After an unexpectedly stormy Labor Day weekend due to what became Tropical Storm Gordon (take care up there in the coast!), we turn our attention to what is for me the biggest love/hate relationship I have:

Football.

I like the game.  Quite a bit.  It’s emotional, draining, perplexing, and surprisingly strategic given it is also a show of force/speed.

On the other hand, a part of me notes that its a brutal game that is proving itself to be more than just something that wears and tears athlete’s bodies: It hurts their brain as well and, I do feel, in time this sport will face a reconning in this respect, and who knows if it will survive.

Having said all that, I first became a fan of the sport during Dan Marino’s first year with the Dolphins (don’t look that year up… I beg you, I’m that old!) and have been a Dolphin fan ever since.

Sadly, once coach Don Shula left and Marino retired (another very long time ago), the Dolphins have been stuck in a mediocre cycle.  They usually win just enough games to get a mid-first round pick, but are never quite awful enough (though there was that one year) to get some really good picks.  And when they do pick, it seems like the football Gods are against them and the people they pick may be OK or terrible, but rarely really, really great.  Of course, there are exceptions, but it is what it is.

So with Football season about to begin, one looks at the prognosticators and, if you’re a Dolphin fan, you check out the Dolphin’s place compared to all other teams for this year and, if you’re on CNN’s Bleacher Report you find…

Dolphins ranked 32 out of 32 teams coming into week 1

Yikes.

Over on ESPN, they fare a little better:

Dolphins are ranked 29 out of 32 teams coming into week 1

Woo… hoo…?

Welp, as they say, there’s nowhere to go but up.

Unless, of course, we stay right where we are.

How does the draft look?! 😉