Aerosmith

Ed Asner

Kurt Browning

Trooper

David McCallum

April Wine

Platinum Blonde

Steve Martin

The Golden Bridge

Going Berserk

The Jazz Singer

Larry Crawford

Mr. Dressup

Lloyd Fairbanks

Chilliwack: Staple of the junior high dance

Glass Tiger

Ethan Hawke: Getting his start in the '80s

A life lesson from "Explorers"

Sound of Music

Eleven years of RobVogt80s

Roller skating

 Cadbury Easter cream eggs

First anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth II

Celebrating Star Trek day

Loverboy: The band is hot tonight

Matthew Modine

Doug Flutie: Prelude to super stardom

Doug Flutie playing quarterback with Boston College in the early '80s. He would go on to a hall of fame career in the CFL and a solid NFL career.

Source: https://www.profootballhof.com/news/doug-flutie-from-magic-to-mentor

(May be subject to copyright)

From the minute he saw the miraculous hail mary pass that put him on the national stage, a friend of mine said he would be perfect for the CFL.

Yet, it would take him the rest of the decade before he found his way north of the border.

After college, he would have an up and down experience in two leagues.

Such was the first chapter in the career of Doug Flutie.

Heisman hero
The only information I got on college football was from the news, the odd sports magazine or newspaper and, when I got to high school, my good friend Chris Vining.

It was the Fall of Grade 10 when I heard about the miracle pass. It was on all the sports channels. Doug Flutie, the quarterback for Boston College, had thrown a bomb on the last play of the game. His receiver hauled it in for the winning touchdown to beat the defending national champion Miami Hurricanes.

A few weeks later, he won the Heisman Trophy as the best player in college football.

The media made it seem as if that hail mary pass was the reason he won the Heisman, but that wasn’t the case. Flutie himself has said since, that voting was done before that game. Beyond that, he had the numbers to back him up. When he graduated he was all the all-time leading college passer with 10,579 yards, and was a unanimous All-American his senior year.

The Boston College Eagles were invited to the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day 1985, and that’s the first time I saw Doug Flutie play because CBC aired it on peasant vision. They played the Houston Cougars, and won by a score of 45-28.

I watched the first few minutes, and thought Flutie looked small, but boy could he throw the ball.

That was the first year Channel 13 on the peasant vision dial carried the Fiesta Bowl. The Miami Hurricanes were playing UCLA. Back then I actually liked the Hurricanes because of their quarterback Bernie Kosar, who is still one of my all-time favourites.

Consequently, I tuned in to the Fiesta Bowl, periodically flipping back to the Cotton Bowl during commercials.

Turning pro
The question then was, is Doug Flutie too small for the NFL? As I said, I had a friend who said he was perfect for the CFL, but that was not meant to be – yet.

He signed with the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League in February of 1985, months before the NFL draft. Because he did that, we will never know where he really would have gone in the NFL draft. Instead, the Los Angeles Rams took him in the 11th round, 285th overall.

Flutie became the third straight Heisman Trophy winner to sign with the USFL, after Herschel Walker in 1983, and Mike Rozier in 1984.

Flutie would play 15 of the 18 games in the 1985 season, leading the team to an 11-7 record and second place in the Eastern Conference. They would play the Baltimore Stars in the first round of the playoffs, losing by a score of 20-17. Flutie finished the season going 134 of 281 for 2,109 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions. He also rushed for 465 yards and six touchdowns on 65 carries, for an average of 7.2 yards.

The USFL folded after the 1985, so Doug Flutie was on the move again.

The Windy City
The Los Angeles Rams still held Flutie’s rights, but traded them to the Chicago Bears. They were the defending Super Bowl champions, and needed a quarterback after their starter, and Super Bowl quarterback, Jim McMahon went down with a season-ending injury late in the season.

He played in four games for the Bears, starting one game and winning it. He completed 23 of 46 passes for 361 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He also rushed for 36 yards and one touchdown on nine carries.

The Bears made it to the NFC Divisional Game, where Flutie started, and lost to Washington.

Patriot games
Flutie would appear in one game for the Bears in the strike-shortened 1987 season, before Chicago traded him to the New England Patriots.

He appeared in one game for New England, starting and winning it, while going 15 of 25 for 199 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He also rushed for 43 yards on six carries.

Interestingly, that one start for the Patriots was when he crossed the picket line.

In 1988, the Patriots started 1-3, when Flutie came off the bench to lead New England to a come-from-behind win over my beloved Indianapolis Colts. He then went 6-3 as a starter and the Patriots were on the verge of making the playoffs, when Flutie was unexpectedly replaced by Tony Eason in the team’s regular season finale. New England lost that game and missed the playoffs.

He finished the 1988 season going 92 of 179 for 1,150 yards, eight touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. He rushed for 179 yards and a touchdown on 38 carries.

Flutie was back on the bench for the 1989 season, appearing in five games, starting three, winning one and losing two. He went 36 of 91 for 493 yards, two touchdowns, and four interceptions. He also rushed for 87 yards on 16 carries.

It was around this time that Chris Vining’s brother sent him a present. They were originally from New England, Maine to be exact. So Kevin sent Chris a Patriots shirt, which he wore proudly. In fact, back then Vining’s favourite teams were the Bears and the Patriots – coincidentally the NFL teams Doug Flutie had played for.

However, after the 1989 season, the Patriots released Flutie. No other NFL team showed any interest and, as the decade ended, it appeared his career was nearing its end.

Boy was that wrong.

The years after
Doug Flutie would come north to the CFL, playing two years with B.C, four years with Calgary, and two more with Toronto. He would win three Grey Cups, an incredible six most valuable player awards in eight seasons, and re-write the record book. He still holds the professional football record for most passing yards in a season with 6,619 and the CFL single season record of 48 touchdown passes. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall Of Fame in 2008.

He would also return to the NFL where he was productive in eight seasons with Buffalo, San Diego, and New England.

Parting thoughts
The CFL was always a second chance for American quarterbacks battling perception and preconceived notions. The worst example was the Black quarterback, and how they escaped discrimination and found a second chance in Canada.

Doug Flutie battled preconceived notions of another sort. He was labeled too small to play in the NFL. Even when he had success, it meant nothing and he would be replaced for no good reason in New England. That same thing would happen to him again a decade later in Buffalo. Fittingly, it served both teams right because they lost those games Flutie may well have won for them.

But that didn’t matter. When he came to Canada, he found a game perfectly suited to his skill set and he became a star. In polls of all-time greatest players, which are subjective at best, Flutie has come out on top.

His play was electrifying, innovative and unpredictable. He was so fun to watch.

It would take him awhile, including spending the 1980s in football purgatory, but Doug Flutie became one of the greats.

The Jitters: Red hot fools get closer every day

Today I was writing a story for my newspaper and I typed the word jitters, as in first day of school jitters.

Then I asked myself, do you remember the Jitters? I sure did.

They were a Canadian band in the 1980s and, as I thought about it, memories of red hot fools and Edmonton Oiler goal celebrations came to mind.

Getting foolish
It was in Grade 12, the spring of 1987, when I first heard this really cool song. It had kind of an a cappella sound, but with some accompaniment. It also had this great title – “Last of the Red Hot Fools”.

Every time I heard it on the radio, I tried to wait it out and hear who actually sang it. This is in the days before the Internet and Google and simply typing the name of a song and having the artist pop right up. Back then, the best you could do was find something in the newspaper, or a magazine. Or you could do what my friend Mat did, and call the radio station and plain out ask, “Who sings this song?”

Because “Last of the Red Hot Fools” was their first song, I wasn’t sure I was hearing the name of the band right.

Back then, usually when I was writing or doing home work and I had music on in the background, I would write down the names of the songs and who sang them. After recently hearing a presentation on brain health and memory maintenance, where I heard that writing things down solidifies memories, I am sure that is why I remember so much from the 1980s.

I bring that up, because when I finally heard who sang “Last of the Red Hot Fools”, I wrote down “The Gitters”. I am not sure why, but I did. Not until I researched them for this post did I discover they are actually “The Jitters”.

Not even when another one of their songs gained some prominence.

He scores
During the 1987-1988 NHL playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers were the defending Stanley Cup champions. Since every game of theirs was televised, I saw them a lot.

When they scored a goal at home, this song played that I had heard before but it had been a while, like a year. It turned out to be “Closer Every Day”, and it was by the Jitters.

They rode that song all the way to their fourth Stanley Cup in five seasons.

The Jitters and “Closer Every Day” will always be synonymous with 1987-1988 Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers.

Parting thoughts
Even with the explosion of information available on the Internet, someone still has to post it online. When someone described the Internet as a mile wide and an inch deep, they were exactly right.

I have discovered over he past few years in doing research for this blog, how big gaps remain on sites such as Wikipedia. It is particularly prevalent in Canadian music, where I have Googled several Canadian bands who had success in the 1980s, and Wikipedia had nothing. I had to dig deeper, which is fine because it can lead to other discoveries too.

That happened in the case of The Jitters. There was some information on Wikipedia, but nothing about how they did on the charts. As I dug deeper, I discovered one of The Jitters had his own website, with a complete history of the band.

That is where I learned “Last of the Red Hot Fools” went all the way to number 10 in Canada, and topped some local charts. I also discovered the producer was affiliated with a particular radio station. Consequently, its rival, which had several affiliates, refused to play the song. The Jitters said that may be why it never went number one nationally.

Wikipedia did reveal they were also nominated for a Juno in 1988 for most promising group, losing out to Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts.

Even though, The Jitters may not have achieved international success and stardom, and may be receding into the mists of history, “Last of the Red Hot Fools” and “Closer Every Day” are part of my teenage years.

And I look back fondly on that time, and those songs.

Mixed memories of Jim Kelly

Quarterback Jim Kelly had his greatest success

in the '90s, taking his Buffalo Bills to

four straight Super Bowls, but he got his start in the '80s.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buffalo-Bills

(May be subject to copyright)

He is best remembered for quarterbacking the Buffalo Bills to four straight Super Bowl appearances to start the ‘90s, but in the 1980s Jim Kelly made a pretty clear declaration. Upon hearing he was drafted by the lowly Buffalo Bills in the 1983 NFL Draft he said, “I will never play for the Buffalo Bills”.

It would take some time, and a circuitous journey through pro football but, before the end of the ‘80s, Jim Kelly had in fact joined the Bills. He then proceeded to put the franchise in a position to achieve the success it did.

I recently watched the “A Football Life” of Jim Kelly, and it reminded me of a time when I actually rooted for him, and why I stopped.

Quarterback U
It wasn’t really until I saw his picture in a Miami Hurricane uniform in a football periodical, that I learned Jim Kelly played his college football there.

When he arrived at Coral Gables there was not much of a program. However, he would turn it around, paving the way for all those quarterbacks to follow – Bernie Kosar; Vinny Testaverde; Steve Walsh; Craig Erickson: Gino Torretta – the ones who gave Miami the nickname “Quarterback U”.

Kelly's first season was 1979 and went as expected for the lowly Hurricanes, who finished with a 5-6 record. The turn around would start the next year, as the Hurricanes went 9-3 in the 1980 season, including a trip to the Peach Bowl where they defeated the Virginia Tech Gobblers, who are now the Hokies, by a score of 20-10. Kelly was named the offensive most valuable player of that game.

The Hurricanes would finish with a 9-2 record in 1981 and a 7-4 record in 1982, but fail to get an invitation to another bowl game, which was much more difficult back then.

Kelly entered the 1983 NFL Draft hoping he would not be selected by a team that played in cold weather such as Green Bay, Minnesota, or Buffalo. However, the Bills took him with the 14th pick.

He was resigned to the fact he would play for the Bills, until another opportunity came along.

That’s when he uttered that famous assertion he would never play for the Buffalo Bills.

Instead, when he got another offer, he made the most of it.

Gamblin’ man
The United States Football League had begun operation in 1983. It was a professional league that played in the Spring so it did not compete with he NFL.

It did compete with the NFL for players, and its Houston Gamblers franchise was successful in signing Jim Kelly as their quarterback. He got his wish, playing in good weather, the perfect climate of the Houston Astrodome. Kelly would play two seasons for the Gamblers in 1984 and 1985, and was set to play for the New Jersey Generals in 1986, after Houston merged with New Jersey, but the whole league folded.

The Gamblers had Mouse Davis, most recently of Toronto Argonauts fame, as their offensive coordinator with his vaunted run and shoot offence. It fit Kelly’s style perfectly.

In 1984, he appeared in 18 games, completing 370 of 587 passes for league records 5,219 yards and 44 touchdowns, to go along with 26 interceptions. He was the league’s most valuable player, rookie of the year, and a member of the USFL All-League team.

The Gamblers finished 13-5, good enough for first place in the Central Division of the Western Conference. They lost by a score of 17-16 in the Divisional Playoff to the Arizona Wranglers.

In 1985, he again appeared in all 18 regular season games, completing 360 of 567 passes for 4,623 yards, 39 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. He was again named to the USFL All-League team.

That season, Kelly and his Houston Gamblers locked horns with Steve Young and the Los Angeles Express in “The Greatest Game No One Saw”. They generated more than 900 yards of total offence, and went back and forth right until the very end. However, ABC opted not to cover the game in favour of covering Doug Flutie’s debut with the New Jersey Generals. It was “Sports Illustrated” who dubbed the contest “The Greatest Game No One Saw”.

Houston finished with a record of 10-8 for third place in the Western Conference. They qualified for the playoffs as a wildcard, meeting the Birmingham Stallions in the league quarter-finals which the Gamblers lost by a score of 22-20.

The USFL folded after the 1985 season. Jim Kelly’s final USFL totals were 730 completions on 1,154 attempts for 9,842 yards, 83 touchdowns, 45 interceptions, a completion percentage of 63.3 and an 8.3-yard average.

The Buffalo Bills had held onto his rights so, after vowing never to play there, Jim Kelly was going to play for the Buffalo Bills.

Rocky start
I remember when Jim Kelly signed with the Bills. He joked about wanting a solid offensive line. When he came into the NFL I heard he had been sacked 82 times, and rushed for like 400 yards and he was not a running quarterback. I found the actual stats and they are much more brutal. He was sacked 75 times for a loss of 450 yards in 1984 and 35 times for a loss of 247 yards in 1985, for a total of 110 sacks losing 697 yards – in two seasons. His actual rushing totals were 663 yards on 113 attempts and six touchdowns.

He had truly been a quarterback under siege.

Things did not get much better in 1986, Jim Kelly’s first season in the NFL, as he was sacked 43 times for a loss of 330 yards.

The Bills went 4-12, incredibly finishing fourth, not last, in the AFC East, and out of the playoffs. My beloved Indianapolis Colts finished last, with a 3-13 record. Kelly went 285 of 480 for 3,593 yards, 22 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.

Tracking Jim Kelly
I had always been interested in how Jim Kelly was doing in the NFL but, without access to a newspaper or cable TV, and the fact the Bills were terrible and never on national TV, I didn’t get to track any of Kelly’s performance in 1986.

That all changed in 1987, when I went to the University of Alberta and lived in the student residence. There we got the Edmonton Journal and the Edmonton Sun every day.

I recall scooping up the floor’s copy of the Edmonton Journal to see how Jim Kelly was doing, how they had moved to 2-0 and how he hit Ronnie Harmon, another guy I watched in college at Iowa, for a touchdown pass.

The Bills had a better year in 1987, going 7-8 and again finishing fourth, behind the Colts who won the AFC East with a record of 9-6.

Jim Kelly was named to his first Pro Bowl as well in 1987, completing 250 of 419 passes for 2,798 yards, 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He was sacked 27 times, losing 239 yards.

The Bills had improved from the year before, and were poised to get a lot better.

Turning point
The Bills took a massive leap forward in the 1988 season, going 12-4, winning their first AFC East title since 1980, and advancing to the playoffs for the first time since 1981. They faced the Houston Oilers, winners of the AFC Wild Card Game, in an AFC Divisional Game, winning by a score of 17-10. The win put the Bills in the AFC Championship Game against the Cincinnati Bengals, who won by a score of 21-10.

Kelly was named to his second straight Pro Bowl in 1988, completing 269 of 452 passes for 3,380 yards, 15 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He was also sacked 30 times, losing 229 yards.

It’s all about character
In 1989, things looked bright for the Buffalo Bills. They had come within one game of the Super Bowl, and looked to take that next step. However, Kelly had some injuries and the team struggled at times, finishing first in the AFC East with a 9-7 record, one game ahead of the Colts who were 8-8.

Kelly played in 13 games and was 6-7 as a starter. He went 228 for 391 for 3,130 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 18 interceptions. He was again sacked 30 times, losing 216 yards.

Still, the Bills had made the playoffs and had the experience from the year before. Awaiting the Bills in the AFC Divisional Game was the Cleveland Browns, who were also looking for some redemption after playoff heartbreak the previous three seasons.

Sadly, something came up and I missed this game, which was too bad because at that time I had become a Browns fan. I hoped for them to make it back to the AFC Championship Game for the third time in four years.

When I got back to res, I immediately checked on the game and found out something that changed my views on things. The Browns had won by a score of 34-30 in a close game. The Bills had a chance late to win it, driving into Cleveland territory before the Browns stopped them.

Apparently, after the game Jim Kelly blamed everyone else for the loss.

That was really disappointing, and showed a lot about his character.

He was no longer a player I could root for.

The years after
The success at the end of the 1980s set the stage for the Bills incredible run to start the 1990s. They appeared in four straight Super Bowls in 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993. They lost all four but what an incredible achievement to be the only team in NFL history to make it to four straight Super Bowls.

Kelly retired after the 1996 season, as injuries caught up to him. He finished with career totals of 2,874 of 4,779 for 35,467 yards, 237 touchdowns and 175 interceptions.

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Parting thoughts
My opinion of Jim Kelly changed quite a bit when I saw him on “A Football Life”. It turns out, teammate Thurman Thomas called him out on his attitude, and it brought the team together.

He also had a son born with a rare disease that ultimately took his life at the age of eight. He committed a great deal of time and energy in raising awareness of that disease, and in helping people.

Jim Kelly also found God, and has battled cancer several times, beating it every time.

One of the coolest pictures in “A Football Life” is Jim Kelly in a hospital bed being visited by two or three people including Dan Marino, who had been a long rival.

So, in the end I have come back around

I root for Jim Kelly once again.

Not because of football, but because of everything he has done since football.

Dan Marino: One of the greatest

Dan Marino, of the Miami Dolphins,

one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

Source: https://www.clevelandskyline.com

(May be subject to copyright)

Sometimes you don’t appreciate greatness when it is before you. When I was younger, growing up in the 1980s, I often cheered against the great athletes of the time. Part of it was because I absolutely love an underdog story. Part of it is because they are usually hyped and hyped.

Perhaps that is why I never really liked Dan Marino when he was playing for the Miami Dolphins in the 1980s and beyond.

But, I saw his story on “A Football Life” and, through the eyes of an adult, I really like the quarterback I never really liked back then.

Pitt Panther
Marino had had a stellar career at the University of Pittsburgh, but his stock went down his senior year when his team did not do well. Somehow, and I found this hard to believe when I heard it on “A Football Life”, he had acquired a reputation as a partier. All I could think was, “He wasn’t going to the University of Miami.”

All joking aside, it was when he was at Pitt that I saw Marino for the first time. At the end of the 1982 season, the Panthers had qualified for the 1983 Cotton Bowl against the SMU mustangs, and there was a bit of a write-up about him in “TV Guide”. It seemed Pitt was favoured, but they could not generate any offence, and Marino did not look as good as “TV Guide” described. The Mustangs also had the “Pony Express” backfield of Eric Dickerson and Craig James who were stars in their own right. The Mustangs prevailed, winning the 1983 Cotton Bowl by a score of 7-3.

It would remain to be seen how Marino would fair in the NFL draft. He had been an All-American in his junior year, then didn’t have a very good senior year, and the quarterback class of 1983 was loaded with talent.

The draft
The first time I heard Dan Marino’s name called was by a familiar face in a new place. Hugh Campbell, who had coached the Edmonton Eskimos to five straight Grey Cup championships, had left after the 1982 season to coach the Los Angeles Express in the brand new United States Football League. It began play in the Spring of 1983. The Express recognized talent, taking Marino first overall in the league’s inaugural draft in 1983.

Marino decided to wait for the NFL draft. He would be the last quarterback selected in the first round.

I had not heard who drafted Marino, because there were not a lot of places for me to find information like that back then.

In fact, I was at a family gathering, and I found myself sitting with one of my cousins who knew a lot about sports. I asked him, “Did you hear who took Dan Marino?”

He was quite tired, and replied, “I don’t even know who the (Calgary) Flames took.”

Okay, maybe he just knew a lot about hockey.

It was pretty much at the outset of the 1983 season that I discovered who actually took Dan Marino – the Miami Dolphins.

It would be one of the best decisions in their history, and one of the worst for some of the teams who took quarterbacks ahead of Marino.

Rookie sensation
When I started watching football, the Dolphins were already a decent team, with a lot of players still remaining from those years they went to three straight Super Bowls and were one of the perennial powerhouses in the AFC. In fact, they had gone to the Super Bowl the previous season, in 1982, where they got thumped by Washington. They were solid at quarterback with Bob Griese then Don Strock and David Woodley.

Woodley was Miami’s starting quarterback, with Marino backing him up to start the season. It would not take long though for Dan Marino to take his place in the NFL. Oddly, In the midst of writing this I got a notification on Facebook about Oct. 9 being the 40th anniversary of Dan Marino’s professional debut in Week 6 of the 1983 NFL season. They played quarterback Joe Ferguson and the Buffalo Bills. He passed for more than 400 yards and the Bills earned a rare win over the Dolphins in overtime, and an even rarer win at the Orange Bowl.

Marino would not stay down for long.

He would go 7-2 as a starter, completing 173 of 296 passes for 2,210 yards, 20 touchdowns and six interceptions. He was sacked 10 times, and rushed for 45 yards and two touchdowns.

Marino was named the Sporting News rookie of the year, a second team All-Pro, and a Pro Bowl selection.

The Dolphins finished the season with a 12-4 record, good enough for first in the AFC East, and a date with the Seattle Seahawks, who had defeated Denver in the Wild Card game, in one of the AFC Divisional Games. Marino threw two touchdown passes, but was intercepted twice as the underdog Seahawks upset the Dolphins by a score of 27-20.

It was a sign of things to come.

MVP season
As the 1984 NFL season opened, Dan Marino was the undisputed starting quarterback for the Dolphins, and he would turn in a season to remember.

He completed 362 of 564 passes for a league record 5,084 yards, a league record 48 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions. He was sacked 13 times, and had minus-seven yards rushing.

Marino was named the NFL Most Valuable Player and the NFL Offensive Player of the Year, was a first team All-Pro, and a Pro Bowl selection.

The Dolphins finished with a record of 14-2, securing first place in the AFC East and the top seed in the playoffs. They avenged their loss to the Seahawks in 1983, with a 31-10 win in the AFC Divisional Game, then thrashed the Pittsburgh Steelers by a score of 45-28 in the AFC Championship Game. Marino set AFC Championship Game records for passing yards with 421 and passing touchdowns with four. Those records still stand.

Miami faced San Francisco in the Super Bowl, where the 49ers harassed Marino and intercepted him twice, en route to a 38-16 win. Marino did throw for 318 yards and a touchdown in a losing cause.

It was the only Super Bowl that Dan Marino ever played in.

Most memorable moment
Although the Dolphins did not go to another Super Bowl, Dan Marino turned in one of the most memorable performances of his career, during the 1985 season.

The Miami Dolphins had the only perfect season in NFL history, going undefeated in the regular season and winning the Super Bowl in 1972. The 1985 Chicago Bears were a similar juggernaut, mowing down everyone in their path.

Then, the Bears met the Dolphins in Week 13 on Monday Night Football in what many called a Super Bowl preview. With the members of the 1972 team watching, the Dolphins handed the Bears their only loss of the season, where Marino showed great poise and leadership facing one of the best defences in the history of the NFL.

He had another amazing season, leading the Dolphins to a 12-4 record and first place in the AFC East Division. Marino led the league in completions, yards, and touchdown passes as he went 336 of 567 for 4,137 yards, 30 touchdowns, and 21 interceptions. He was also named a first-team All-Pro and went to the Pro Bowl.

The Dolphins opened against the Cleveland Browns, who were a team on the rise, in the AFC Divisional Game. They gave Miami a scare before Marino rallied the Dolphins to win by a score of 24-21. The Dolphins would face their AFC East rival the New England patriots in the AFC Championship Game The Patriots had defeated the New Jork Jets in the AFC Wild Card Game then the Los Angeles Raiders in the other AFC Divisional Game.

The Patriots were all over the Dolphins, winning easily by a score of 31-14, and preventing that dream Super Bowl match up between Miami and the Chicago Bears.

Solid season
Marino had another strong season in 1986, leading the league in completions, yards and touchdown passes for the third consecutive season, becoming the first and only quarterback to do so. He went 378 of 623 for 4,746 yards, 44 touchdowns, and 23 interceptions.Marino also became the fastest quarterback to 100 touchdown passes, doing it in 44 games, and he was just shy of turning 25 years old. He was also a first team All-Pro and was named the Pro Bowl.

The Dolphins finished with an 8-8 record, third in the AFCE East, and out of the playoffs for the first time in Marino’s career.

Strike season
A work stoppage shortened the 1987 season. Marino had another decent season, going 263 of 444 for 3,245 yards, 26 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, and was named to his fifth straight Pro Bowl.

The Dolphins finished 8-7, and out of the playoffs for the second straight season.

Another milestone
In 1988, Dan Marino reached another milestone. When he passed for 4,434 yards, he became the first quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in four separate seasons. Overall, he went 354 of 606 for 4,434 yards, 28 touchdowns and 23 interceptions.

The Dolphins finished 6-10, dead last in the AFC East.

End of the decade
In 1989, Marino went 308 of 550 for 3,997 yards, 24 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. The Dolphins finished 8-8, good enough for third in the AFC East, and out of the playoffs for the fourth straight season. Marino had now missed the playoffs in his career more than he made them.

The years after
Dan Marino would go on to break many passing records, and return the Dolphins to the AFC Championship Game in 1992. He would suffer an injury, return to action, and be named comeback player of the year.

He retired after the 1999 season, completing 4,967 of 8,358 passes for 61,361 yards, 420 touchdowns and 252 interceptions.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Parting thoughts
Early in his career, I always found myself not cheering for Dan Marino. The Miami Dolphins were always such an overwhelming favourite, I had to cheer for the under dog they were playing, whether it was Seattle in 1983 or Cleveland and New England in 1985.

As his career progressed, and he played 16 seasons after all, I began to appreciate how truly great he was. After that injury, I became a fan for the way he mounted that heroic comeback.

With the NFL evolving into a major passing league, seeing that Marino’s numbers still hold up, given how much the rules have been liberalized to favour the passing game is truly impressive.

The fact he never won a Super Bowl, to me, is overstated because football is a team game. Every Super Bowl champion has had some break go their way over the course of the season and a playoff game is one-game, winner take all.

I believe the true test of greatness is a body of work, and Marino’s speaks for itself.

He really is one of the greatest.

Remembering “You Belong to the City” by Don Henley

It all started with two simple words: “MTV cops”. Brandon Tartikoff, the head of programming for NBC had envisioned “MTV cops” as the concept for a TV drama.

Writers with experience on the critically acclaimed and award-winning drama “Hill Street Blues” took it from there.

They created a police drama set in Miami about two detectives doing battle with drug dealers, pimps and other criminals. That was the “cops” part.

The “MTV” part was adding a rock music score as the backdrop to the show, along with a trendy look.

The result was the Friday night series “Miami Vice” which, although remembered by most, was not really ever a ratings smash.

Yet, it was groundbreaking for a number of reasons, primarily for the music that went with the show.

Leading the way was “You Belong to the City”, a song written and performed by Glenn Frey formerly of the Eagles. The song had its debut in the second season premiere of “Miami Vice”.

I heard “You Belong to the City” the other day, and it brought back memories more of that period in time, then any particular episode.

The show
It was the summer of 1984 when I first started seeing commercials on Channel 7 of the peasant vision dial for a show called “Gold Coast”. All I knew was that it was about two cops.

Soon, the name in the commercials changed to “Miami Vice”, but it was the same show.

Back then, I checked out every new show because, in the three channel universe, you actually could do that.

It was a Friday night, at 9 p.m. I think, for the premiere of “Miami Vice”. It focused on a New York City cop named Ricardo Tubbs whose partner is called by a drug lord named Calderon. He pursues him to Miami where he encounters a Miami cop named Sonny Crockett. They team to go after Calderon and, although they do not catch him by the end of the episode, Tubbs stays in South Florida to “pursue a career in law enforcement” there.

Sonny Crocket was played by Don Johnson, who I had seen previously, and liked, in an updated version of “From Here to Eternity”. Philip Michael Thomas played Ricardo Tubbs, and he was brand new to me. Initially, their sergeant was Lou Rodriguez, played by Gregory Sierra, who had done a bunch of television work to that point. He would be replaced by Martin Castillo, played by Edward James Olmos, who would go on to win an Emmy for the role.

It lasted five seasons, from 1984 to 1989.

The culture
“Miami Vice” affected pop culture in many ways. One was the clothing – pastels; off-white blazers worn over t-shirts; no socks; sun glasses; and canvas shoes.

Another thing was Don Johnson’s five o’clock shadow. I even saw a piece on “Entertainment Tonight” where someone had come up with an attachment for a shaver that left just the five o’clock shadow.

The biggest thing was the music.

The music
Early on, it was evident “Miami Vice” would have a different feel than other police shows of the time. It relied heavily on the use of popular music as a backdrop, especially in chase scenes, and non-action scenes when the characters are driving from one place to another or out in a boat on the ocean.

Initially the music had been released previously, such as “Better be Good to Me” by Tina Turner, and “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins, which became one of the signature songs. Collins would even appear in an episode of the show.

Another song that gained a lot of traction was “Smuggler’s Blues” by Glenn Frey. It was in that period when his band, the Eagles, had broken up and would not get back together unless hell freezes over. The song appeared in an episode of “Miami Vice” in the first season, which was actually named after the song, with Frey appearing in the episode.

With the show renewed for a second season, it was only a matter of time before a soundtrack would be released.

Season premiere
Maybe a month before the premiere of the second season of “Miami Vice”, I heard the hype.

There would be an original song by Glenn Frey making its world premiere shortly, written and recorded especially for the second season premiere of “Miami Vice”.

That night in August, I tuned into 1090 CHEC. By then I was listening to a request show they ran at 9 p.m. on week nights called “Rock and Roll Your Own”. Almost immediately, someone requested the new song from “Miami Vice”

It was called “You Belong to the City” and fittingly, it was sung by Glenn Frey.

By then, I had moved on from “Miami Vice”. With no VCR, I could only watch one thing, plus I was spending more time going out.

I was out for much of the night “Miami Vice” made its second season premiere. I do recall flipping to Channel 13, because it was one of those shows that migrated to Channel 13 from Channel 7, and seeing the last scene. Crockett walked up to Tubbs and essentially said it’s time to go home. “Do You Believe in Love” by Huey Lewis in the News was playing in the background.

The next day at school, my friend Craig Tanaka filled me in on the show. Crockett and Tubbs went to New York City, to pursue criminals. Craig was big into “Miami Vice”, wearing the blazer and no socks. It was kind of cool.

The soundtrack
“You Belong to the City” was part of the recently released “Miami Vice Soundtrack”, which would go all the way to number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. The soundtrack would also spawn another hit, the instrumental “Miami Vice Theme” by Jan Hammer. It was similar to the music in the opening credits of the show, but slightly different.

“You Belong to the City” went all the way to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Parting thoughts
It was a time of men wearing pastels, canvas shoes with no socks, and white pants. The mood was brooding and accentuated by a driving rock score.

Nothing punctuated that period in time more than “You Belong to the City”.