Retirement was correct call for the greatest passer ever

Sporting News, The, March 20, 2000 by Dan Pompei

Pick the group in which all the elements are from the same era: Group A: Pac-Man. Michael Jackson. Miami Vice. Oliver North. Trickle-down economics. Michael Jordan. Dan Marino.

Group B: Pokemon. Ricky Martin. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Darva Conger. Internet stocks. Vince Carter. Dan Marino.

As much as most of us revere the great Dan Marino, he belongs with Group A, relics from an earlier time. With Marino retiring this week, it is with sadness and relief that we watch him step aside.

This was the greatest pure passer the NFL has ever seen. The bail came out of his hands like a pea out of a straw. A more fierce competitor never has strapped on a jock. The look on his face before a critical snap said an army of centurions would not deny him. Dolphins football never will have the same appeal, like the Supremes sans Diana Ross.

Though no player of his time provided more thrills than Marino, his days of being an effective starter for 16 games were over. Surrendering to age is a challenge too few of us meet with grace and dignity, and it isn't always pretty. We cover our eyes when we see an old fogy with jet black hair, or an old quarterback incapable of making the football sail. Marino is sparing us from having to watch a legend shrivel on the world's stage.

It was a folly of the Vikings to think that Marino could be their starting quarterback. Just because Dennis Green has had success with other end-of-the line quarterbacks such as Jim McMahon, Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham doesn't mean he can make every prune look like a plumb again. The only thing Marino would have done for the Vikings is sell tickets.

Deterioration was evident in three areas of Marino's game in 1999--his mobility, his arm and his confidence, it's possible his arm and confidence could have improved if his neck injury had healed sufficiently. But his mobility was not going to get any better, and it couldn't get any worse.

Marino's immobility--mostly the result of knee and Achilles' tendon injuries--manifested itself in virtually all phases of the Dolphins' offense. The man moved as if both legs' were in one pant leg. Mostly this led to a lot of bad throws. Marino couldn't take a lot of sacks and hits because his body wouldn't hold up, so his only possible reaction to pressure was to try to throw the ball away. Hence, he had a poor completion percentage and many costly interceptions.

"In the past he wouldn't run away from pressure, but he always would step here, step there, buy time in the pocket and still make the throw," said Gregg Williams, the Titans' outstanding defensive coordinator. "At this time in his career, those are things he was straggling with."

Pete Carroll's Patriots started blitzing Marino up the middle a couple of years ago, and other AFC East teams quickly followed suit. The idea was to collapse the pocket in front of Marino with extra pass rushers or stunts in order to get pressure in his face. This affected Marino's throws and his body position. The key is defenses could do this without fear of Marino breaking containment on the edge of the defense. Marino subsequently couldn't find throwing lanes. He had 16 passes tipped at the line of scrimmage last season, the third highest total in the NFL.

The next step for defenses was to show one coverage pre-snap, and then roll into another coverage after the snap. With the extra pressure in Marino's face from inside blitzers, Marino couldn't see the coverage changing. That helps explain some of those baffling passes.

His immobility also presented problems in the running game. Marino was the worst play-action quarterback in the league. He could barely get his body to the point of the play fake at times. He couldn't hand off or play fake to his left because he couldn't push off on his bad leg. When the Dolphins were on the left hash mark, it was a major problem.

The quarterback sneak was not an option. If the Dolphins had six inches to go, they had to hand the ball backward five yards to a running back.

Without being able to do basic things like play fake with any degree of believability, roll out and move the pocket, Marino wasn't helping his receivers get open. And that made it more difficult for him to complete passes.

Marino's arm wasn't what it once was, either. One of the qualifies that had made him special was his ability to throw into tight spaces. His mind told him he still had that ability, but his arm disagreed. Marino no longer could "dot the i." When he threw to a receiver who was covered last year, the result was often an interception or near interception. He couldn't throw the deep ball as well as he once did, which was another reason Marino would have been a bad match for Randy Moss and Co.

There also was an attrition factor evident in Marino's play as games went on and as the season went on. On his first 10 attempts of each game, Marino completed, on average, 61.2 percent of his passes. After his first 30 attempts in each game, he completed only 45.7 percent.

At 38, Marino couldn't be counted on to stay healthy for an entire season anymore. Especially if he were playing on artificial turf, and behind a suspect offensive line with two new starters, as he would have had he joined the Vikings.