Dan (as in Marino) Could Be the Man

With no dynasty to follow, no certifiably great team in the mix, the story of the 2000 NFL playoffs is Dan Marino.

This is the first time neither Super Bowl team made the playoffs the following season since 1988 (Washington and Denver). It’s wide open. We’ll watch because we want to know what happens, but the only single team to follow is the Miami Dolphins. And for one single reason: Marino.

Will the NFL’s most prolific passer hop on a horse with his Super Bowl ring and ride after John Elway into a glorious retirement? Or will he limp away, bruised and battered, and hand over his six-shooter to a new gunslinger like Kurt Warner?

Marino as sympathetic figure is a stretch. He never has come across as a particularly warm and friendly guy, and I’ve never liked his demeanor when he messes up. He doesn’t bother to chase down the defensive backs returning an interceptions. And he always fixes a mean stare at his receiver or offensive linemen on his way off the field, as if it were all their fault.

Perhaps the affinity goes back to the year I had Marino in my fantasy football league and he led my team to first place. Maybe it’s Miami’s aqua jerseys. I’ve always loved those uniforms.

Mostly it’s because I like to see greatness rewarded. If you watched the Dolphins during the 1990s and most of the ‘80s, you were treated to his quick-draw arm, a dynamic passing attack and his cool under pressure. We got our money’s worth from Marino. Now it’s time for him to cash in on the field.

The thing is, there’s no immovable object in his way.

The Indianapolis Colts spent their last three games losing to the Buffalo Bills and struggling to beat the Cleveland Browns and Washington Redskins. Key players Peyton Manning and Edgerrin James are new to the playoffs.

Jacksonville lost offensive tackle Tony Boselli, and quarterback Mark Brunell is hurting.

And it just goes against everything the NFL stands for to say that a team named the Tennessee Titans will win the Super Bowl.

No NFC team looks too imposing. The St. Louis Rams have lost every time they’ve played a team that mattered. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers? With Shaun King at quarterback, maybe in a couple of years. With Trent Dilfer, never.

Minnesota has the talent but doesn’t seem to want to do anything with it.

In reality, the greatest threat to Marino is Marino himself. These days he’s just as likely to throw a game-turning interception as he is to lead a winning drive.

And Jimmy Johnson, the coach with a couple of championship rings who seems to crave a Super Bowl even more than Marino, is another impediment to the Dolphins. Johnson has proclaimed his dedication to the run, but he has undermined his team’s ground game by signing a series of backs for whom “big numbers” refer only to the string of digits identifying their police reports. He brought in Lawrence Phillips, and that didn’t work. This year he tried Cecil Collins, who was already on probation when he was charged with his most recent transgression of “burglary of a dwelling in a stealthy manner.”

While we’re on the topic of justice, how about the strange turn of events surrounding the New York Jets, which is the other emerging story line in the league?

You can’t say they didn’t have it coming to them. They smoothed the pavement for Bill Parcells’ ride out of New England three years ago. So they shouldn’t complain now that Parcells is stepping down and the Patriots are trying to swipe his predetermined successor, Bill Belichick, who on Tuesday vacated the Jets’ head coaching job he had assumed only one day earlier.

The Jets claim Belichick is under contract to them, and the NFL is backing them up. Well, Parcells was under contract to the Patriots in 1997 when the Jets were talking to him.

The Jets wanted Parcells so desperately that they gave up four draft picks to get New England to release him. Now, if New England is willing to part with draft picks for Belichick, that’s their problem.

Have we forgotten this is Bill Belichick? He had a losing record in Cleveland and never took the Browns to the Super Bowl.

And now his character has to be questioned. He claimed he wanted out because of the uncertainty of the team’s pending sale and a new ownership situation.

First of all, security isn’t an issue when you have three years and close to $5 million left on your contract. Even if the new regime goes in a different direction, Belichick can head off in a direction of his own: toward the bank.

But drastic changes are not in store. Parcells promised to stay around to ease the transition. Whoever gets the team would be a fool to cut out Parcells, who is beloved by the players and restored credibility to the franchise in the eyes of the fans.

In other words, Belichick’s “concerns” are the same old yearnings for more money and more control--like a general manager’s title.

Now Parcells might be in the position of having to go back on his promise Monday that his coaching days were over. Given the extraordinary circumstances, he wouldn’t be criticized for flip-flopping and holding the fort for a year. Jet fans certainly wouldn’t mind.

Best-case scenario: Parcells comes back to give it one more shot next year and guns for the Super Bowl championship last won by Dan Marino.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.

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