Dan Marino Just Can't Quit Football

One of the best quarterbacks in football history, Marino put up ridiculous numbers in his era, and still ranks in the top 10 in NFL history in both passing yards and touchdown passes. A nine-time Pro Bowler, Marino won NFL MVP, Comeback Player of the Year, Walter Payton Man of the Year, and a long list of other honors that would make a CVS receipt envious.

Marino carved up opposing defenses for 17 seasons in the NFL, all of them with the Dolphins. But when speaking about today's pro game, it's impossible to ignore that Marino might be just a little jealous of the changes that have made life a bit easier for modern-day quarterbacks in the league.

"The game has changed, as far as hitting the quarterback, how they treat the receivers down the field," Marino says. "The game is made now to score points, and to throw for a lot of yards."

"I think I could still do pretty good, if I could still play."

A first-team All-American at the University of Pittsburgh in 1981, Marino was a member of the legendary QB class in the 1983 NFL Draft, which featured a trio of first-round Hall of Famers at the position (Marino, John Elway, Jim Kelly). Marino was a dominant player throughout his career, but these days, he's more interested in banging the drum for some of his teammates that haven't gotten the credit he believes they deserve.

"Mark Clayton should be in the Hall of Fame," Marino asserts, bringing up one of his favorite targets from his incredible run in Miami. "He’s not underrated, because everyone remembers him and understands what he did. But he doesn’t get the notoriety that he should when it comes to being a player who gets into the Hall of Fame."

Richmond Webb, Marino's left tackle for much of his time with the Dolphins, made the cut for the 25 semifinalists for this year's Pro Football Hall of Fame class, and his old quarterback hopes that his gold jacket is finally coming soon.

"He was a terrific, terrific left tackle," Marino says. "He had to deal with Bruce Smith 15, maybe 17 times in his career, and he did a pretty good job. I don’t think he gave up a lot of sacks, maybe three, in all of those games. That’s another guy I think people underrate. He’s just an incredible, quality person, quality player, all of those things."

Speaking of Smith, Marino says that's one player he wishes could have been his teammate instead of his constant adversary, along with a few other members of those legendary Buffalo Bills teams of that era.

"When you think back on those years, they were playing pretty well, we were playing well, but we couldn’t get past them," Marino says of the Bills teams that made four straight trips to the Super Bowl. "It was Bruce Smith, Cornelius Bennett, Darryl Talley…there’s an underrated player."

Talley played his college ball at West Virginia, the sworn enemy of Marino's Pitt Panthers. Their rivalry would be renewed throughout their NFL careers in the AFC East, and Marino's respect for him only grew.

"People don’t give him enough credit," Marino says. "I played against him for four years in college, and then twice a year for 15 years in the NFL. Those guys, they were tough to deal with."

Strolling back down memory lane with Marino, he brings up the usual suspects, like the famous "fake spike" touchdown pass against the New York Jets. But there's another touchdown pass that sticks out to him as one of the most meaningful moments of his career.

In Week 1 of the 1994 season, Marino was coming off an Achilles injury that cost him most of the previous year. It was the first major injury of his career, and many wondered how he would fare in his first game back.

He treated the home crowd at Joe Robbie Stadium to a vintage quarterback duel with Drew Bledsoe of the New England Patriots, with Marino throwing for 473 yards and five touchdowns. The last of those five scoring tosses, a 35-yarder to Irving Fryar, came on 4th-and-5 to give the Dolphins a lead they wouldn't relinquish in a 39-35 win.

"Instead of just going for the first down, Irving Fryar and I said to each other, ‘If we get bump-and-run, we’re going deep.’ We hit it on fourth down for a touchdown, and we won the game," Marino recalls. "And coming off that injury, that was one that was really special in my mind, because I missed the whole year before, and I just threw five touchdowns and the game-winner like that. That was pretty cool."

A lifetime lover of the game, Marino does just about everything he can to remain close to every aspect of it, including the fans. He'll be in attendance for the Dolphins' home game in Week 16 against the San Francisco 49ers as part of a partnership with Mountain Dew, handing out "Blue Shock" Slurpees and hanging out with fans prior to the game.

One of the greatest to ever play the position, Marino also has some sage advice for young quarterbacks as they navigate the sport's ever-changing landscape.

"First of all, you’ve gotta love it," Marino says. "It’s gotta be in your blood. You’ve gotta love to practice, you’ve gotta enjoy being on the field and throwing it around, and having fun playing the game. And you’ve gotta be mentally tough, to know there are gonna be ups and downs at times in your career, whether you’re a quarterback, or any football player, or just anyone in life. You’ve gotta get through that, and be positive, and believe in what you want to accomplish."

While he acknowledges that there's a wealth of resources available to the current generation of NFL quarterback hopefuls, he still believes in the importance of some simple training methods that helped lead to his incredible success.

"For quarterbacks in particular, you have to have all the fundamentals," Marino says. "I mean, now they’ve got all these coaches in the offseason, the 7-on-7s. But there’s one thing my dad always told me, which was to jump rope. And if I was a young kid, or I was in high school, I would be jumping rope. Because a quarterback needs to feel very comfortable and quick in a small area, and that helped me so much in my career."

That one simple tip from his dad helped mold Marino into a Hall of Famer from an early age, and he doesn't mind passing along that wisdom to young passers who might end up chasing their own gold jackets someday.

"In that way, my dad was a genius back then," says Marino. "He gave me a leather jump rope, and I carried it around with me, and I used to jump rope everywhere. It gives you that quickness in the pocket that you need to get away from people, but still be in position to throw."