The Miami Dolphins have been brainwashed. How else to explain the fact that they believe they can make the playoffs despite their current 2-7 record?
By and large Dolphins fans gave up on their team's chances at making the playoffs sometime around week 4 of the NFL season.
Only one team in NFL history had rebounded from an 0-4 start to make the playoffs. The Miami Dolphins have tricked themselves into believing that they can be the first team to start 0-5, 0-6, and 0-7 and still make the playoffs.
"If we win out, we can be in playoff contention," DE Jared Odrick told Fox Sports Florida Wednesday. WR Brandon Marshall was a bit more bold, vowing to "make the impossible possible."
Perhaps the NFL should send its drug-testing unit to South Florida. The Miami Dolphins are clearly smoking something if they think the playoffs are actually in reach.
The rabbit hole in the Dolphins locker room is so deep that some are calling the team's dismal start a positive. "I think it was building blocks for us," Karlos Dansby said. "I think it built a lot of character within our locker room."
Character sounds like a great concept, but does it win football games? According to Dansby, yes.
"A lot of the young guys that we do have here, I think they needed that," he added. They needed losses, you say? "They needed those losses to instill a lot of character inside of them and make them have to play better."
If professional athletes need motivational losses to play better, then perhaps they should try out some other line of work.
The Dolphins have played better the past two weeks than they have all season, but it's no coincidence their two wins have come against the Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Redskins. Those two franchises are among the few in the league that can give Miami a run for its money in the dysfunction department.
Not that the Dolphins shouldn't say whatever it takes to get them through the grind that is football season. The Dolphins locker room was a pretty morose place during Miami's 0-7 start, at least the faint glimmer of playoff hope has lifted their spirits.
But with Miami's chances at drafting stud Stanford QB already seemingly out of reach, plenty of Dolphins fans would probably feel better if the team just mailed it in the rest of the season so they can draft another one of the marquee quarterbacks available at the top of the draft.
Indeed, the only thing worse for the Dolphins than a 2-14 season (and high draft pick) would be yet another 7-9 season with no chance at drafting the next Dan Marino in April.
