Entering a world of nonsense

… we take the ball from goal to goal like no one’s ever seen. We’re in the air, we’re on the ground, we’re always in control. And when you say Miami, you’re talking Super Bowl.”

Okay, so maybe no one’s mentioned Miami and Super Bowl in many a years.

Well, unless you’re talking about another team traveling to Miami for this coveted game.

In fact, the Dolphins have been about as far from the Super Bowl as you can be lately.

The worse of it was last season’s pathetic 1-15 campaign.

The lone game the Dolphins won was against the Baltimore Ravens – in overtime – and the Ravens were in the midst of a free fall for the ages.

They were so bad that head coach Cam Cameron was fired after just one season in charge. General Manager Randy Mueller was shown the door as well.

Then longtime Dolphins icons Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor were shipped outta town.

It didn’t look like things would be getting better anytime soon.

Even though the owners opened up the wallets to bring in Bill Parcells and all of his cronies, it was hard to keep the faith.

After all, the man pegged as the new head coach – Tony Sparano – would be in his first season as a head coach in the pros.

And there was the whole no quarterback thing.

Then Chad Pennington was brought in and I was less than thrilled.

He was better than when the Dolphins had had recently, but most of the talk about his was less than positive, especially the talk about his arm strength. From everything that was said, I was surprised that his throws got past the line of scrimmage.

But then the season started and something strange happened … they started winning games.

Before the year started, I told my roommate I’d be thrilled with a 6-win season.

It soon became clear that was aiming too low.

The Fins currently sit at 8-5 and are in a three-way tie atop the AFC East standings.

While they need a lot of help to do the improbable and return to the postseason, the fact they are even this close to accomplishing that speaks volumes to what the coaches, Pennington and the rest of the team have done this season.

And what they have done is bring hope to Dolphins fans.

It’s hard for me to remember the glory days.

The Fins have only been to the Super Bowl twice in my lifetime – once after the 1982 season and again after the 1984 campaign – and I was all of 3-years-old during the last game.

They haven’t been horrible since then, making the playoffs numerous times and even reaching the AFC Championship game once or twice.

But they’ve never been a dominant team.

Marino was always one of the league’s best, and who didn’t love the Mark brothers as well.

Still, that was not enough.

And lately things had been just sad.

Before this season, Miami had gone 20-42 the last four years, and it’s only that respectable cause of that fluke 9-7 season in 2005.

They’ve been through numerous coaches since booting out Don Shula, from Jimmy Johnson to Dave Wannstedt to Nick Saban to Cameron.

Alas. unless this proves to be another fluke year, it seems like Miami may finally have gotten back on the right track to being a consistent contender once again.

Next up for the Dolphins as they try to return to the playoffs is a game Sunday against the 49ers. Coincidently, the Niners were the Dolphins opponents the last time they made the Super Bowl. That day ended in a 38-16 loss for Miami.

Who better then to use to show that the Dolphins are indeed back.

Hopefully what they show is that the Fins that are back is the teams of the olden days, and not the ones of the 1-win days.