ALUMNI WEEKEND PARTY

Wynwood Walls, venue to some of the world’s greatest artists working in the graffiti and street art genre, hosted the 2018 Miami Dolphins Alumni Weekend Party, and Dol-Fan UK were proud and privileged to cover an evening of festivities, which included a live and silent auction.

Six new inductees to the Joe Robbie Alumni Plaza Walk Of Fame – Dick Anderson, Mark Clayton, Mark Duper, Jon Giesler, John Offerdahl and Jason Taylor – were also recognised in advance of their induction prior to the game against the Buffalo Bills the following day.

Guests at the event included Dolphins legends, Dan Marino, Larry Csonka, Richmond Webb, AJ Duhe, OJ McDuffie and many more. 

Upon arrival at the event, we were able to catch up with former Dolphin Nat Moore, Senior Vice President of special project and alumni relations, who explained the rationale behind the selection of the six inductees: “First and foremost, when you look at the Walk of Fame in Joe Robbie Plaza, all of the Hall of Famers are in, except Jason Taylor, so that was a no brainer. Dick Anderson was part of the ’72 team and second on the all time list of interceptions with the Dolphins. Then the Marks Brothers – Dan said he made them, they say they made Dan. Johnny Offerdahl was a perennial Pro Bowler, and finally Jon Giesler who protected Dan from getting sacked for all those years. All the guys are very deserving.”

The aforementioned Giesler spent 15 years as part of the offensive line protecting Dan, and told Dol-Fan UK it was “A great honour” to be selected although cheekily adding “Every guy on that line would be deserving of a place, even if Dan chewed us out when he was sacked!”

Once the formalities of organised interviews were over, the gathered media were invited to mingle with guests and meet other members of the alumni. Legendary offensive tackle Richmond Webb – who must surely be a member of the Walk of Fame in the not too distant future, Terry Kirby and AJ Duhe were all happy to reminisce about their career with the Dolphins and share their thoughts on the current team.

After the obligatory alumni group photo’s were taken, Joe Rose, colour commentator on the Dolphins radio broadcast, offered his take exclusively to Dol-Fan UK on the current Dolphins team. “It’s got frustrating. It’s time to figure things out, from the top down, and we gotta come up with a new game plan because this ones not working.” Even Ryan Tannehill came in for criticism with Joe suggesting “A re-evaluation of the Quarterback situation is needed along with the approach to free agency.”

“We have got a handful of great players, Kenyan Drake, Xavien Howard and Laremy Tunsil but we got to go back and look at a lot of things, we gotta change a lot of things.” Strong words from Joe, who then proceeded to host a live auction for a Dolphins related painting and Super Bowl tickets amongst other items.

The final part of the event centred around the new Walk of Fame class, with each inductee given the opportunity to say a few words, or in the case of John Offerdahl, sing the Miami Dolphins Fight Song with a little help from Dan! All six of the Class were very articulate when addressing the crowd, with Jason Taylor in particular displaying a sense of humour and the ability to command an audience, in pretty much the same way he dominated offensive lines throughout his career. 

Overall, it was a great event to cover with so many alumni present from different generations, but six guys in particular were there who fully deserved the recognition and honours they were about to receive the following afternoon.