Hope you're having a great day!

Great post, Galant.

Life is too short to let something inconsequential influence you. I'd submit that in the scheme of things, your health, family, relationships and finances are significant factors in how happy you find yourself. Losing a child (or as in my case, recently losing a parent) puts any frustration you have about football into proper perspective. Losing a job or having a home foreclosed will do that as well.

Or, in the words of a song that I used to enjoy: The first law of nature is self-preservation. If the show doesn't help you, change the station.

In other words, football should be entertainment. As such, it has emotional peaks and valleys that affect fans. But in the end, they're like drugs, the effects derived from them is an illusion. I've been a Dolphins fan since the year that we lost to the Cowboys in 1972. I've been emotionally invested for nearly 50 years and looking back, the things that were landmark moments in my life have nothing to do with football. I hope we return to greatness every season but if we don't, I'll be fine.

Don't let things that don't affect your life have influence on your joy. Life is too good to miss by becoming emotionally invested in something that cares more about taking your money than it does about how you live or die.

By the way: I didn't freak out over what Tua said. I think he was trying to say that he didn't know the playbook well enough to call protections and make audibles when under center. I actually am not surprised by that because he only ran a handful of sets last season and confirmed that Gailey kept the playbook simple. The fact that he won games and didn't fall apart given that situation is what we should think about. People attacking him are making too much over nothing.

 

I try to limit my complaints here about the media, but it absolutely drives me crazy how little truth there is in journalism anymore. You've posted several threads over the past month about Tua and they're all focused on last year...like that can accurately predict anything we may see this coming season. The kid came in without a training camp, didn't know the playbook and had a decent year- all that means is we really don't know how much potential he has. Nobody has more insight at this point that any of us, not even the Miami coaches. All we know is that he worked hard in the off-season and did what he could to improve.

Now, it's the worst time of year for football stuff...mini camps are starting and the news is very sparse...so I've commented where I could just to keep ourselves entertained. But that's all this stuff is, it's entertainment, and it means exactly nothing in context to what we'll see from Tua this season. Maybe he's awesome, maybe he stinks...we just won't know until we know. As fans, we want him to do well of course and we're hoping for the best, but that doesn't mean anything either really. Either he'll develop some more or he won't.

One thing to keep in mind- my favorite marketing/journalism stat of all time is about Howard Stern. When he first came out, the average fan listened for an hour and a half because they couldn't wait to see what he'd say next. The average hater listened for just over two hours because they couldn't wait to see what he'd say next...and that absolutely applies to this conversation. One journalist can write a piece saying Tua is the next Marino and it gets tons of clicks....another journalist could write he's an absolute bum and get even more clicks, because pro-Tua and anti-Tua fans are more likely to read that article or watch that video.

The point here is, keep in mind that some journalists don't actually believe what they're writing and they're doing it to make a name for themselves. Skip Bayless argues with Shannon Sharpe every single day and they just gave him a massive contract (if I remember right, it was $30M a year) just to argue against whatever Shannon thinks. That's not even journalism, it's debate, and it is only for entertainment purposes. If more people realized that, I think we'd have a much more peaceful world in general.

Anyway, hopefully we'll have topics to actually debate in the near future...I do miss our banter with each other. But now's just not the time based on the current news cycle, LOL.

 

I agree 100% with your post. Last year was not a year anybody should use to evaluate rookies. Especially one who was pressed into action without benefit of an offseason program after being limited by a significant injury. A lot of us thought that throwing Tua in as starter when we did was unfair to the team but we should have had similar concerns for its unfairness to him. We stuck him into a very uncomfortable position and I'd wager that was part of the logic behind the move. IMO, he showed more than enough to believe he's the real deal.

And you're right again about journos, talking heads and radio hosts fishing for clicks. Colin Cowherd, Doug Gottlieb, Skip Bayless and Jim Rome go out of their way to p*** people off so that they'll get phone calls, retweets and web site comments. The more they get, the more proof they have for their bosses that they're getting attention from viewers/listeners/readers. The reason why their hot takes sound so ridiculous is because they are ridiculous. Not going to ruin my day to hear an opinion that I disagree with.

I love spirited debate. Typically, I can avoid getting upset with people that I don't know for saying things that I don't think are correct. I have plenty of things to rile me up that don't include my entertainment choices.

 

That clown makes $30 million a year?!? More than all but the top QBs?

Man, give me a mic and I’ll be an obnoxious idiot for 1/10 of that.