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Dan Marino has been my favorite athlete since he replaced my former favorite Bob Griese at quarterback for the Miami Dolphins (I've mentally blocked the David Woodley/Don Strock era). Ask anyone how to get me going and they'll tell you to argue the fact that Dan Marino wasn't the greatest quarterback of all time. Most football fans can rattle off his career and single season records, too numerous to even fit in a single article, but it was the man behind the numbers that will always keep him at the top of my list.

I'd like to say I remember his Pitt years, but it was well into his rookie year before I realized he played his high school and college ball less than 30 miles from where I was born and graduated. Our high school rival, the Brooke Bruins played against Central Catholic, where Dan handed them an 18-6 loss his senior year. Marino was my kind of people - humble roots, strong work ethic, honest, a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps kind of guy - a lot of the same qualities he portrayed on the field for 17 years in the NFL. As a Dolphin fan, he was a football prodigy - great physical attributes, field vision, intelligent, and the ability to motivate his teammates against often improbable odds. With little to no mobility and no rushing threat, he would still find a way to elude the blitz, step up into the pocket and needle some bullet pass into the hands of a tight end. Give him a few more seconds and he'd hit a streaking Clayton or Duper for a masterpiece reception and inevitable touchdown. He was the king of the pocket passers, crafting many drives on shear willpower and an unquenchable desire to not lose. Most of us who watched him understand that he would not accept anything less from his teammates than what he was putting into it.

I remember his rookie year, where he earned rookie of the year honors and is still the only rookie to ever start a Pro Bowl (one of 9 appearances). Everyone remembers his second year, the year he and his receivers set the "Mark" for what an aerial attack could accomplish (5000+ yards, 48 TDs) - a standard that all others are measured against to this day. I remember him facing Montana in Superbowl XIX after dismantling the Steelers - his 300+ passing yards overshadowed by his 2 interceptions, fumble and the 25 team rushing yards, not to mention Montana's MVP performance. A heartbreaking end to a record setting season was bearable only in my confidence that there would be many more opportunities. But as his critics constantly remind me, he never got another chance. I've got my excuses - the lack of a running game, for many years a weak defense, Jimmy Johnson, the emergence of the Broncos in the late 80's and the Bills in the early 90's kept him from having another shot at the 49ers or the Cowboys. And in a horrible loss to the Jaguars ending an interception-laden season in 1999, I sighed in regret that my critics had their point made. But 6 years later, I listen to the words of his son, see his five other natural and adopted children, look at his unselfish charitable acts, and realize that it was Dan as a man that I admired the most, not his stats or the number of rings on his fingers.

Congratulations Dan on a wonderful career and thank you for so many fond memories.

One of numerous endeared fans, Jeaux