Marino Leaves the Game as ‘Greatest Competitor’

The year was 1984. Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino was astounding the football world, throwing touchdown passes as if the defense wasn’t even on the field. Through 13 games, Marino had thrown 36 scoring passes, tying Y.A. Tittle’s league record.

In his 14th game, against the then-L.A. Raiders in Miami, Marino had the Dolphins at the Raider four-yard line.

“I hadn’t caught a touchdown pass in over a year,” said receiver Jimmy Cefalo. “And we were in a pass pattern I had been running for seven years without the ball once coming to my side. It was simply impossible to get me the ball in that pattern. So I went out in a lackadaisical manner.”

Serious error. Cefalo looked up just in time to see the ball, a bullet fired from the gun that passed for Marino’s right arm. Before Cefalo could get his hands in position, the ball smashed into his helmet and stuck in the face guard.

And that is how Marino broke Tittle’s record en route to 48 touchdown passes.

“Never has somebody done so little to break a record as I did on that play,” Cefalo said Monday in recalling his fondest moments with Marino, who had announced his retirement earlier in the day. “Only somebody with his release and his speed could have completed that pass. He knocked me silly.

“I later asked him, ‘Why the hell did you throw it?’ And he said, ‘Because you were open.’ ”

Joe Rose had the distinction of catching the first of Marino’s 420 touchdown passes. It was at the Coliseum, again against the Raiders, in 1983. Marino, a rookie, had relieved David Woodley.

“At the time, it was a meaningless touchdown, since the Raiders were spanking us pretty good,” Rose said. [Miami lost, 27-14.] But I remember thinking, ‘Whoa, this kid is pretty good.’ But that day, I never imagined 17 years later he would have every meaningful passing record in the league.”

The mood of most of Marino’s teammates, past and present, was one of sadness but receiver O.J. McDuffie was relieved.

“In a way, I’m glad,” McDuffie said. “I couldn’t bear to see him play for anybody else.”

Perhaps the greatest compliment paid Marino on Monday came from his longtime coach, Don Shula, the winningest coach in league history.

“To me, Dan is the greatest competitor among the over 2,000 athletes I have coached,” Shula said. “His will and determination are legendary and I’ve never been around someone who wants to win as much as Dan did.”

Nearly everybody has a favorite Marino moment.

Among those cited by Shula: “His magnificent Monday night game against the Bears in 1985, when we stopped their quest for an undefeated season by playing the finest half of offensive football I’ve been around, scoring 31 points by halftime.”

Marino’s two favorite targets were Mark Clayton (79 touchdown catches) and Mark Duper (55).

“Sometimes it just seemed like we were playing pitch and catch out there,” Duper said. “He had total faith in us and we had complete faith in him. He knew we would get open and we knew he would get us the ball where we wanted it.

“Even after I retired, I enjoyed sitting back on the veranda when the Dolphins were on TV, watching him throw and thinking about all the good times we had playing together.”

Marino had the ability to make good times out of the bad.

Rose remembered getting up one morning for a Dolphin game in Baltimore, when the Colts still called that city home, and seeing rain and sleet.

“Looks like a four-touchdown game to me. This is Pittsburgh weather,” said a smiling Marino, a Pittsburgh native.

Marino was a little off in his optimism. He only threw two scoring passes in an easy 21-7 Miami victory.

Cefalo remembers telling Marino in the huddle, “If they do this, I can do that.”

And Marino would tell him, “Don’t confuse me with all that stuff. Just get open.”

Rose was awed by Marino’s attitude on the field.

“He was confident and cocky,” Rose said “He couldn’t wait to burn you, to beat you over the top. He had a gunslinger mentality. He was never afraid.

“On third and six, you would want to get seven yards to keep a drive alive. But he always went for the 50-yard bomb to beat you. He never wanted his field-goal kicker to win the game. . . . He had confidence, confidence, confidence.”

But he didn’t take his talent for granted.

“I lived next door to Dan,” said tight end Keith Jackson. “He would be up all night, saying, “How can I get better? How can I get better?’ ”

Dan Marino getting even better? Now there’s a scary thought.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Hot Hands

Dan Marino’s 79 regular-season touchdown passes to Mark Clayton are second all-time by a quarterback to one receiver. A look at the 10 receivers who caught the most touchdowns from Marino:

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Receiver Seasons together No. of touchdowns Mark Clayton 1983-92 79 Mark Duper 1983-92 55 O.J. McDuffie 1993-99 25 Nat Moore 1983-86 24 Jim Jensen 1983-92 19 Bruce Hardy 1983-89 16 Irving Fryar 1993-95 15 Keith Jackson 1992-94 15 Dan Johnson 1983-87 14 Tony Martin 1989-93, ’99 10

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