JOE ROBBIE : Often outspoken owner of the Dolphins has a knack of accomplishing things--even when going against Miami politicians while seeking a new stadium

Like the shark that must keep moving to live, Miami Dolphin owner Joe Robbie does not rest.

His team is in the Super Bowl for the fifth time in 15 years, the second time in three years. His coach, Don Shula, is probably the best in football. His quarterback, Dan Marino, may be, at only 23, the best ever. There are whispers of dynasty in the air.

But that is not enough.

At an age when some people dictate their memoirs, Robbie keeps writing new chapters. There may be sharks in the water, but you know what dolphins do to sharks--they destroy them.

Even Robbie’s critics, of which there are a few, readily concede that what Robbie wants to get done, he gets done.

He bought the Dolphins as an expansion franchise in the old American Football League with borrowed money and turned the franchise into a mini-empire. But these days, Robbie has more than Super Bowls on his mind.

Prominently displayed at the entrance to the Dolphins’ makeshift headquarters here at an Oakland hotel is the design for a stadium he plans to build with private funds. If the stadium gets built, it would mark an end to Robbie vs. the city of Miami, which he wanted to build him a stadium to replace the antiquated Orange Bowl.

“If Joe Robbie wants to build a stadium, let him go build it himself,” Robbie says is the message he has gotten from Miami politicians.

So, that’s what he says he’ll do, although there are a few skeptics.

“A lot of people in Miami are dubious, a lot of bankers, a lot of people in the financial community,” said Bob Lafferty, president of the Orange Bowl Committee and definitely not a Joe Robbie fan. “They don’t see how it’s practical.

“But it is Joe Robbie. And he usually does what he sets out to do.”

In this instance, he sets out to build a $90-million stadium, seating 73,000, which will begin construction by June and be finished by 1987. He says he intends to bring major league baseball there by 1987, although there seem to be several cities ahead of Miami in line for expansion. He says he expects to have the Super Bowl there by 1989.

And why is he taking all this on at this stage of his life?

“I sometimes wonder myself,” Robbie said. “Maybe it’s my obstinate nature. I’m enjoying it totally.”

Joe Robbie pulls up a chair, motions for a group of reporters to sit down, and then tells his story.

At 68, he is spry, as sharp as a silicon chip. He smiles when it is suggested that he is feisty. “Strong willed certainly,” Robbie says. He lets you know he considers himself pretty shrewd.

A tough question doesn’t throw him, not a man who won a national debating championship in 1940. He was a successful lawyer and politician, a protege of Hubert Humphrey who once ran unsuccessfully for governor of South Dakota.

And yes, he says, “Politics are every bit as tough as pro football. The main difference is that in politics, they use you for the football.”

He got into football accidentally, although that’s probably the last move he made without benefit of a well-conceived game plan. He was representing a client interested in putting an AFL team in Philadelphia. The plan fell through and AFL Commissioner Joe Foss, an old friend, suggested Miami as an alternate site. Robbie’s client wasn’t interested, but Robbie was.

He talked Danny Thomas into helping him bankroll the $7.5-million purchase price.

“I thought I had investors behind me,” Robbie says. “I only had a lawyer’s income and 11 children. We didn’t have any personal fortune--oil wells or hotel chains, life insurance companies. I thought I had good investors behind me, but when I called a meeting of the investors, no one showed up.”

So Robbie became the general partner, along with, he says, “Citibank and all our jolly bankers.”

There were investors, but Robbie has long since bought them all out. It’s his team, his and Shula’s and the banks’.

Bringing in Shula in 1970 was Robbie’s master stroke. After four losing seasons, the Dolphins were 10-4 in Shula’s first year. In his second, they were in the Super Bowl. In his third, they won the Super Bowl and went 17-0. The Dolphins won the Super Bowl again the next season and have had only one losing season since.

The relationship between coach and owner has sometimes been stormy and occasionally has gone public. Once, at an awards dinner, they had a shouting match and Shula was quoted as saying: “If you ever shout at me again, I’ll knock you on your ass.”

Robbie says it’s “malicious mischief” to bring up an incident a decade old. These days, there seem to be no harsh words between them, and Shula is in the second year of a three-year contract worth a reported $2.25 million.

One reason why they have stayed together all these years is that Robbie, though admittedly a man of some ego, does not interfere with the on-field football operation. That is Shula’s preserve. Robbie, who signs Shula’s players for him, would never think of calling down a play.

“That would be like Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara pinpointing the air targets in Vietnam,” he says. “That wasn’t a highly successful operation.”

Getting Shula was, however. Robbie swiped him from the Colts. First, he had tried to hire Bear Bryant, but the governor of Alabama persuaded Bryant to stay. So, he went after Shula, then a successful coach in Baltimore for the late Carroll Rosenbloom.

Rosenbloom was in Japan when Shula asked permission to talk to Robbie. Don Klosterman and Steve Rosenbloom, who had been left in charge, said he could. Twenty-two days later Shula was signed, and Carroll Rosenbloom, who got Don McCauley (a first-round draft pick) in return, virtually never spoke to Robbie again.

Robbie chuckled. “It may be the biggest management coup we ever made.”

Rosenbloom and Shula are not the only people who have had their innings with Robbie. He is not the most popular man among his fellow owners. Put it this way: Al Davis likes him.

He has warred with Miami city officials. Asked why they’ve resisted him, he says: “The history of the universe is resistance to progress.”

People are not eager to talk about Robbie. Two former minority Dolphin owners did not return calls about Robbie. One Miami official asked not to be quoted.

Lafferty was one who would talk about Robbie, but he chose his words carefully.

“The people of Miami love the Dolphins,” he said. “The people of Miami love Don Shula. The people of Miami think Joe Robbie is a very bright businessman.”

The people, says Robbie, “have backed me to the hilt.” It’s the politicians that have caused him problems.

But Dade County has given him a great land deal in north Dade where he’s going to build that stadium.

“I was the most skeptical man in Miami,” he said about the possibility of building such a stadium with private funds. “But we discovered a way of doing it.”

He is leasing sky boxes--89 to date--and selling special club seats on the loge level. With the $7 million he has taken in and another $85 million he intends to raise through industrial revenue bonds, a stadium will be built. Then maybe a mall. And office buildings. And if he can bring in baseball . . .

“Fourteen of my competitors of the 27 remaining franchises are in the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest people in America,” Robbie said. “I know what they would say if they were told to build their own stadium.”

He says that with satisfaction. He knows they would say it couldn’t be done.

Talking with Robbie can be fun. He has a good sense of humor, and is not afraid to say what’s on his mind.

Some samples:

--On Stanford Stadium: “The Orange Bowl may look like a palace after playing there on Sunday.”

--On owners: “I think many of them are in this for different reasons than I am. I am because I’d rather compete than do anything. . . . I’m in football to win championships. If I ever lost that verve I’d be in something less strenuous. . . . (Some owners) run football purely as a business. I think there are people who pay more attention (to the bottom line).”

--More on owners: “When some owners say they don’t enjoy football anymore, I chuckle. It may not be the fun it once was. You can’t pass out envelopes saying how much everyone is going to get. I mean, (the players) talk back now. I’ve said there are only 26 (now 28) guys on earth who can destroy professional football and here we all sit. We’ve caused a number of our own problems.”

--On the Raiders’ lawsuit: “I belabored the NFL for three hours in Detroit in the midst of the first trial to settle the case with the LA Coliseum. . . . I told the league that if we didn’t (give an expansion franchise to Los Angeles), we would be in state court, before the state legislature, in federal court, in Congress and possibly the executive mansion of the White House. . . . My personal view is that the NFL should get out of litigation, get away from Congress and get back to playing football”

--On Rozelle vs. Davis: “Pete Rozelle and Al Davis were going to have it out, and the owners were willing to support Pete in doing it.”

--On television and the NFL: “I would have taken less money rather than spread football to Thursday night and Sunday night. Our vote was against that. I don’t think TV money has that much to do with how much profit we make. Because that’s what causes strikes. We’d be better off if we hadn’t gotten this contract last time. It’s all gone now, anyway. I hope we’re a ways away from pay TV. I just want to see people in the stands.”

Robbie is enjoying this week, of course. He has brought out a jumbo jet full of Dolphin wives and employees--on his tab--to party with him. The game between Miami and San Francisco has every chance of being memorable. When was there ever a meeting between teams any better or more exciting to watch?

“This is the most explosive offense in the history of football,” Robbie said of the Dolphins. “And I shouldn’t be using superlatives because I have to deal with these guys. Marino’s had the best year that any quarterback has ever had. And that’s going to be quoted back to me when (Marino’s agent) enters the room to negotiate. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s worth the price.”

Robbie says he’s going to extend Marino’s contract (which this season will net him more than $100,000 in performance bonuses alone) and that he’s going to adjust the contracts of wide receivers Mark Clayton and Mark Duper. Robbie is willing to spend money to produce a top product. The Dolphins, so young a team, are a product that could keep getting better.

In fact, other than the stadium, the biggest problem Robbie may face is where to put a third Super Bowl ring. Now he wears one on the ring finger of each hand.

“I’ll find a place,” he promises.

And you believe him.