With Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino available for employment given the end of his tenure with CBS, speculation has surfaced that he may return to the Dolphins.
Ten years ago, Marino returned to the Dolphins. It didn’t last long.
Hired in early 2004 by former owner Wayne Huizenga to serve as senior V.P. of football operations, Marino exited the position by early February. But he openly talked about a possible return to the team in October 2013 during an appearance on Showtime’s Inside the NFL, even as Cris Collinsworth jokingly pointed out Marino’s reaction to his first trip to the Senior Bowl a decade ago.
“He says, ‘I"m studying the back-up tackle from Temple, and says, ‘What am I doing?’” Collinsworth said of Marino.
The last time around, Marino’s hiring came out of the blue after the Dolphins had spent two weeks searching for someone to run the football operations. Now, owner Stephen Ross could be looking for Marino to do something other than run the football operations. With Ross living in New York and no one in Miami to mind the store and ensure the existence of harmony and functionality, Marino could be the guy to preside over the day-to-day efforts of the franchise without actually having to study the back-up tackle from Temple, or anyone else.