Dansby Talks about being overweight.along with other players..

The criticism could be applied to many teams. The Steelers looked awful defensively for the first few weeks.

These guys worked out, but the intensity was nowhere near what it should have been. Add in the fact that they were being locked out by the owners, which I don't think helped motivate the players. You certainly would prefer to have a team full of guys that are more self-motivated, but keep in mind that 99% of the people here would take Dez Bryant over Jared Odrick.

 

This is the main reason for us having such a terrible waste of a year we faded in the 2nd half 7 straight weeks due to our team not being in football shape.

 

I agree. And it's not like these guys don't have training programs in place. Every offseason, as it whe I played baseball, as it is for every sport, your given an offseason program to abide by. Worst part of it is, most of these defensive players are not only veterans, but have been in the Dolphins program for 3+ years, so it's not like they don't have an outline or idea to go by.

And you're right, Stringer. Nomdoubt the intensity was lessened and the fact they were locked out by the owners had a psychological effect.

 

If I recall, the Pats were not out of shape, and the disparity of conditioning between our teams was made clearly evident in the season opener. Key to their game plan, it was clearly exploited, and culpable in a lopsided crushing, that ultimately propelled this team, and much of its shellshocked audience, on a wayward heading for last place.

 

I'm not sure how any GM is going to draft a team of nutritionists who can also play football well.

 

This almost belongs in PoFo, but here it is. When the union bargains for cutting down on offseason conditioning, it degrades the product that the fans pay to see. This is an example of how the union movement is wrecking American industry as a competitive force. Those who are willing to work harder than others win the championships, in sports and in all lines of work. For the money the teams pay these players, the teams should be entitled to force the players to be and stay in football shape year-round, like it or not. Relying on the players to discipline themselves is bad business, and when these guys are making a minimum salary of $375,000 a year, the ability to impose discipline is not too much for the team to ask. This team should hire Shula as Special Coach for Discipline.

 

The unions fault?Players show up out of shape and it's the unions fault?Sorry I can't blame them.

 

I agree. The players are grown men. They know damn well what type of shape they need to be in to play at an NFL level. Even if the intensity isn't there, they could've been a lot closer to being in shape than they were.

Personal responsibility, how does it work?

 

If other teams can do it, then why can't we?

I'd agree this is a silly argument if every team was having these issues, but it's not every team. The majority of teams were ready to play football, lockout or not. This team was not. That's facts.

It's pretty clear to me that the lockout isn't the only thing at fault here. It only served to make more apparent an existing problem.

 

we were destined to have a wasted year once ross decided to retain the fist pumping cheerleader.

 

I don't know about enforcement etc, but I do know if I were being paid $375,000 or more per year to play a game, I'd be in shape every minute of every day 7/365 and I would be making sure I was getting STRONGER and in BETTER shape every day.

Look at superstars like Jerry rice, not the fastest or biggest, but the BEST receiver to ever play the game, so far. Why? He was fanatical about working on his conditioning and his game shape as well as study, 24/7/365.

 

I don't know if the Patriots were truly in shape, but I do know that Belichick knew other teams wouldn't be. What their offense did to us that first week they tested out on teams like Tampa in pre-season, wearing them out with an up-tempo style of offense that was pretty effective early on in the season. I think part of the reason you're starting to see New England not be quite as prolific on offense now is that defenses have been getting their legs back under them.

 

It's easy to say that from the outside looking in... just saying.

 

This is pretty much how I see it pretty well said It's there job to be in tip top condition there is a reason players get cut when they show up in terrible shape. Then they complain fans don't fill the stadium why should fans come pay to watch players who are not giving it 100% all year round play like the stars your supposed to be and the stadium will be filled. Also not trying to say every one on the dolphins is like this but we have faded pretty bad in the 2nd half of games this year so I'm sure its pretty wide spread.

 

Not the point. Of course the players should be responsible. But many are not. People vary in their desire to work. An employer should be able to force them all to work out to the same minimum level by requiring attendance at an offseason conditioning program. The union negotiates a 50% decrease in the duration of the program, thus leaving it to the players individually to get themselves in shape. The employer can no longer force them. It is clearly the union's fault that the team can no longer force players to attend the program for a sufficient length of time to guarantee that the players will be in shape by the time the season starts.

 

If we draft nutritionists, we're double screwed. Nutritionists are a pseudo-scientific lot. They're not even protected in most states legally because there aren't standards that 'Nutritionists' must adhere to. Dietitians are what we'd like to hire.

 

good workout shape and game shape is different. anyone who has actually played a sport at a high level knows this, denying that the lockout had an effect, two a days and hitting in practice, is ignorant.

 

And exactly none of that mattered because the players were all locked out, and no communication could occur between the team and players. At that point in time, it is 100% the player responsibility to get themselves in shape. They can blame the union, or coaches, or whatever they want, but ultimately it is up to them.

 

There is no way for players to replicate the physicality of a game on their own. The only thing that comes close is two-a-days in pads.

 

Their defense was absolutely out of shape.

 

Just finished reading a really good article about nutrition/diet in the Sports Illustrated with Aaron Rodgers and his receivers on the cover , think it was dated Nov. 7 , you would quite like it I think , have a read if you can.

 

You still miss the point. It is going to matter in every post-lockout season. We are going to see more players arriving out of shape in the future because of what the NFLPA was able to "accomplish." the point is not whether the players are personally responsible for their condition. They are. Regardless, what has been taken away from the teams is the ability to prevent irresponsibility on the part of individual players. See now?

 

DJ...is this really a surprise to you ?? That young, well-to-do men with time on their hands didn't think past the issue of the lockout and keeping themselves in shape to play football ?? I agree that they shouldn't have to be 'reminded' how to take care of themselves, but it's not really any kind of surprise that many showed up out of shape and ended up playing themselves into shape... Look at all the tissue type injuries...it has to be a result of guys, not just here but across the NFL, not conditioning correctly to play the game for real. Add to this, the fact that the UDFAs and FAs simply didn't have the conditioning program for each particular team and joined the team late in the process and you have a mess, which this entire NFL season has been....it's not really any kind of surprise. We all knew that the more established teams would have the advantage and that's held true, save for perhaps the Indy Dolts and the loss of Manning....

 

Your body changes as years pass and so does the way you have to take care of it. The way an athlete took care of his body in college is not relevant to the way he will have to learn to do it when he is 30 and older. It sounds like you want to turn football into the military with weight and PT standards. I'm envisioning Miami Dolphins players hooked up to elaborate networks of machines while running on treadmills and punching things, like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. Maybe the conditioning problem was worse for the Dolphins but I don't think they're the only ones that have dealt with it.

 

No **** they were out of shape, anyone remember Cam Wake sucking wind like there was no tomorrow week 1?

 

Or one can think "Well I have already been paid, why work much harder?".

 

Point is there are different types of shape and train year round, is not that easy to do. I will say you would think they'd hire a professional trainer and nutritionist but whose to say they didn't and still failed?

 

One thing to remember is the first week of football broke the record for the most passing yards in a weekend and after the first six games there were around six quarterbacks on pace to break or even shatter Marino's record.

 

People act like these athletes aren't human beings. Dansby says he thought he was eating alright but found out later he was wrong. This is probably a result of his metabolism slowing. I'm sure what he was eating was alright when he was in college or even three or four years ago. It's not like Karlos Dansby came into camp as some big slob. I'm sure he worked out a lot during the summer. He just wasn't quite fully prepared for football which is something you could say about a ton of NFL players early this season. Why did it add up to so many losses? Because this team doesn't have the margin for error that a Green Bay or New England has. Why would you need a contract that says 'you can only be a Miami Dolphin if you have X percentage of body fat and do this, that, and the other'? Players that consistently don't cut it will be cut anyway. Nobody is going to sign some contract that dictates what they eat and what their body has to be like. I compared it to the military earlier but that's not being fair. The military is not even that restrictive.