I don't blame him. In 2002, the Dolphins had the league's leading rusher, the league's leading sacker, the league's leading tackler and a top 3 defense and didn't make the playoffs. Poor coaching, poor QB play, poor personnel decisions.

 

Sounds nice. I love ya Ricky but you were suspended. That's like an employee quitting because he knew he'd flunk the upcoming drug test. Do it your way, but don't blame other people for your mistakes.

 

That was well known, or at least "figured"....dude was being ran into the ****ing ground....it was like the opposite of Dan Marino....never got him a RB or defense.

 

I wonder how Feidler would do if he played in today's game with all the rules favoring the passing game

The arm would still stink, but he could move and was fairly accurate. Could he be a 90 rating passer if he played in 2014?

 

I blame the sorry string of mustachioed coaches he'd endured.

 

He didn't quit due to his suspension. At the very least it can't be proven.

 

The glorious Wannstache years....

Yet he was probably better than Philbin, lol

 

He got suspended because he quit. He didn't care anymore.

 

Yeah, this isn't quite "breaking news". He got run into the ground. Everybody knows this. Had our passing game been better, he wouldn't have had all those carries.

 

I remember being at a Ravens/Phins game where we won 9-6.....all field goals, Ricky, and Defense....it was pathetic. We won....but jesus man thats ridiculous.

 

I loved Ricky as much as the next Dolfan but he always has an excuse for everything. We as fans had to endure alot with him as well with suspensions, quitting etc

 

....and I was not a fan of him getting run into the ground either.

 

I'm pretty sure Ricky has, at various times, attributed his leaving the NFL to a number of different things. The thing he focuses on keeps changing. I imagine it was a whole cluster of factors, which is usual for a big life decision, even one made in haste.

 

Yeah, Ricky has changed his tune about 15 times on this issue. At this point, no one knows for sure why he quit and abandoned his teammates, other than he has horrendous character flaws.

 

I can't say I really blame him. We were content to run him into the ground. Now I'm sure this is only one factor into why he quit, as he's cited other reasons in the past as well, but I don't doubt this was a big driving factor. He could see the writing on the wall for how they were going to keep using him, he knew how he felt on Mondays, how sore he was, how long it was going to take him to recover (I remember reading him saying just as much on his website at the time), he wanted a life after football, and wanted to be healthy enough to have one. Got to give props to him for that. It's a shame we couldn't get a real QB at that point in time.

 

Didn't Zach have a big fumble recovery in that game to seal it?

 

2014 I don't really care Ricky go tell Crowder about it.

 

Gotta love when people say **** like this. As if every football player doesn't have their own interests ahead of the team (which is fine).

 

I'm not sure if true, but I'd say this is much more likely.

 

Last offensive stud we've had on this team. Damn, I miss that badass. Was so much fun watching him run the ball.

 

Yea, but remember he quit on the eve of training camp. Pretty ****ty time to bail on your team.

 

Can't be proven lmao, like I said he failed the test and was facing suspension. He can say whatever he wants. He wasn't playing that year and it had nothing to do with his feelings.

 

My personal favorite dolphin. Full disclosure I was born in 83 and didn't pay much attention to the NFL until midway through HS :)

 

I thought he was only facing a 4 game suspension in 2004. At one point he said he retired because he didnt want the NFL to make public his suspension for drug use.

 

He has but the one consistent has been Wanny giving him far too many carries. 2001 to 2003 between the Saints and Dolphins he had 313, 383 and 392. Wanny would have probably stacked him over 400 the next year ;p

 

I was at that game as well. Ya Pathetic is pretty accurate.

 

Wash your mouth out with soap, Bro. Wannstedt wasn't even better than Cam Cameron. Cam was incompetent from the word go. Wannstedt ran this franchise into the ground over a period of years, all the way stubbornly clinging to his view of the cosmos as the team declined before his eyes.

 

Not sure I would go as far as to say that Wannstache was worse than Cammy Cam Cam, but He is a close second. He is the primary culprit for running the Phins into the ground. How he ended up with final say over personnel is mind boggling. Wannstache and Cameron are the two biggest inditements on Huizenga's ownership of the Dolphins and the poor choices he made.

 

36-16 over his first 3 years.

He was a worse GM than coach

 

As others have noted, Ricky has given about a half dozen different reasons for quitting. They all may have some degree of truth, but it's pretty clear that lack of great QB play wasn't the only reason, or even the main one.

Ricky is a different breed of cat from most NFL players. That's pretty clear. But while there may be some truth in what he says, a player quitting because his team's QB wasn't good enough is certainly unusual/atypical. It is similarly unusual/atypical for a RB to quit because he is getting too many carries. I don't think I have ever heard of any other RB, at any level of football, complaining about too many carries.

All that being said, I also think there is a certain phoniness to these statements from Ricky. His last game before quitting was a meaningless season finale against the Jets. He was coming off a 29 carry game the week before. If he was so concerned about his health or longevity I'm pretty sure he would have either sat out that finale or told the coaches he wasn't fit to play or carry a big load. Instead he played and had 20 carries. In the middle of that season, coming off a seond straight week with only 13 carries and a struggling running game, Ricky said:

That sounds to me like a typical RB who wants more carries, not one on the brink of retiring because he is getting too many.

 

You realize the suspension would have been for less time than he stayed retired right? If it was the suspension he could have just taken that time off to pursue his interests. He didnt.

Noone retires due to a suspension.

 

Fiedler's lack of talent/skill wasn't his only problem. He compounded that by seemingly thinking he was much better than he was, and would try to squeeze the ball into tight spots and get picked, and would frequently bypass easy first downs in order to try for the big play - and fail most of the time. His bad decesions killed us as often as Wanny's.

 

Wasn't it just a 4 game suspension he was facing?

 

There were rumors at the time that it was a year. Nothing official ever came out, and then when Ricky came back he had that really weird and confusing contract. He missed all of 04 & 06, and virtually all of 07. Then shared carries the rest of his career. Sad to think what might have been.

 

He could blame me personally, but watching him run was a thing of beauty. I still love ya Sticky Ricky.

 

Dont you know he is the first RB to leave the game with something left in the tank? Damnit man he should be the walking wounded like the rest of the RB's ;)

Jim Brown and Barry Sanders come to mind. Hell i call it being smart!

 

No, actually Barry Sanders left the game very healthy and with plenty left in the tank....if Ricky would not have missed all of that time and stayed healthy I think he would have stood a very good chance of leaving the game as the all time leader in yards running the ball..he was a pleasure to watch and I wish he would have had the desire to retire the all time leader of running backs.

 

I highly doubt this record, that's an average of 12 wins a year and Wanny never had a season better than 11-5. With that being said, yes he is a better coach than Philbin, easily.