Presented by CITIZENS AGAINST POACHING.
This Day In Sports…October 23, 1988:
Dan Marino has the biggest day of his NFL career, but it comes in a loss for the Miami Dolphins. When the New York Jets went up 30-10 at halftime, the Dolphins were forced to go to the air. Marino threw for 521 yards—second in NFL history at the time to Norm Van Brocklin’s 554 yards in 1951 and the seventh-most now—and three touchdowns. But Marino was also picked off five times in a 44-30 Miami loss. Without the picks, the Dolphins probably win.
Marino is 10th on the NFL list for career passing yards with 61,361, and seven of those ahead of him won at least one Super Bowl.Aye, there’s the rub. Marino went 147-93 in 17 seasons as the Dolphins’ starting quarterback, but he never won a Super Bowl. In fact, he only played in one. In 1984, his second NFL season, Marino threw for 5,084 yards, a record at the time, with 48 touchdown passes and four 400-yard games. He’d lead Miami into Super Bowl XIX against the San Francisco 49ers, but the Dolphins fell 38-16.
Matt Ryan and Phillip Rivers are the two players ahead of Marino on the career passing list without Super Bowl victories. Ryan played in one, too, but he’s best-known for “28-3”, the lead the Atlanta Falcons had against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI before blowing it. And Rivers never made the big one. So Marino is considered by most to be the best quarterback to never win a Super Bowl.
Marino, who played college football at Pittsburgh, was the last quarterback taken in the famed NFL Draft QB class in 1983 (behind John Elway, Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason and Ken O’Brien). Only Elway would have a career that compared to that of Marino. He was ahead of his time as a QB, and he was successful, leading Miami to the postseason 10 times. His single-season record stood for 27 years until Drew Brees and Tom Brady both surpassed it in 2011, and he was a clear-cut Hall of Famer. But he remains the winningest quarterback without a Super Bowl title.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
