In the $6Billion business that is the NFL, there is very little room for patience.  As veteran players get older and new, young players get richer, the pressure to produce a winning product grows greater and greater with each passing season.  This is clearly evidenced by the now routine coaching carousel that consumes TV network analysts and web bloggers alike.  Win and you're in.  Lose and get lost.

 

So it’s with a sense of pleasant surprise the Miami Dolphins chose the path of patience – also known as rebuilding – and came to terms with Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long to make him the number one pick in this weekend’s draft.  Sure, there aren’t many sexy picks in this year’s selection as there have been in recent years, but the temptation is always there to go with the big name or rising star with the number one overall pick.

 

By any account, Jake Long is not the best player in this draft.  Hands down, Darren McFadden is the best athlete of the crop, if not the best player, and Matt Ryan is clearly the top QB of the bunch.  Glen Dorsey or Chris Long would make great additions to a stellar yet aging Dolphins defense.  Instead, Team President Bill Parcells, General Manager Jeff Ireland and Head Coach Tony Sparano decided to lay the foundation for what they hope will be an offense that is able to score more than just 17 points per game (26th overall in the NFL in 2007).

 

By selecting Long, the Dolphins are showing they’re committed to fixing their offensive problems long term.  More importantly, Long’s selection at left tackle grants the Fins some flexibility to shift players along the O-Line, and provides second-year quarterback John Beck with an added sense of security that he won’t get killed from his blind side.

 

The early signing also has other GM’s around the league smiling, knowing the spending ceiling has now been set by the Dolphins.  Long’s 5-year, $57.75 million contract ($30 million of which is guaranteed) is extraordinary when you consider his per year average is about $200k more than last year’s number one overall pick Jamarcus Russell.  True, Russell held out with the Raiders and most likely settled for his contract in order to sign and obtain some playing time in 2007.  Nevertheless, Russell is a 6’6”, 255lb franchise-type quarterback capable of throwing the ball 60 yards from his knees.  Long is simply a good, solid player and there’s no way to compare the overall value of an offensive lineman unless his name is Jim Langer, Larry Little or Dwight Stephenson.

 

I hope my fellow DolFans will show the same patience this year as the organization appears to be showing now.  There is no realistic expectation of a winning season for Miami in 2008, especially when you consider that 2-14 would be a 100% improvement from last year.  That being said, the only thing to do is wait and watch as Parcells and his disciples put together building block after building block and restore a tradition of winning to South Florida. 

In a perfect world, I would write everyday.  Instead, work, kids and life in general usually leaves me too tired to do anything else other than lay in bed and watch SportsCenter.  The following blog I wrote by hand while killing time during jury duty back in March.  I finally got around to transcribing it into my laptop and publishing it to my site.  I hope you enjoy. 

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It’s no secret I aspire to be a writer.  I guess you can say that in my own very amateur way I already am.  Still, I fantasize about one day paying the bills with the advance check from a publisher and then grumbling about yet another book signing event at Starbucks.  Until that day comes, however, I will continue to write my blogs and hone my style by reading the works of the many writers I admire and whose work I thoroughly enjoy.

 

At the top of that list is Mitch Albom.  What’s interesting is I became familiar with Albom through his appearances on ESPN’s The Sports Reporters.  As a sportswriter for the Detroit Free Press, Albom is a frequent guest (think ‘The View’ but for guys), and I have always been captivated by Albom’s ‘parting shot’ on the show – a 30 second editorial on a current event or a sports-related situation. So you can imagine my surprise when one day many years ago I was watching television and saw an advertisement for the made-for-TV movie “Tuesday’s With Morrie.”  The commercial said, “Based on the book by Mitch Albom” and I thought to myself, “Hmmmmm……he writes books, too?”

 

I will admit I have yet to read that novel, and the book is on my to-read list.  I did, however, read Albom’s “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and I can honestly tell you that my perspective on life – and death – is completely different as a result.  Perhaps it’s because I read it in the last months of my father’s life.  Perhaps it’s because I found so much comfort in the message of Albom’s story, especially when I applied it to my father’s passing and the wonderment of who are my father’s 5 people. Either way, I rank the book towards the top of my list of all-time favorite books.

 

So as I sit here for jury duty, writing this blog on the back of crossword puzzle sheets, I feel inspired to write as a result of Albom’s latest book “For One More Day.”  I have only gotten 40 pages into the book, yet I had to put it down and write.  The book is written in first person from the perspective of the main character, and it centers on the relationship this character had with his mother.  Even though I’ve only read 1/5 of the book, I know I am going to enjoy it and it’s going to leave me in tears.

 

I shift to the thought of my mother and my relationship with her. I think about how my interactions with her are nothing like the ones I had with my father, and I know they never will be.  I can’t explain why, except perhaps to steal a line from Albom’s book   “You can be a mamma’s boy or a daddy’s boy, but you can’t be both.”  There’s no doubt I was a daddy’s boy growing up.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved my mother during my childhood and I love her still.  Yet, if I had to spend a day with one of my two parents, I would hope it was with my dad.

 

Now I sit here more than three years removed from my father’s passing and over 300 miles removed from my mom.  I try to call her once a week, but I know I don’t make it a priority.  When we do speak, I know what to say, or more importantly, what not to say lest I get a ten minute earful of Readers’ Digest inspired advice or criticism.  The in-depth and fulfilling conversations with my mom are the exception to the norm, and I wish deep down inside this was different. 

 

My mother is a wonderful woman.  She is the most giving person I know, always picking up knick-knacks and such for other people.  I can’t visit her in Miami without coming back with toys for my kids or other miscellaneous items for Lee.  My mom always has something for me as well, usually a commemorative issue of the Miami Herald focusing on the Dolphins, Hurricanes or some other South Florida sporting event.  She’s humble, she’s devout, and she’s always concerned about my well being: I would say to a fault, she would say until the day she dies.

 

This gets me to thinking that unlike when I was a kid, my mom being there is not something that will last forever.  I know that one day I will be at her memorial service wishing I had more time and longing ‘for one more day’.  I will run through a list of regrets, of moments taken for granted and conversations deemed burdensome by me.  Writing a book, getting published, and making a living as a writer is a dream with many aspects of it beyond my control.  Making time to build and strengthen what I have with my mom, by contrast, is something so very easy for me to achieve.  And I know it will be more rewarding than any residual check can ever be.