What’s a Dolfan to do these days? The Dolphins won a meaningless game last week against Denver in impressive fashion.  The win puts Miami’s potential for a top 10 draft pick at risk, but still doesn’t put them in a realistic playoff scenario.  The schedule brings the New England Patriots to Miami for a Monday Night Football Matchup.  While it’s 9 days off from the actual date, for some reason on the drive into work today I got to thinking about “The Night Courage Wore Orange”.

For those that don’t know, it’s the title of a highlight video on YouTube about Miami’s upset over the Patriots in the 2004 season.  Miami, wearing their orange jerseys on Monday night, upset the eventual Super Bowl Champions 29-28 behind Derrius Thompson’s TD catch.  Miami at that time were 2-11 and the mighty Patriots were 12-1.  But, for just one night, Miami was better.  You can watch the video here:

I remember the day of Monday, December 20th pretty well.  I was a freshman at the University of Dayton and we’d just finished exams and I’d come home for Christmas Break that Friday.  I spent Friday hanging out with my buddies.  Saturday we went out for my mom’s birthday.  Sunday we went over to my high school football coaches house for a party.

On Monday morning, my brothers woke me up and we went out for breakfast and we went to the gym.  A few of my buddies and I had managed to finagle our way into some beers the night before.  I was tired, not hungover, but tired.  I remember another one of my friends calling me to come over and play poker at his house at noon that day.  I didn’t bother showering (part of my poker face plan) and headed out for a $50 buy-in tournament.

A lot of the kids from my old neighborhood growing up were there, so it was sort-of the third mini-reunion in a 3-day span.  We started playing around noon and my friend Kyle’s mom started cooking up all kinds of food and bringing it down into the basement for us.  I remember a college bowl game being on and enjoying all the food.

I lost track of time as the tournament wore on and I ended up finishing 3rd (I’m not a good poker player) and won $150.  I was pretty stoked about that and went home with no real plans other than possibly staying up to watch the Dolphins game.  My brother and I loved to play the Playstation 2 Version of Nightfire (James Bond game sort of like Golden Eye).  We were going to hook it up to the big screen and play that night.  I told him let’s wait until halftime of the Dolphins game and see how they’re doing.

Miami kept the game close most of the way, but found themselves down 28-17.  A Sammy Morris TD run and failed 2-pt conversion made it 28-23.  Then, of course, J.T. went into “99 right on time” mode and nearly sacked Brady.  The pressure forced Brady to throw an interception while nearly sitting on his ass.  He threw it to Brendan Ayanbadejo of all people, who was pressed into action that night at LB along with Derrick Pope.  Ayanbadejo picked it off and then…on a 4th & 10 from New England’s 22, A.J. Feeley threw a TD pass to Derrius Thompson over the top of Troy Brown for the go-ahead score.  Arturo Freeman got an interception on the subsequent drive to seal it.

My brother, not a Dolphins fan, was so jacked up – just as I was! That game, for whatever reason, has always stuck in my memory and is sadly one of my favorite Dolphins memories.

Miami’s in a similar situation coming up this Monday.  I believe they’re wearing the throwback uniforms this time, not the orange, but maybe, just maybe, we’ll see Miami step up to the plate and give us all a little something extra to cheer about.

I’ll probably only be able to do entries on the blog next week and the week after before things really get going with my wedding and honeymoon.  If you’re interested in filling in (CK, any others), please let me know and I’ll give you details for the blog.

Go Dolphins!

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