I have talked to keith sims(autograph session), jason taylor(mall), Dan Marino(golf course). can't think of any others right now.
Had a super deep conversation with Ronnie Brown in the hotel lobby of the Westin in downtown Denver in 2008. Me: Good luck today, Ronnie! Ronnie: Thanks! That's all I got. Sadly, the most interesting real life encounter I've had with any NFL personality was Tom Donahoe, former GM of the Buffalo Bills. My old finance professor knew him and had him teach us a class on the NFL salary cap. It was fascinating. I learned a lot, most of which I've all forgotten. The funny part of the story was I showed up to class a couple minutes late and as I walked in my professor called me out as being a Dolphins fan which got a rise out of Tom but he was cool about it.
I talked to Dave Wannstedt and I asked him why he drafted Eddie Moore and he told me he was the best player available and he had comical value of tripping out . I asked Dave who was the best olineman and he said without a doubt it was Tim Ruddy . he also said from a standpoint that Jay Fiedler gave us the best chance to win. I also asked Jason Taylor hey man where did you get those two knots on the front of the forehead and Jason said McMichael put those knots on his head . kiddng on all above.
Used to go to TC as a kid and met a lot of badasses like JT and zach. I met met sparano at a hotel but the douche wouldn't talk football. Ricky was by far the coolest dolphin I've met as he'll actually talk football and won't rush off. And, he's still driving that old jeep which is pretty badass.
Yes,players coaches etc..i will gurantee if i make the roster as first Rb ever u guys can visit me and got Dinner
I ran into Larry Czonka at Katmai National Park in Alaska. I was there to photograph the Alaskan Coastal Brown bears and he was filming his TV show. Really nice guy...really BIG guy too.
When I was a kid, I played flag football with Mark Duper's kid. This was probably the mid 90's after he retired, and not the kid he got arrested for beating. I don't remember much about him, he wasn't there all the time. There was a kids vs. adults mixed game and my dad tackled Mark Duper and was very excited about it. I saw Jared Odrick at Zona Fresca in Ft. Lauderdale like a year ago. He was picking up food and I just waved, I don't think anyone else recognized him.
The only Dolphin great I've ever met and talked to was Paul Warfield. Very nice guy. I also have met Jason Taylor, Jed Weaver, Troy Drayton, and Rob Konrad. All were pretty nice; Weaver was the only one that I ever talked to at length. Nice guy, but you could tell he's taken some shots to the head. Weaver talked a lot about that wild-card game against Indy where Lamar Smith went off for 200+. Said the team was just shot physically after that game. Working with Anthony Munoz we used to bring in a bunch of HOF players for one of our events. While there I met Gale Sayers, Leroy Kelly, Paul Hornung, Charley Taylor, Paul Krause, Steve Largent, Oscar Robertson (NBA), and Johnny Bench (MLB). That was pretty cool. The highlight for me was Gale Sayers in a landslide.
I know for a fact one of the members here ran a route against Chris Clemons when he bumped into him at Costco. I believe paper towel was used as the football.
Brian Cox. He was late to the scheduled signing session. I was a kid and it was at the blockbuster in Royal Palm Beach, FL.
I grew up in the same town as Jim Kick did and my Dad use to drink with him and Czonka at the local American Legion. I met both of them a bunch of times but I was very young. When your 7 those guys seem like giants. I also met Bohkamper at his restaurant outside the stadium. He was a class act. I dont live in the area and was there on work so I stopped in for a burger just because. I bought a couple of his baseball caps from my waitress for me and my dad. Instead of my waitress coming back with them, he did. He sat at my table and we chewed the fat for a good fifteen minutes and then he signed my caps for me. Super nice guy and very down to earth.
Some years back, I was with a number of fans gathered behind the endzone while they were out here practicing at UCSD campus before a Charger game. The offense was working on redzone stuff, so they were not far away, and a couple players walked up and were talking to us, think one was Lamar Thomas. Marino was leaning against the goal post, facing away from us, watching the coaches. A couple fans called out, "Hi Dan!" from behind the cheesy plastic fencing, but he never turned around. He actually kinda moved further around the thick, padded goal post, opposite from where they were, so they couldn't see him.
I met Dan Marino 2x. A friend that my mom grew up with used to live in the same development where he lived. Got to meet him briefly there..i forget how that happened...it was about 15-20 years ago. The 2nd time I met him I walked down to the CBS pregame show about 4-5 years ago that was hosted Uptown in NYC (I think it was by 66th and Lexington if youre ever in NYC) and showed up in a Marino jersey (of course) in front of a bunch of gross Jet fans haha. Obviously living in NY I met more Jets and Giants. Some were real cool like Johnny Hector and Wesley Walker. Some were real pricks like Shaun Ellis.
I remember this, and if I remember correctly, It was a "toy mouse" or a dog toy used as a football (..lol). And unfortunately I'm 99.9% sure it got debunked as 100% BS
The coolest was probably Kim Bokamper to be honest. Marino's cool and all but sometimes he's a bit grouchy. I was at Bokamper's with Volin and we sat down at a table by the bar. Then Bokamper comes and sits at the corner table right next to us by himself. Bo saw us and had the waitress get us some drinks on the house. We thanked him and then the three of us just shot the sh-t about the Dolphins woes for the next half hour or so. I met Zach once but not for very long. Just long enough to realize he's pretty much the nicest guy you could ever meet. My buddy Vin has some great stories bumping into Richie Incognito and Brian Hartline. He actually bumped into Hartline the night Brian proposed to his fiancee (did they get married yet?). They bumped into each other before the proposal and again after, and Brian had her show off the ring to them and everything.
No Dolphins stories for me, but Sam Cowart (Bills training camp 2000?) wouldn't let it go that I accidently had him sign my guide twice. Luckily one of my cats pissed on it shortly after so I got the last laugh. Sammy Morris was really nice about butchering a card of mine trying to sign it though.
I think you set a record. I've never seen anyone misspell the names of 3 Dolphins players all in one post before.
I grew up with Manny Fernandez as my neighbor, so I met several legends from the 72 team before I even knew who Manny was. He had huge parties for the neighborhood kids and i went to most of them. Unfortunately though, I was a kid and they were adults...so i have no idea who was who. My dad said he had a beer with Czonka at Manny's house though, and I was there swimming in the pool....so I'm counting it. I've met Dan Marino dozens of times through a friend, and I drove him home once. That's a long story though and I'll save it for another time. If any of you still live in S Fa, shop at the Publix on Weston and 595...you'll see Marino in there several times per week. I beat Zach Thomas in pool at the Davie Ale House in his rookie year, and he was so drunk he wanted to fight me. JT and another defensive lineman pulled him out of there before he got arrested, and unfortunately I didn't recognize either of them at the time. my friend told me afterwards...you almost got into a fight with Zach Thomas! I was like, well s*#t, if I knew that I would have egged him on and let him beat my ***! I've casually met Shula in passing a few times, but he also cussed me out once (well, he cussed out my friend, an autograph hound). That's another long story though. Oh, I've met both Duper and Clayton...they came to my church for a charity drive when I was a teen and played a pickup game with us. They were both super nice, but this was also at the end of their career. Oh, one more...I went to school with Autry Denson, so that's a Dolphin I know too.
Met Nat Moore when we played the Giants in London. Spent a decent amount of time chatting to him, he was surprised how much people in the UK knew about the NFL and the Dolphins. Really nice guy to chat to
american bowl denver vs miami at berlin, we had a training session with the dolphins, when I was still playing and I talked to scott secules, mark clayton and some other guys i can´t remember also when i was in london for the giants @ dolphins game, i talked to john beck, samson satele and john denney
My ex gf dealt craps to JT the night before a BUF game in 2010. She didn't know who he was until afterwards. A lot of my family has met Jim Kelly, whom they said was as cool as you'd expect. A few of them have met Steve Tasker and apparently he's a complete tool. I have a friend who worked for the Bills PR for a few years and he's got some funny lockerroom stories. The best of which involves Willis McGahee walking around naked and accusing an intern of being a, "meat-gazer." Somehow it managed to not be an E!SPN scandal.
I met Joe Rose and a number of other guys at a scrimiage game in Atlanta. It's been so long ago. And I have autographs from some of them. but there in a picture frame under another picture.(and I can't remember which one it is) I have Duper"s autograph from a basketball game at GA. Tech. He was so nice. And there was a QB their, but he got hurt in a pre-season game and never played again. I got a good picture of Shula from the Pre-season game in Atl.
Don't know if you would call him a "great" but I met Vonnie Holiday in 2003. At the time he was playing for the Kansas City Chiefs and he came in to lay out his new Condo with me. At the time he brought his girlfriend. I cant remember her name but they were supposed to get married. My company that I owned did the electrical work. He had us do a ton of extra stuff for low voltage wiring and plasma theater, whole house audio, theater etc. I remember asking him about stuff and he asked me what was my favorite team. I told him the dolphins and showed him my necklace. He laughed and made a comment about I should like a real team like Kansas City, funny part was less then 6 months later he signed a two yr deal with a million dollar signing bonus with none other then the Miami Dolphins.....lol. He never paid us for all the extra wiring either
I've met Ronnie Brown, Channing Crowder, Randy McMichael and Dan Marino all at the restaurant I used to work at. They were all really nice guys. Randy came in the night before we played the pats and he side tipped me $80 bucks for taking his food to his car. I said to him you guys better whoop up on the pats tomorrow and he responded "that's the game plan". We ended up winning that day because of me lol and he scored. I posted it on here a while back when all the Hartline contract talk was going on but I met him on New Years 2 years ago and he was extremely nice. Went out of his way to introduce me to his girl and the people he was with, I told him I hope he gets resigned and asked him a few random dolphin questions. He seemed surprised someone knew who he was, great guy. Also Cam Wake stayed at the same hotel as me that new years night, saw him getting into his jaguar I think it was when we were leaving, I screamed CAMMMM like a school girl from the car haha. Dan was always kind of a jerk when he came in.
I talked with: Bokamper/Mandich when they were doing a pre game on 560? I think... I met and spoke with Zach (cool as sh**), Wanny, Ruddy (very intelligent guy) and Brock Marion ( he had to go, was hitting on the white chicks) Met and spoke with Earl Morrall. (asked him why Shula didn't start him instead of Griese in the SB) Talked with Konrad (he still can't block) Ran into O.G. on 2 occasions. (he bumped into me at the Walmart around the corner from the stdium before a game) and the other was a meet and greet thing. My wife talked to Marino as I was looking for HER in Coconut Grove at a function.Long story, but he wouldn't sign autographs because of a clause in his contract. Met Jim Kelly though, and he signed the football I had and posed for pics too. I'm pissed at Dan still and Jim had nothing to do with this function, go figure. Said Hi to Joe Rose. Spoke with Keith Simms (cool friggin' guy) Had a brief encounter with Ricky Williams.He signed a poster I had and looked at it first asking me where it came from? I told him I wasn't sure, but he signed it with hesitation and looked back at me with red eyes. (ya' know what I'm saying) and smiled. It was a good evening in South Beach.... My encounters aren't like most and I forgot some, but at least I remembered a few.
