miami Dolphins
fan while growing up, which was not easy in the early-1970s, despite their being the best team in
football, because the only televised NFL games in the New York market were Jets
and Giants games plus whomever was playing on Monday Night Football, which I
didn’t get to see as I was 7 years old during the Dolphins 1972 undefeated season and was
asleep by the 9pm kickoff. But I had a
Larry Csonka sweatshirt, a Dolphins helmet and a Dolphins belt buckle (it was
the 70s, after all).
I had remained loyal to the Fins even though the late-70s
weren’t so great, but the early to mid-80s were incredible, with the Killer B
defense and then Dan Marino and two Super Bowl appearances.
When I entered college, I really didn’t know what I wanted
to do, so I began as a business major. I
made a new friend early in my freshman year in Jim Simmons, because he was also
a Dolphins fan. So Jim and I started
going to the annual Dolphins/Jets game at Giants Stadium together. We also began flying down to Miami once every
fall for a game, starting in 1986, the team’s last season at the Orange Bowl.
One season in the late-80s, when the Dolphins were no longer a playoff team, Jim read the Dolphins media guide and discovered that when the Dolphins played on the road, Coach
Shula would have the team leave Miami on Saturday morning so they could head to the stadium for an acclimation walk-though practice in the afternoon. That
was all we needed to hear; Jim and I decided to head to Giants Stadium the
Saturday before a Jets/Dolphins game to see if we could get in to meet some
players. We figured the odds weren’t
good, but we hoped to at least get a glimpse of our heroes in aqua and orange.
We had no idea when the team would arrive, but assumed that
they’d fly out of Miami around 9am, which meant a practice sometime around
noon. Jim and I arrived at the stadium at 10am,
just to make sure we didn’t miss the Dolphins.
We hung out in the empty parking lot outside the stadium for hours,
tossing a football, comparing items we’d brought to have signed, and walking around to see if any of the security guards had any information about if and
when the team would arrive. No one would
confirm that the team was coming, however.
After a couple of hours, an old station wagon with New York
license plates pulled into the lot. A
middle-aged nun stepped-out from the driver’s seat and walked over toward
us. She introduced herself as Sister Virginia
and asked if we were there to meet the Dolphins. Yes, our jerseys gave us away, but why would
a nun from New York be there and how did she know anything about football?
Sr. Virginia explained to us that she was a friend of Shula’s
from his days in Baltimore, where she was a nun at the church in his
neighborhood, where he attended weekly mass.
She said she drove down from her home in Syracuse, that the team
would be arriving momentarily, and that she could bring us in with her.
We were gobsmacked. Absolutely
stunned. And when the team arrived, a
man stepped off the bus and approached the gate through which the team buses
had just passed. The man, Sr. Virginia
told us, was Stu Weinstein, the Dolphins head of security. Stu recognized our new friend and she said
that Jim and I were with her. We
proceeded down the ramp and joined the players – our heroes – on a walk into
the stadium. As the players turned
toward the locker room, we followed Sr. Virginia through the tunnel and out to
the field. Just like that, we were standing
in the west end zone of Giants Stadium.
The team began to emerge about 15 minutes later in warm-up
suits. When Shula came out of the
tunnel, he waved hello to Sr. Virginia and proceeded with the team. Most of the team walked to the far end of the
field to walk-through some special teams drills while Dan Marino and Mark Clayton
played catch on our end, with Clayton catching passes in the end zone right in
front of us while Marino threw from about the 30 yard line. Clayton had fun, chatting up the dozen or so
people watching in the back of the end zone, including us.
After practice, Shula stopped to talk to Sr. Virginia and
she was so kind to introduce us to coach, who posed for photos with us. I was so surreal. We walked out of the stadium, to the buses,
where players would soon emerge with a few signing autographs.
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| Coach Shula and I at Giants Stadium |
I was hooked. I
wanted to be a part of this all the time.
Being around sports, even if I couldn’t play, was intoxicating. I couldn’t believe that Coach Shula allowed us
into a closed practice session, even if it was just a walk-through. Shula apparently had a deep appreciation for
Dolphins fans outside of Miami.
Sr. Virginia
told us that she traveled to see the Dolphins in New England, Buffalo and New
Jersey every year and we were welcome to meet her in the lot any Saturday before
a game.
By the end of my second year of college, I’d joined the
school’s radio station and their concert committee. I was hanging out more and more with
communication students and enjoying every second of it. I decided I’d begin my junior year as a communication
major, where I’d hoped to have a career in sports production for television. I figured that would be my only way into a
sports career. Remember, this was long
before colleges had sports management programs or teams had internships.
The next year, Jim and I decided to drive up to Boston to
see the Dolphins play the New England Patriots. We booked a room at the same hotel in which
the Dolphins would be staying and headed to Sullivan Stadium for Saturday practice.
And sure enough, Sr. Virginia was there
to greet us and we got to see another practice.
This continued for a year or two as Jim and I added Buffalo
to our annual travel itinerary. And
every time we’d get into practice on Saturday, see players in the hotel
Saturday night and cheer for the team on Sundays. One weekend, I brought a camcorder to Buffalo and shot the footage you see below:
Then one day on a Saturday in New England, it began raining
hard at practice and Dan Marino decided to head to the locker room. As I turned to seek shelter under an
overhang, Mark Clayton said, “Where do you think you’re going?” I replied, “Under the tarp.” Clayton then said, “No you’re not. I need someone to throw with, get over here,”
and I proceeded to play catch with one of the Dolphins greatest receivers in
the pouring rain for a half hour. I remember it like it was yesterday though it was about 30 years ago.
Later, at the hotel, a guy I’d recognized from the walk-through practices
approached and asked if I had a car, which I did. He introduced himself as Dave Hack, the
director of video for the team. He shot
every game and every practice and broke down the video that the coaches used to
prepare for games. He wanted to go out
to dinner at a TGI Friday’s a half a mile away but didn’t wish to walk in the
downpour. He offered to buy us dinner if
we drove him to Friday’s.
At dinner, Dave explained to us how he and his assistant,
Will, shot the games and had been doing so for almost 20 years. After some great conversation over dinner,
Dave asked Jim and I if we would be willing to help he and Will get their gear
to their shooting locations before the game.
He’d give us game credentials and a parking pass, we’d meet him at the
locker room two hours before kick, we could watch the game with he and Will or from our
ticketed seats, and we’d have to return to their locations (Dave was
the midfield shooter and Will shot from the end zone angle) at the two minute
warning in the fourth quarter. Oh, and
we could eat in the press box, too.
We were more than elated to help. And because we didn’t want to get into any
trouble, we didn’t go anywhere near the field, though it was pretty cool being by the locker room when the team
arrived.
Happy with our assistance, Dave told Jim and I to let him
know which games we’d be attending and we’d never have to purchase tickets or
pay for parking again. He’d also get us
a room at the team hotel at the team rate – usually half price. But this was still just the beginning.
By 1990, Jim and I decided to attend Dolphins May minicamp
and the team’s annual award banquet on the eve of minicamp. We booked a hotel room and contacted Dave,
who said he’d get us unto the banquet for free if I could do him another favor. Given that I’d graduated from William
Paterson having studied radio and TV production, Dave asked if I could fill in
for Will as his second shooter at minicamp as Will had to attend a family
wedding. All I had to do was show up for
minicamp practices at 8am, go out onto the lift with Dave at the St. Thomas University
practice field, shoot the line-play camera for the 11-on-11 plays for the
morning and afternoon practices and enjoy lunch with the team for three days.
Offer happily accepted.
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| Shooting minicamp with Dave Hack (seated) |
St. Thomas was a bit underwhelming as the NFL teams didn’t
exactly have modern training facilities like they do now. The “weight room” was a tarp-covered area
between 2 buildings and fenced-in for security.
Since it was early May, guys were working-out in 90-degree heat with
little more than a fan blowing the humid South Florida air around. I had fun chatting with Tony Nathan, a former
player who was now an assistant coach, taking pictures, watching giant men eat
copious amounts of food at lunch and shooting pro football players at work on
the practice field from a spot that most fans would dream of. Best of all, at 30 feet in the air, there was
actually a light breeze. It was a
phenomenal experience.
At the end of the weekend, I flew home determined to have a
career in sports. It wound up taking a few years – I had no network of professional contacts in the New York market and had no idea
how to get into the field – but eventually I did.
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| Reggie Roby warms up in Washington |
Later in the 1990 season, the playoffs, to be exact, the Dolphins headed up to Buffalo for a postseason matchup in the snow against the Bills. Because it was snowing throughout the game, the Dolphins team photographer, Dave Cross, asked me if I'd be willing to stay with him throughout the game on the sideline, holding whichever of his two cameras he wasn't using, to keep it dry. I spent the next 7 years watching from the sideline alongside Dave Cross any time the Dolphins were in the northeast. And I was welcome to bring my camera to take pictures, which I happily did.
But before my own sports career consumed my Sundays, I had another meeting with Coach Shula.
Sometime in the early 90s, I was sitting up in the hotel
room in Buffalo when the phone rang. Team
security director Stu Weinstein was on the other end looking for Dave, who had
gone to dinner with a friend. By now,
Stu knew who I was and explained that the videotape machine in one of the
meeting rooms wasn’t working right and Dave needed to fix it immediately. I asked if he wanted me to take a look at it
and told me to come down.
Stu escorted me into the meeting room where Don Shula held
court with Offensive Coordinator Gary Stevens and quarterbacks Dan Marino, Scott
Mitchell and either Doug Pederson or Scott Secules, I can’t remember. Shula took a look at me and said, “Who the
f*ck are you?” I introduced myself as a
friend of Dave’s. Shula replied, “Where
the f*ck is Dave?” Out to dinner, I told
him, but I could take a look at his tape deck and, hopefully, clear the tape
heads by shuttling the tape forward and back, which sometimes works. I tried.
And failed. And Shula was not
happy. Today’s generation might say he
spoke abusively to me or bullied me, but I told coach I’d wait in the lobby for
Dave and send him right in. Best I could
do, right?
I understood where Shula was coming from. Buffalo was the conference’s best team in the
early 90s and the Dolphins/Bills games were often epic battles. Shula needed to win. Coaches were tough. Life is tough. And you’ve got to have thick skin to work in
sports. You've always got to give the best effort you can, at all times. Games are unpredictable, and you
have to be flexible and ready for anything.
I learned a lot from coach in my few interactions, even if I was never
employed by the team.
Most of all, I learned that you have to have honesty and
integrity, something coach always spoke about – winning within the rules. Shula retired in 1995 as the NFL’s winningest
coach of all-time, a title he still holds today. Shula began coaching when teams played just
14 games per season. In fact, his first
14 seasons were 14-game schedules, robbing him of the opportunity to win 28
more games, by today’s scheduling standards.
But no one has caught him yet.
The closest active coach is Bill Belichik, who is 125 wins
back. He’d have to average 12.5 wins per
season for the next decade to catch Shula, but Belichik’s never won with a quarterback
not named Tom Brady (who's now 40 and can't play forever) while Shula won with Unitas, Morrall, Griese, Marino and
even David Woodley. And then there’s the
fact that Belichik oversaw the team through “Spygate” and “deflategate,” so he’ll
never be as great as Shula, in my mind.
The lessons I’ve learned from Shula are lessons I’ve carried
with me throughout my career. I’ve managed
to work 5½ seasons for the New Jersey Devils, running their game presentation
and performing their video production as the NHL's first full-time video editor, before landing at the Meadowlands Sports
Complex in video production for Giants Stadium and Izod Center. After Giants Stadium closed and Izod’s last tenant,
the New Jersey Nets, left, I was “RIF’d” and have been freelancing in sports
production ever since, on top of my current full-time job.
In all, I’ve worked over 350 NFL games, many as a DJ, many
directing the in-house video production crew and many as an audio engineer, and
I’ve enjoyed every second of it. I’ve
also done over 400 MLS, USL, NASL and international soccer matches, 700 NBA
games, 600 NHL games, 200 college basketball games, 80 college football games and hundreds of other concerts,
sports and entertainment events. I’ve
got a Super Bowl, a PGA Championship and U.S. Open, 2 NBA Finals, and 4 Stanley Cup Finals
under my belt, and each has been an absolute thrill. I’ve been truly blessed with a great career.
As a result of my career, I haven’t been to a game in Miami
in about 15 years. I don’t watch many Dolphins
games on TV either because I work almost every Sunday in the fall. And, of course, the whole organization hasn’t
been the same since the Robbie family sold the team or since Shula retired. Dave retired about a decade years ago, though
I enjoyed seeing him every year when I worked Jets games, and we still exchange
emails occasionally. I can’t thank him
enough for being a friend and mentor, as well.
And it’s Dave’s willingness to be an influence on me that’s driven
me to help those trying to break into the field. I teach 4 classes in Sport Management at
Rutgers and mentor students in my full-time gig, creating content and
renovating the TV studios at County College of Morris – two jobs I enjoy very
much. And just this past spring, two of my former students were hired by the Dolphins, so I guess, in a way, it's come fill circle and I've been able, in a small way, to give back to the Dolphins.
So thank you, Coach, for being a true role model, someone a
college kid trying to break into sports could really look up to and learn
from. I’ll always appreciate it.
