Marino isn't inexperienced
My colleague Dan Marino is making the jump from the booth to the front office as senior vice president of football operations for the Miami Dolphins. Good for him. A lot of folks are wondering why the Dolphins would hire somebody without front-office experience.
They aren't giving Marino enough credit.
The work we do as analysts – Marino for HBO and CBS and I for HBO and here at Yahoo! Sports – actually has boosted our knowledge of the league as a whole. As players we broke down film and judged talent and became familiar with our opponents, and Marino did that for 17 years. That experience counts.
As analysts, we have learned so much more. We have accumulated knowledge about more teams and players. We have learned about organizational structure and how things work around the league. And Marino has worked hard at that for nearly four years.
That experience – and Marino's extensive time as a record-setting player – have helped to prepare him for this job.
Marino's situation is so much different than the one Matt Millen stepped into. The Dolphins have a lot of pieces to the puzzle in place. Marino already has an excellent working relationship with team president Eddie Jones, owner Wayne Huizenga and the new general manager, Rick Spielman. He's not trying to rescue a franchise that people mock.
And don't forget – it's his team. For two decades nobody has wanted the Dolphins to succeed more than Marino. Retirement as a player didn't take away his hunger to bring a championship to Miami, a team and city that he truly loves. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him, and he is thrilled to have another chance to bring a Super Bowl championship to South Florida.
