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Pilates and Paintball Didn’t Fix the Dolphins’ Culture

Originally posted on Dolphins Talk | By Mike Oliva | Last updated Oct 14, 2025 10:52 PM ET

Pilates and Paintball Didn’t Fix the Dolphins’ Culture

All offseason, the Miami Dolphins organization and numerous players emphasized how they were working to fix the team’s culture.

They didn’t want to be just 53 individuals this season; they wanted to bond and be a team this year.

We heard stories through various media appearances about position groups going out and playing paintball together, and other position groups doing pilates together.

Steak dinners were a big one for another position group this offseason, where they would go out and enjoy a nice meal together.

But it appears all the paintball games, pilates, and expensive dinners in the world did nothing to fix the fractured Miami Dolphins culture.

I’ve said it numerous times on our DolphinsTalk Podcast: to me, all this talk about fixing the culture seems a bit much.

It was over the top, and it seemed forced.

It seemed as though the players had been given talking points to emphasize fixing the culture in all their media appearances.

Oh, I’m not saying the paintball games, pilates, and dinners didn’t happen; they did, and I am sure everyone put in a good effort with this.

But you can’t force this type of stuff.

Either you have a close-knit locker room with a good culture, or you don’t.

Miami didn’t, and there was/is no fixing that.

What is “CULTURE” anyway?

I have always found this term to be nonsense that bad teams try to sell to their fans when they’re not winning.

You rarely hear about good teams discussing their culture.

Only the bad teams that consistently lose, the head coach can say, “Yeah, we lost, but we are building a culture here for long-term success,” or some BS line like that.

Culture is fake

Good Culture = Winning

Bad Culture = Losing

And now we hear the Dolphins’ highest-paid player, a leader and team captain, Tua Tagovailoa, publicly discuss that players are either missing or showing up late for players-only meetings.

We are just a week or so into October, and the Dolphins’ culture seems worse this year than it was last year.

Guessing the paintball and pilates didn’t really solve that issue.

The NFL is a simple sport when you get down to the bare bones of it.

It’s a results-oriented business.

And when your organization is a losing one, you will bring up everything under the sun to not talk about why you’re losing games.

Culture has become the new buzzword in the NFL over the past few years, something coaches and players often run to.

If you want a winning organization in the NFL, you need two things.

Strong Leadership at Head Coach
Strong Leadership at Quarterback

And the head coach and quarterback need to be on the same page, almost like synchronized swimmers, where they can practically read each other’s minds.

This is where the Dolphins have been lacking since the days of Don Shula and Dan Marino.

Yes, for some 30 or so years, the Dolphins organization has kept screwing up the Head Coach and Quarterback connection.

Until it is fixed, this organization is spinning its wheels in the mud.

So the next time we hear players talk about doing team dinners, or going to play paintball together, or taking a pilates class, know it means nothing in the big picture.

And its jut the latest buzzword to distract you from the real story, that they are losing games and have no answers as to why.

This article first appeared on Dolphins Talk and was syndicated with permission.

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