Bills fans should cry and Dolphins fans should be joyful that Dan Marino has backed out of the deal that would have seen him take up duties as VP of Football Operations. Because he would have flunked monstrously for a couple of the same reasons that he failed as an NFL QB. An inability to recognize a failing strategy and make appropriate changes, and a refusal by fans, the media and the organization to hold him responsible for underperforming.

Don Shula had a theory about Dolphin football. We’ll call it “The Marino Theory”. The Marino Theory went like this.

– When you have Dan Marino on your team, you don’t take the ball out of his hands. Lots of teams would just love for that to happen, now wouldn’t they? –

The result of The Marino Theory is that the Dolphins wallowed in mediocrity until after Shula and Marino both retired.

Dan Marino bought into and promoted The Marino Theory. And why not, not only did it play to his strengths (while ignoring his weaknesses) and make him a superstar, it got him out of team meetings and kept him from having to run or workout with the rest of the team.

Under the Shula / Marino tandem Miami never had a single RB rush for even a meager 1000 yards. Come on, guys, it isn’t that damned hard. All it takes is a lousy 62.5 yards per game. But, hey, if you have a good back, then you’re taking the ball away from Dan, right?

But, more importantly, only four times did the Shula / Marino tandem see their TEAM rush for over 1,600 yards in a season. That’s right, not one time during their reign of ineptitude did Miami average even 100 yards per game over the span of a season.

Statistically Marino was wonderful. He is ahead of John Elway by almost 10,000 career passing yards and by 120 career TDs. Yet Elway did several things Marino could only dream of, all because of that blessed Theory.

Though Marino played a year longer than Elway, Marino is still a game behind in wins. You can thank The Marino Theory for that.

Elway dragged three inferior teams to SBs. Marino had no ability to carry a team. You can thank The Marino Theory for that, too – unless you want to concede that Marino just generally blew chunks as an on-field leader.

Elway also reached two additional SBs (for a total of 5), which he won.

Marino went to one SB, lost it badly and never got close again. And again, thank Shula / Marino and their stupid Marino Theory.

More than the stupid theory, though, Marino and the Dolphins failed because his ego and Shula’s idiotic system didn’t allow him to see that the very thing that proved him to be the greatest pure passer in NFL history, was also the thing keeping him from being one of the best QBs in NFL history. He lacked the ability to identify what was holding him back and to acknowledge the changes that needed to be made if he was going to see any measure of success in any area other than his statistics.

Is there any reason to believe that retirement has altered Marino’s egomaniacal nature, removed his short-sightedness, eliminated his belief that he’s too good to follow team rules or instilled in him an ability to recognize the causes of failure and areas in desperate need of change? I suspect not.

Coach Dave Wanstedt may benefit from the reduction of duties, now that he’s had his GM hat taken away. Who knows. Though he certainly wasn’t hurting the Dolphins with poor personnel decisions, not when you look at the balance of his performance and stand it up against any other GM during the same period. Or, hey, compare his success choosing personnel with that of the Dolphins under Shula during the Marino era. His demotion likely had more to do with Marino wanting back into the organization than with any failing of his own. He’s done a far better job than Shula did during his final 15 years and is being punished for his success – as Shula was never punished for his failures.

Had Marino installed himself as Dolphins VP, the Dolphins would have been destined to enter an era of failure and it would have again been the fault of Marino and his ego. He has no qualifications to hold such a position and in the end it would have been Coach Wanstedt, the players and the fans who paid the price for that. Marino failed for most of his 17 seasons and never had to accept any of the blame for that. Why should we expect that things would have been any different this time around?