Dave Wannstedt: We’re Talkin’ Dolphins

Miami Dolphins Tales From The Deep Dave Wannstedt joined the Miami Dolphins organization in 1999 as Assistant Head to Jimmy Johnson and assumed the role of Head Coach following Johnson’s retirement in January of 2000. In his four-plus seasons at the helm in Miami, Wannstedt led the team to a 42-31 record, the second-most wins by a head coach in Dolphins history behind only Don Shula. In The Fish Tank, Wannstedt discusses making the transition from Dan Marino to Jay Fiedler, his relationship with Ricky Williams, the Dolphins overtime playoff win following the 2000 season, and reflects upon how he is perceived by Miami fans. Contributors to this episode include Sean “DJ Prec” Todd and Dolphins Productions. Theme song created and performed by The Honorable SoLo D.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're now diving sitting down with Seth and this is
strictly for them to Dolphins number one one of course,

(00:21):
y'all just at the theres was Tom Been at pitch tank.
Welcome back to the fish tank right here on the
Miami Dolphins podcast Networks Seth Levitt, DJ Preach in the
Back and the man with the best hands in the
podcast business, O J McDuffie juice. How are you feeling today? Man,
I'm feeling great, big Seth. You know me, man, I'm
always great. You know, when we get a chance to

(00:41):
bring on good people, man, and you know we get
on the podcast, we talk so much amazing dolphin stuff.
And you know, we've got a guest today that's highly requested,
you know what I mean. And it's great that we
get him into tank today. Man, it's gonna be a
lot of fun. Highly requested. I told a few people
that we had this guest and people were pretty fired
up about it. And then I started to think, you know,
I've had two of my employers on this show, right

(01:04):
So Harvey who has been a guest on the show,
j T has been a guest. You know, these two
guys have signed my paychecks. There's another one of my
former bosses here, Juice. He was both of our bosses.
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Dave wants that welcome to
the fish tank, coach. Thank you, Seth o J everybody. No,
it's it's great to be on Really, I obviously have
a lot of love for the Dolphins. Following him straight

(01:27):
on through, I really haven't. You know, There's been a
lot of change over there since I left, and so
I really haven't reconnected. I was on the sidelines. I
was actually doing a Super Bowl in Miami two years
ago for Fox, and I had a chance to meet
your owner and had a nice conversation with him, and
he said get by sometime. And you know, I need

(01:49):
to do that because I'm in Naples, Florida during the
off season. I do all a lot of bear stuff
during the season, but I need to get by. In fact,
I talked with Sam and Pat that last you're at
the combine. I was trying to set something up to
get by and see Chris Greer and the guys, and
it it just never happened. But I need to do
that for sure. I need to get back over there

(02:10):
and connect a little bit and uh, yeah, be part
of the tradition going forward. Yeah, you're a busy man, coach.
We get it, We understand, man. I mean sometimes life
gets in the way, bro right. And you know what,
when I was the media was something that I had
on my plate. But and and Seth knows this because
he worked with me in this area him at Harvey.

(02:30):
But but it was always I was so protective and
I never wanted the same thing that could come back
on a player or back on a coach or back
on the franchise. I was overly protective and probably came
off a little bit standoff ish. Uh and it with
some people. But once I started doing this, and I
pretty much made it my mind. I was done coaching,

(02:50):
and I wasn't worried about getting a job or offending anybody.
I've got eight shows a week that I do here
in Chicago, crazy H between O J. Now, I do
get you some love every Tuesday, I do Big ten Network.
There we go, there we go. And so I'm trying
to help those uh Penn State Nickney Lions up there.

(03:13):
And they did have a great year this year. I
will say this, they were one of the most improved
teams I thought in college football, and I'm so happy
that Coach Franklin, they're out there in the rose boat.
That'll be great. Yeah, And they took the two best
losses I think of the season. Coach, I mean, we've
got two teams that are in the final four that
you know they'll be lost to in Ohio State in Michigan.
So I could ask for two better else than those, right. Well,

(03:36):
you know what's interesting is everybody I talked to, I
do all this is the reason that Michigan and Ohio
State are in the college football Playoff. They all look
at the resume, right, who did you play? And the
number one team that is there their resume builder if
we look at it that way, is Penn State. They're
all saying, hey, we beat Penn State. I mean, that's

(03:57):
how much regard nationally that country has for Pence. Don't
get him going, coach, don't get him going now. Don't worry,
because I'm coming right back with And that's why they don't.
They don't want to play pit anymore. I love it.
I'm gonna end with that. You know, I'm not gonna
get pench stay too much love it, but too much

(04:20):
Marino will be mad at me if I don't start
talking a pit You know, that's right, that's right. We
don't need we don't need any more of that coach
for sure. And and so it kind of brings me
to my my point here. Your coaching career has spanned
nearly forty years, and in some ways, in a lot
of ways, it's almost silly to be so hyper focused today.
But we've been accused of being silly on this show.
And it is the fish tank, So I'm just gonna

(04:41):
jump right into it. We're gonna talk dolphins. We're gonna
definitely talk some dolphins. January of the Dolphins had just
been in the divisional round of the playoffs to the
eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, and we get beat
down pretty good there. Jimmy walks into Eddie Jones office
and says he's done. He wants us end time with family.
You know, we hear him talk now about the QTL.

(05:03):
He was done, he was ready to retire. Wayne Haisingen
somehow has the that radar. He hears it. He swoops
in and thirty minutes later he's back. A helicopter's landing
on the practice field and and Dave wants that comes
walking out and here's your new defensive coordinator and assistant
head coach. And it really did kind of happen that fast.
Can you take us back to that moment when your

(05:24):
phone rang, you know, you had just finished your tenure
in Chicago, and I don't know if you and Jan
are sitting there and saying, well, let's enjoy some downtime,
and then the phone rings and you're going back to
work now, you know. Actually I was in Florida at
the time. Jan's parents lived up in the Tampa clear
Water area, and you know, Jimmy and I still talked.
We talked. We talked usually, I don't want to say

(05:45):
once a week, but close to it, uh, every other
week probably at the longest. So we've all you know,
we started as assistant coaches together back at the University
of Pittsburgh, and you know then Oaklham State, Miami, Dallas,
on and on. And so when I left you Ago,
I went down to Tampa and I was actually we
were visiting there for a couple of days, and I
was going to my place at Naples and I had

(06:07):
I wouldn't get into the teams, and I had two
or three teams calling, and I was gonna go somewhere.
I wasn't gonna sit out, you know, I was gonna
jump back in and a couple of guys that I
knew very well respected good good programs. So I was
talking to Jimmy about it and he said, Dave, he said, uh,
I'm done. And no one knew this. This was like

(06:29):
the night before he told Nick Christian, his attorney, myself.
He says, you know, I'm it's over for me, blah
blah blah, on and on. So uh, he says, what
are you gonna do? And I says, well, I'm heading
down to Naples and then I'm gonna make a decision,
probably between these two jobs, which way I'm gonna go.
And he says, why don't you come down to the
keys a little bit because I'm tomorrow I'm it's over,

(06:50):
and we'll hang out with the wives for a little bit.
Go from there. So I get in the car the
next morning and I'm driving down to Naples. I'm on
seventy five and the phone rings and it's Jimmy and
I I said to him my exact words where I said, well,
how's it feel to be retired and his words were

(07:12):
not so fast. He says, how'd you how'd you like
to come down here and help me out for a
year and see, we'll see what happens. And I said,
what are you talking about? So he went into the
whole story and he says, where you at? I said,
I'm on seventy five. I was like up in Bradenton,
Sarasota somewhere. And he said, let me check her. And
he gets back two minutes. Hold on. He says, can

(07:33):
you get off the exit there south to Fort Myers
And I said yeah, And he says, well, there's an
airport there. Mr Hazing is gonna have his helicopter over there.
Why don't you jump on at you and Jan come
over here and and we'll do this thing. I said, Jimmy,
I ain't got any closed, you know. And I said
I'm in a shirt and jeans. And he says, oh,
it doesn't matter. He said, just come on over and

(07:55):
we'll kick her on tonight and talk about it. So
I said, okay, why exit and the helicopters there, and
we jump on the helicopter and the next thing you know,
I'm standing in the press conference. We had no conversation.
I had no more information than that. So what are
you doing the car? He just left it? Were you
in a rental car? Like? Did the car just sit

(08:16):
on the side of the room. I left the car there.
Then when it was all over, it was at the airport,
you know, private airport, and then I went back and
got it. Uh. Once we kind of repped. So now
we have not there for two or three days. Uh.
He had actually he actually had his boat. We slept
on his boat that night. Not many people know that
he had his boat. He had his boat up there.

(08:37):
Where was that at? Where was that? What was that
a dventure up in that adventure area? Yeah, aventure correct though,
Jay h and he had a knocked up there. So
we we obviously went out to dinner and we started
drinking and uh, next thing, you know, we we we
woke up, all of us and we were on the
boat and you're talking. We talked about waking up. You're

(08:59):
on the boat, you're looking at they're on the water,
the sun's coming up, and I'm you know, I'm thinking
to myself, what the hell just happened? You know, unbelieved.
So that's you know, part of me is like I
think the the thought was, well, Dave's coming in, he's
gonna be the you know, he's the heir apparent, he's
the head coach and waiting. But it doesn't sound like

(09:20):
any of that was you literally pulled off the side
of the road and jump on a helicopter. There was
no strings attached, no strings attached. I was coming down
there just because Jimmy said, hey, come down here, give me,
give me a hand. Uh, you know, and we have
been together for fifteen years, so I mean, there was
we didn't have to talk and he says, you'll you'll
have more responsibility than than you want, probably, and then

(09:42):
I said, yeah, and then we'll see what happened, so,
you know, and my thought I wasn't gonna have to
move im in Naples. We got the stuff there, back
and forth, and then obviously it worked out, you know,
it all worked out and unbelievably so yep, you know, Dave.
The ninety nine season was a wild ride, and of course,
you know, while we experienced some success, it kind of

(10:03):
ended really really bad. You know, that playoff game and
in Jacksonville. Uh, none of us really want to talk
about that probably ever again, right, thinking back and this
time though, I mean, Jimmy is officially done. You know,
we talked a little bit about how he was done
and he wasn't. This time, he's officially done. There's no
turning back. So you know, we get smacked on that Saturday.
But by Sunday you're being named the head coach, the

(10:25):
new head coach of the Miami Dolphins. And although your
especialty had always been defense, your first order businesses, you know,
surrounding what's going over the quarterback position. I mean, think
about that, you know, talking about making the transition from
Danny Jay Feeler and then making this from Jay and
Damon to start the season him. That's a lot coming
from a guy that really, I mean honestly was thinking about,

(10:48):
you know, just coming to hang out with his buddy.
And then next thing you know, you know, you're part
of the team. And then right after that you are
the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins. And the
tough thing with Danny because I was so close following
it a year, you know, I we all knew that
that Danny was struggling at that point. It was all
his legs. It wasn't his arm or anything, you know,

(11:09):
his achilles and his ankles and his knees and the
guy that I was gonna and I told Wayne in
the interview, and everybody was kind of assuming that Dan
was pretty much done, whether Jimmy was there or not,
that his career was coming to an end. And uh
and and that was the first thing that Wayne wanted
to talk to me about. And the guy that I
was gonna hire and did his offensive coordinator was Chan Daily,

(11:33):
And Chan and I were real close from not real close,
but we knew each other from when I was at
the Bears and he was at the Steelers. And I
really thought the Chan was a smart guy. He was
a good guy. He was good people, you know, and
uh and and the heck of a football coach. So
I but I knew the offense that we were going
to run O J and you experienced them, and there

(11:54):
was gonna be a lot of movement passes. So we
had to have an athletic quarterback, you know, because he
was he was called in the place when they had
Cordell Steward at the Steelers, and they were movement stuff
and that's just what he believed in. And and I
had a lot of success with it. And so long
story short that you know, physically that was not gonna
be And I told Dan that we had a good

(12:15):
talk and he didn't want to hear it, you know,
but I said, damn, we're gonna change this offense completely.
And Jimmy stayed with it. He just stayed with with
the offense, which coach Chouless, he really tried to run
the ball a little bit more than what they had,
you know, Jay, but it really that that didn't fly.
So so that once the thing with Dan kind of
broke off and we brought in Jay and Ja everybody.

(12:36):
For all those years, all I heard was we got
to get you know, the next day, and Marino, well,
they're probably never going to get the next day. Marino. Okay,
So that's easier. That's easier said than done. And we
looked at the free agent list and who was available.
You know, Peyton Manning wasn't available. I promise you that,
you know. You know, so, uh so he wasn't very

(12:56):
athletic either. Coach, you know, I might I might have
made an adjustment. So so so we end up signing Jay.
So now we got a quarterback that's athletic, and we
got an offensive coordinator wants to move the pocket and
do some of those things and some quarterback runs. So
that's that's the way we went. And you know, it

(13:19):
was unbelievable. I mean, you know, you know, we come
out of the blocks and had a great year and
had eleven wins the next year. And I mean, I
think my four years, and I really only say that
I was there four years, but you know, we averaged
ten wins a year and one that playoff game, and
really our best team was my third year and we

(13:39):
beat I'll tell you what, Yeah, I'm gonna take you
back in time. We beat Denver on a Sunday night
game out there or Lindo Maury kicks the field, go
to beat them. And they were really good. They were
you know, and we were the best team in the
a f C. There was no question about it. And
I remember, like yesterday, I come out of the shower

(14:01):
and uh Tony little Tony egg eggways right pronounced his
name right, who lived with a coach. He he popped,
he pops me a beer. And I'm sitting there having
a beer in the locker room in Denver and here
comes our doctors. And I thought, oh boy, because when

(14:21):
you see them right after the game. That's not good.
And they proceed to tell me that Jay broke a
bone in its thumb and it was gonna be four
to six weeks, and uh, I think we can't. We
missed six weeks. I think I think we lost three
or four of those games. You know, we ended up
nine and eight. And my point is this, in the

(14:44):
coaching profession, whether it be college or high school, in
the NFL, you really kind of get a window where
you have to hit it big. And that window for
some coaches is one year. For some coaches it's six years.
But that I really believe that that was my window
to hit it big. That that was the year that

(15:05):
that we had, you know, Ricky lead the NFL and
rushing a top five defense, Pro Bowl kicker. You know,
I mean we had it. We had it. Guys were
believing it, and we had the chemistry and and the
team all those intangible things that O. J. Knows I'm
talking about. We there was no friendly fire within the building.
It was so good. And uh, and Jay breaks his

(15:27):
hand and and Ray Lucas came in and did the
best he could. But you know, that was kind of
the window for me, and then we come back the
next year and win ten and I think we were
one of three or four teams that won ten games
that we don't get in the playoffs. I'll figure that out.
You know, it was more than that. Actually, you must
do this for a living, because you're running through our

(15:47):
whole show notes right now. Well, talking Dolphins, we're talking Dolphins.
It was actually one of six teams. There were six
ten and six teams across you know, both conferences, and
only one didn't make it to the playoffs. But I'm
gonna back up. I'm gonna back up to your first
year as head coach, and as you said, eleven and five,

(16:07):
we win the a f C East. This is pre
Ricky now. So it's Lamar Smith and boyd you know,
talk about riding Lamar Smith. We get to that hosting
a playoff game here against the Colts going over time,
hey man, And that's right, Peyton man and go move
your pocket, Peyton Manning, right right, that's right. And but

(16:28):
you know that seventeen yard bullish run that Lamar Smith
has to just carry us into the next round of
the playoffs. What was that moment like for you? I mean,
you're in your first year as a head coach here,
and I just remember that was one of the greatest
moments for me just working in the NFL. It was
a really special day. Now, who in the hell would
have thought that twenty two years later, we still haven't

(16:49):
won a playoff game here in South Florida, but hopefully
that'll change really soon. But what was that moment like
for you, coach? Well, you know, it was obviously exciting,
but it was like it was really rewarding because I,
you know, I had been through a tough time in
Chicago and that window came in Chicago when our quarterback

(17:11):
broker his neck, Eric Kramer. We had to beat the
Comboys on a Monday night game and he breaks his neck.
He's off for the year. Long story short, we go
seven and nine, and that was kind of the the
beginning of the end there. And uh so, you know,
it was just a very rewarding because it's it was
been a tough couple of years and just to see
everything come together and the fans were so fired up.

(17:33):
And I still remember Jim Manage his voice, you know,
because they played his uh I talked about Oakland, here
we come or whatever he said. At the end, and
they played that like all week on all the stations
in Miami. And Jim was a dear friend. And that's
what I remember from that game. And uh, you know,
just the excitement of taking that step, and uh and

(17:56):
and and then one and more, you know, having been
to a Super Bowl and one of Super Bowl, that's
the next thing that's on your mind is is now
we gotta get the ring. We gotta get the next
step somehow. Yeah, no doubt about a coach is thinking
about speaking of that, you know, another eleven and five
season and oh one. But then Baltimore many it seemed
like they know, man, I think they bullied us more
than anybody as a Doll fan myself and as a

(18:19):
player man in the playoffs and we all know that.
You know, just a few months later, now you orchestrate
one of the biggest trades in history to bring Ricky
Williams to Miami. And we will definitely talk a lot
about Ricky, of course, but take us back to how
that all went down, how the trade came to be,
how how that happened. Well, you know what, the year, uh,
the year that we made the trade, the Super Bowl

(18:40):
was in New Orleans and this is crazy. And so
my wife and I went down, but we weren't going
to stay for the game. So we went down for
some of the stuff, you know, the pre the pregame stuff.
And we were there like a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
We were flying back to uh Miami. And so we're
the New Orleans Airport and it is empty, obviously, and

(19:02):
we're going on and who's sitting in the same terminal
but Ricky. So Ricky and I start having a conversation
and we're just talking, you know, coach Dick, Mike and
I were good friends, and on and on and just
you know, in general. So I go back to the
office and I get ahold of Rick Spielman and I said,
you know, I don't know if Ricky. I said, when
you look at our team right now, and Lamar was

(19:24):
gonna move on, I said, we got a top defense,
good kicker, I said, we got a quarterback. I said,
but we gotta be able to run the ball, because Jay,
I mean, Jay's a winner. Jay feeler. If you look
at the games when he was healthy and played his
winning percentages like sevent you know, and no one gives
him any credit for anything of Miami. That's fine, that's

(19:44):
another story. But uh so, I said, we gotta be
able to run the ball to take some pressure off
of Jay. And so rick goes to work him and
George Payton kind of go to work on this trade
deal and we come up with the package where we
can get with Ricky and Ricky comes in at least
time Berg was his agent, and we sat down with
Ricky and had a long discussion, and you know, because

(20:05):
there was there was some stuff out there, you know,
about him and and what he was dealing with a
little bit in New Orleans. And once I felt comfortable
with it, I said, let's go. And Ricky was one
of my favorites. He really was. It was crazy how
it ended, you know, with us there, but but he
he was a guy, you know, and every It's funny

(20:26):
because everybody talks about and you remember when Thurman Thomas
was with us O J. So I signed Thurman Thomas
and Ricky's there, okay, and Thomas comes in for that
first So we were using Thurman Thomas and third Dons remember,
and we uh and so, because when Ricky semi retired,
he said he was being used so much in our offense. Well,

(20:48):
he came into my office and says, coach, what are
you doing? I said, what do you mean? What am
I doing? He says, why am I not in on
every play? I want the ball? So I saw, long
story short, Ricky. Uh, he wanted the ball. I gave
him the ball. He definitely gave him the ball about
four hundred, four hundred and thirty some touches a year.

(21:11):
And then I'll tell you what you talk about that
Lamar the playoff win. I'll tell you the story there.
So we come out in overtime and uh, we hand
off the Lamar. He makes four, makes five. And I've
always believed this philosophy wise that all these offensive coordinators
you hire, they all tell you they believe in running

(21:31):
the ball. Very few of them do. Okay, they tell
me that in an interview. But Chan Gaily did. Chan
Gailey did, and so it didn't take long. We made
up three nice runs. And I told Chan, I said,
I don't know if we need to throw the ball anymore,
and he says, you got it, and he hand that
thing to Lamar like six times. Well not well, now

(21:54):
fast forward, so now I got Ricky. Okay, where we're
at now and we're playing of Bills on a Sunday
night ESPN game in Miami. Baseball field is still baseball,
so it's earlier in the year. And uh, they were
we were like four and one, they were four and one.
I we were both very good teams, and this was

(22:17):
an important game, big game. And we're in the fourth
quarter and Jay throws a pass and it goes over
Rande Gasson's head or something, and then he comes back
and he throws the next one. It kind of boxes
off the hands of a defender. And North Turner was
our offense corner. And I said, North, I've about seeing
all this that I'm ready to say. Okay. There was

(22:39):
about about four or five minutes ago in the game
and we had the lead. We had like a three
point lead or four point lead. I forget what it was.
And he I said, I really don't care if anybody
touches the ball exceparate and he says, Rose, Okay, you
want it, you got it. I think it was eleven
straight Cherry. No one touched the ball except Ricky and

(23:02):
we went bam bam. So now we're down on the
goal line. It's third and one or fourth and one,
and we call it time out and Ricky comes over
and I've never felt worse in my life. Ricky comes
over and his arms from playing and O J you've
had it. You've experienced it. On that baseball field. It's
like playing in a gravel parking lot, right, you know,

(23:24):
on that sand and dirt and stones. And Ricky comes
over and both of his arms are just torn up.
And he's standing there and he's got dirt in his
face and he's looking at me, and I said, rick
we're gonna go for this. I said, what do you like?
And he says, I think we called it thirty four
scissors where we started one way and handed the ball back.

(23:47):
And I said, now in thirty four scissors, we don't
block the safety. And he says, I know that. Ricky
was smart. He was smart, smartest running back ever coach.
He knew all the blocked and he knew the defenses.
Ricky says, I know that, and which meant he was
gonna be one on one with the safety in the

(24:08):
hole who was Malloy, lawyer, Lawyer Milloyd, pro Bowl player.
And he knew it. We knew it. And we run
thirty six and then we hand it back to him scissors,
and sure enough malloy standing right there on the goal line,
and Ricky gets that ball and you know, obviously carries

(24:28):
him and everything else into the end zone. Yeah, true story.
I believe it. Man. That's good stuff, Man, is really
good stuff. So, coach, you talked about at the beginning
of this interview how when you were a coach you
were a little more guarded. And you know, now obviously
on this side of things, uh, you're share more. But
I remember, and this is standing in that press conference, uh,

(24:50):
in that little press room there at the old Davy Complex,
and we had just traded for Ricky, and they talked
about the package and what we gave up and what
the what the value of the picks could be, and
and you're like, shoot, if Ricky reaches, that will be
in the Super Bowl. I remember those words. I remember
you saying those things, and then of course Ricky does.
But fast forward to that Denver game. As you said, so,

(25:14):
was that one of those moments where you're like, well,
see what happens? I stepped out more than I typically
would like to in a press conference. No, because I
knew that was the best chance we had to win
a Super Bowl. And when you have a top five defense,
and as I said before, you got the running back,
you can lead the NFL and rushing m v P
and the Pro Bowl and a Pro Bowl kicker, you

(25:35):
should win the Super Bowl. And you know, and you
don't have to have Dan Marino at quarterback. And j
was a winner. Jacob make throws, he can make, you know,
and that playoff game the one thing I still and
I saw Jay when I was coaching up at the
Buffalo Bills with Jan Daily. He came by to a
practice and we were kidding and we went up there
and we played. Uh. We went out and played Oakland.

(25:58):
Remember and you were playing Z or X. What did
you play in that game? You play that X? Okay,
I don't know the play, but I blame this on
Jay and your friendship with Jake, because we we were
we got we drove right down the field opening drive
and I don't know where we're wrapping. We're in the
we're in the red zone, we're inside the and we

(26:20):
called a fire pass and something and whatever the play was,
and he forced that damn ball to you. Somehow he
was trying to get the ball to O J and
the guy in the flat was open, and I used
to make me mad take the money and it got intercepted.

(26:40):
And they're great corner or safety. It's one of the
corners ran it down to about the going the other
way and they scored, and that turned the game around.
Then that you know, we're out there in the in
Oakland and the fans and and and they had a
really good team. And then but that was the we
score on that opening drive. Who knows, you know? So, now, coach,

(27:03):
this is funny to hear this story because because Juice
and I we do the post game show for the
Dolphins now as well on q A M. We do
postgame radio, and so we watched the games together, and
we were watching the game the other day and he
felt to a while he was going to a guy
that should get the ball a lot, and maybe he
was forcing it a little bit too much and he
shouldn't take the money, like you're saying. So now the
shoes on the other foot. But when Juice, when you're

(27:25):
the guy who's the ball is getting forced to, you
seem to have a different two Yeah, and you know
it's true. And and I'm gonna tell you what, every
time I turn the radio on, Ronde is saying the same,
damn ship, you know what I mean. He's coaching now,
and I can imagine what Patrick certain, If you're certain,

(27:46):
I still call him and and Sam Madison now with
they're coaching. I would love to hear what they're telling them.
Plane would I would love to sit in there and say,
you know what, you guys, I'll tell you what. Let
me let me play some tapes from a few. Oh
that's so good. That is good. Alright, go, let's keep
it moved with here. So you go tenant six and

(28:07):
two thousand three. You know, we talked about a little
bit early one in six teams actually that we're ten
and six and didn't make the playoffs. But you know
we're the ones that ever left out. But then in
two thousand and four just becomes a year from hell
in our opinion. You know, I'm I'm going to save
the Grand Finale for a big set. But over four
was a mess and in the making for the most part.
Let me look at it. First, you got a whole

(28:28):
situation with Danny being named senior vice president of obs,
Rick being named GM. Then Danny steps down the North
Turner takes to the Raider's head coaching job. Then you
named Joe Carl your o C. I mean he has
to step away, and you got the mess of Mark trustman.
Coach Seriously at this point where you're starting to think
you were snake bitten or something, man, oh absolutely. And

(28:50):
you know what, though, I'll tell you what I should
have done, and I won't tell you who I talked to.
But when Wayne came in, and Wayne and I had
a good report, and he said he was gonna bring
Danny and I said, okay. I said, so you're so,
what do you tell me? You tell me that Danny's
gonna be I'm gonna report to Danny. And he says, no, no, no,
you'll report to me. And I said okay. And I
was all four rick, you know, doing the personnel thing.

(29:13):
And I sat there and I made a call and
the guy told me, coach, there's five jobs open in
the NFL. Which one do you want? Which job do
you want? And I said, damn, you know, I got
my guys here, I liked my staff. I said, no,
you know, and Wayne extended my contract and but that

(29:35):
wasn't and I said, no, I'm gonna stick this thing
through because I believe in these guys in the system.
We got and will be five. Boy had some draft picks,
like everybody free agents. I'm I'm all in. I could
have left, and the guy said, coach, there's five jobs,
which one do you want? Just just tell me and
you got it. So I stayed, and don't you know,

(29:58):
and we have ignored believes OJ's right on point. Nor leaves.
So then I named Joel and we have a great
mini camp. I mean, it's going perfect. And then he
gets sick and he's got a step away. So now
I'm going into training camp with no offensive coordinator. Okay,

(30:19):
had two new coaches on our offensive step Okay. A
week before training camp, I am sitting over the Ricks
in Naples, which I did every year, having lunch with
my wife, and my phone rings, and I answered my phone.
It's Ricky and he I said, Rick, what's up? He says, coach,
I'm in Hawaii at that time. I think he was

(30:39):
on his way to India, some damn place. I said, Rick,
what are you talking about? He says, Now, Coach, I'm
I gotta step forward. So I says, don't do anything
and kill you talk to me let me, let me
figure this out. And the next day it's on news
and the story gets broke, and and Wayne didn't know

(31:01):
about it. Wayne obviously, uh, you know, he's disappointed that
I didn't let him know. But but Ricky told me,
you know, I didn't think he was gonna say anything
to anybody, and I was gonna try to get it
all solved and get him back, not even knowing that
there was gonna be a few games suspension or you know,
with the whatever happened there with you, with the testing
and stuff. So long story short, Ricky's gone. So now

(31:25):
we go into summer and we get hit with four hurricanes.
You forget this part. In five weeks, guys, we had
four hurricanes come through because we were they turned before
our opening game with the Titans, they turned our facility
into a shelter. And I remember, I remember sitting there

(31:46):
and there goes some little one of the players or
coaches or somebody, a little kid dragging a blanket, just
goes right by my door, and I'm thinking of my
this was like Wednesday game week, and I'm thinking, you
gotta be you know this The phone kiss and players
were it was a mess, a mess, and uh, so
you had the Hurricanes, you had Ricky out, and and

(32:07):
we're trying to split up the offensive coordinator's responsibilities and
everybody's got a different opinion and and it was a real,
real perfect storm. And there was nothing really that I
could have done about it. I mean, it was what
it was. So we dealt with it. And then, um,
you know when I when I stepped away, Wayne, I

(32:28):
think and I were talking, and here it's for the
first time that him and I had some difference of
opinions of who was supposed to play and and they
wanted to do some things, and uh, I said, I'm
not gonna do that because I will lose the locker room.
And I said, these players have been I'm not gonna
do that. You're the owner, you're my boss. If that's

(32:50):
how you feel, then we we've got a problem. And
he said, well, then we we got a problem because
this is got So two days later I was out.
I left, but it was but it would have and
I knew how the guys in the locker room fell.
And Jay was struggling real bad then, you know, his
shoulder was bothering him. I mean, he was beat up.

(33:11):
It was a tough, tough deal, and um and Danny
had already gone. Danny was there. I'll tell you a
funny story. So Danny takes the job and we get
on to the the Singer Bowl and we're sitting there
at night and Dan comes in. It's me, Rick' Billman,
George Peyton, and Danny and we had Danny the paper

(33:32):
and we said, you know, these are the free agent
guys that we were gonna sign quarterback in addition to Jay.
And Dan takes it and he looks at this. I
laughed like hell, and then he flips it over and
he says, well, where's the names at? And I says,
where's the names? That's the name? Do you want John Kidnap?
Do you want? You know? And I started naming all
these guys out there, who do you want to sign?

(33:55):
And I told him the same thing I think I
used Peton Manning. I said, you really think that pet
man he's gonna be on this list then, and we
all kind of laughed, you know, and and wait. So
then we go back to Miami and I go buy
him a nice bottle of Opus wine and I tell
Anne Rodriguez, who was the secretary of Assistant I said, Anne,

(34:18):
take this down and put this on Dan's desk, and
he was like in the other wind. So one day
goes by, two days goodbye, a week goes by. I finally,
you know, I said, anybody see Dan? They said, the
open still sitting on his desk. Wait a second, Wait

(34:38):
a second. Don't don't rule my story, my coach, so
I said, I said, has anybody seen Dan? It's like
two weeks. No, I didn't seen Dan. I'm seen Dan,
I said, I'll be right back. So I myself. I
walked on and right in the middle of his desk
is that two hundred and fifty dollar bottle of open.
Guess what I did. I grabbed that damn bottle and

(35:01):
and I walked it right back to my office. Good
for you, hilarious. I said, I'm gonna take this thing
before uh, the trainers, before the equipment guys, or somebody
walks by. Marc Leoni. I think Mark Leoni might have
grab snatched it off the day. I said, still Watstein,
I know it's gonna be up here sniffing around somewhere.

(35:22):
Stew is gonna be looking at that wine. I'm gonna
get that. I remember you coming up to me in
the in the weight room, coach and say, hey, what
have you heard anything from Dan? Have you heard anything
about that? I didn't know it because the bottle of
Open's was still sitting on the desk. I wasn't allowed
over there. It's funny. Dan and I flew back together, me,
him and Jimbo Covert. We flew from Florida to pitt

(35:43):
last summer for a fundraiser O j C. We're doing
some of that n I LL stuff at pit Tell
Pence State. Be careful, but so so so we we
flew up there and uh and we played golf in
a nice resort with all the pit guys and stuff,
and we were we were laughing. We had a great time.
We've flew up and flew back together from Fort Lauderdale,
you know right there. Yeah, you know, it's so funny, man.

(36:05):
That's that's that's that's great stuff. Man. It's you know,
Seth wanted to talk to you more about Ricky, but
you know, you know, I blame Seth, coach, and don't
blame yourself for all the carries and he had all
the workload you put in. Seth's the one that had
that conversation Ricky probably right before he called you man.
So I've been blaming Seth for the last four years
for Ricky's retirement. You know, he said this to Rick Spielman,

(36:29):
and Rick said he was gonna drive down two hours
and kick my ass. It's all sethful. He's the one
that told him, yeah, you should shut it down. He
didn't say what happened. Hold on, juice, that did not happen.
Did not happen. You better tell Dave the real story, then, Seth, Well,
what was coach about to say? I'm trying with Well,
I got a Ricky story. You know. I was when

(36:52):
was the super Bowl in Miami three years ago when
I saw o J was that that we were this
little dale, little parents and Ricky showed up her. That's
the first time that I had seen Ricky since he
left the way, but the last time I saw him
when he left. How about this, I get my We
have a mini camp and everything is going perfect, so
I had I had to get my knee operated on.

(37:12):
So I get my knee operator on downer in Miami
and Harvey Green comes to me and says, rick Ricky
got this award. Uh, there was an arts school music
arts school down in the city, and it was a
private school and they were going under. They didn't have finances,
and Ricky had sold a couple of cars or a

(37:32):
condo or something, but he made a huge couple hundreds
of thousand dollar donation to this school. So at that
time President Bush awarded Ricky a plaque for what he did, okay,
for education and so forth. So they were going to
present him this award in front of the school with
this big function. So Harvey comes to me and says, coach,

(37:56):
uh we we we gotta help out on this. And
I said, and I'm on crutches, No this is And
I said, what are you talking about. He says, well,
they were gonna Jeb Bush, President Bush's brother was the
governor of the state of Florida, remember Jeb was Jeb
was gonna fly down and present Ricky with this award.
Ricky said no. So then Harvey goes and says, Okay,

(38:19):
we're gonna have Mr Heyzingle will show up and present
this award. He says no. Ricky says, the only way
I show up and accept this award if coach watsdad,
you got to give it to me. This is how
this is how close they were. So I'm a day
out of surgery, so I tell my wife and you shouldn't,
you know, I said. So I climbed my ass in

(38:41):
the backseat of a car and I've got it lifted
up that I drived onto this thing. And I hobble
on stage on crutches two days after surgery and present
Ricky with this award and we're hugging on stage. That's
the last time I see him to I get the
phone call when he's gone until until a couple of
years ago. Yeah, true story. You know what's crazy about that?

(39:04):
You talk about that that meeting we all had at
that appearance. I remember being right beside you, coach, and
you know, whoever was helping us with the event or
organized the event came up to you almost like whispered
to you. But I was right there and I could
hear it, Like, you know, Ricky just pulled up and
I think they're word that you were gonna be worried,
you know what I mean, And Ricky walks up. Man,
it was like komba ya man. Like you guys. It

(39:25):
was such a cool for me to be able to
be a part and see you know, you guys seeing
each other for the first time since that day. It
was just pretty awesome for me as well. That's cool. Yeah,
he's come on my radio show here in Chicago and
when we talked a little bit, so yeah, we're fun.
I mean, you know, things happen and people grow up
in life, still doing short. So let's talk about I'm

(39:49):
even friendly with Harvey Green. Now that's say a lot.
Harbory and Harvey and I used to play golf. We
would go out to Miami League Lakes out there Coach
Showless Place, and we would play golf. And he loved
the bet and I love to take his money and
we and we were betting one time on a dinner. Okay,

(40:12):
I said, I'll bet you from here. Let's we'll go
have dinner winner, you know, dinner. Sure enough, he chokes
the last three holes, knocks it in the water. I win.
And he's walking up on eight ten and he says,
and you thought it was gonna be a steak dinner.
I'm stopping at McDonald's. I believe it sounds like Harvard

(40:34):
said Harvey. That's right, oh, j I said Harvey. I've
got surprised. I understand too, funny too funny. Well, let's
talk about some of the other guys. Obviously we spent
a lot of time talking about Ricky and and and
that's understood. But you know, you mentioned Jay Fiedler, you
mentioned Lindo, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Sam and Pat Now

(40:55):
you talked about them, Timbo, Chris Chambers, Mark Dixon. There's
so many guys that, you know, I had the honor
of working with, you said, the honor of calling TEAMMS.
What kind of memories do you have of just the
group of men that you coached here. Yeah, they were
all different personalities, you know, for sure, as as all
players are. And uh, you know, I I you try

(41:16):
to to kind of make a little connection with each
guy for different reasons. At least I always have to
suck a little special with each guy, you know. And
Jason and I were for Pittsburgh guys, you know. And
and I and his mother was still teaching school to
school out there in Pittsburgh, and we knew a lot
of the same people. His high school coach was a
guy that graduated the same time as I did from

(41:39):
high school. When I knew his coach real well. And
and Jason was always so smart. I mean, he he
was a guy that if I was gonna do something
with the team, I could always run up by Jason
in confidence ahead of time and say, hey, what do
you think about this? And if he thought it was
a bad idea and say, I don't know, coach, you
might want to stay away from that. So he was

(42:00):
trusted that way. And and Zack because of the Texas,
you know, and and that was kind of my specialty
defense middle linebackers, middle linebackers. So I really enjoyed not
just a relationship but trying to help him, you know.
And here he is a Pro Bowl guy, but I
really kind of got into trying to find ways to

(42:21):
make his game better. And and Sam and Pat and
those guys they were a trip, you know, Timbo. I
was just just hoping Timbo showed up every week because
if he did, him though, if he didn't show up
ready to go, let me tell you something. Zach would
be mopen because he knew that he was gonna be
getting blocked. And Jason and Wally a Gounley or Trace Armstrong,

(42:45):
they would be mopen if Timbo because they knew they
weren't gonna get sacks. And That's what people don't understand.
When Trace had thirteen and fourteen and Jason had thirteen
and fourteen sacks, they were the guys coming off the edge.
But truly it was Tim Bowen's in the middle that
pushed the pile and there was no room him, Darryl Gardner,

(43:05):
all those guys. There was no place for the quarterback
to That's what people don't understand about pass rush. The
greatest pass rush teams. It's like the Philadelphia Eagles now
they're leading the league in sacks. They got great edge guys,
but they got Fletcher Cox in the middle, and Fletcher
Cox is kind of like a Tim Bowen's where he's
gonna push that pile inside and knock him back and
there's never a place for the quarterback to step up

(43:28):
and escape the and the outside guys are the ones
that get all the sacks. So, you know, everybody kind
of had their niche and uh, you know, it was
just a great group. I mean obviously talented. You know,
Pat was great because he was young, and he would listen.
Sam wouldn't listen to anything I had to say, and uh,

(43:49):
and and and and Sam was oh god, Sam. And
I had some conversations, and uh, you know, it was funny.
And and when I left, Sam was probably the first
guy and he come in my office and got very
emotional and and I hadn't seen that side of Sam Madison.
And I'll tell you what I've I've never forgotten. I've
gone on the radio with him. He was doing dolphin stuff. Yeah, yeah,

(44:15):
because I went on with him a couple of times,
I think, and uh, you know, Sam's a special guy.
Was obviously a great player. Coach Madison we call him now.
Yeah about so coach. You know you in the eighteen years,
uh since you left here, you've coached a lot of ball,
You've lived a lot of life. Obviously now doing a
lot of interviews. I'm curious and I guess we kind

(44:36):
of alluded to it at the beginning of the show,
but just when you look back at your experience here,
kind of the legacy left because I think sometimes, you know,
there's a lot of conversation about, oh, Dave is just
a great guy, a great man, but you know, could
he have done more or whatever? But then you look
at your record forty two and thirty one in the
regular season. That's more wins than any Dolphins head coach

(44:56):
not named Don Shula in the history of this franchise,
do you ever do you ever even give thought to
your legacy here? No, you know it and in some respects,
And I'll be honest, I mean, I can do what
I want here in Chicago, and we we had one
playoff win in Chicago the whole time I was here,
and uh and never won ten games once. And it's

(45:16):
the mentality, I don't know, Don. In Miami it was
just different, you know, I don't know. Uh, you know,
sometimes it's it's a little bit disappointing. Sometimes I'll be
very awnesome with you, you know, and I get hurt,
But I really I've never given it a whole lot
of thought. You know. It is what it is. And uh, yeah,
you know, the four years and I keep saying four

(45:37):
but the four years for full years that I was there,
we were the third winning is franchise in the NFL.
Philadelphia and Green Bay were the only two teams that
won more games in US. Yeah, and that's a lot
to be proud of you and I know, and I
know that, and the football people know that. And I
never really got hung up on anything else to be honestly,
And I'm gonna tell you what, coach, before we let

(45:58):
you get out of here. I mean, got a couple
of things, but you said a couple of things, and
we just talked about you as a coach, and how
many people and how many you know, fans and people
in this organization would love to have those eleven wins seasons,
those ten win seasons, now, you know, And I think
you're right, Coach McDaniels, on the right path. You also
made a comment about Jay Feeler, about the winner. He
is the winner that he is. And you look at

(46:20):
all the quarterbacks we've had, and we haven't had that
type of success of that position, you know since Jay,
and that's uh, you know, so yeah, people they always
want something else, seemed like something a little different. But
then when we've got something good and in a coach
and a quarterback, you know, they remember it once we
have such a long stand or a long stretch of
mediocre around here, you know. Yeah, Well, I appreciate your saying, oh,

(46:43):
Jay was the best. I remember we opened up the
season that one year Don in Tennessee and they had
never lost in that stadium. They were undefeated, and uh,
that's when they had McNair and they had Eddie George
and and they had a defensive line and it was
unheard of the freak they called him and and and

(47:05):
I remember chan Daily. He grabbed me and he says
he called Ja and he says, Coach, we gotta have
this conversation. I said, what's the problem. He says, we
can't drop back and throw the ball. We'll get killed.
J will not have time. So if we don't throw screens,
and we gotta run a bunch of quarterback runs. And
I said, well, Jay, are you ready for this? And
he says, I'm ready, coach, whatever we gotta do to

(47:26):
win this game. And and third time we did not
drop back. One time we threw through screens the Lamar.
We threw tight end screens, receiver screens, and he ran
about five quarterback runs in that game and we beat them.
We beat them. Yeah, that's great stuff, man. Alright, coach,
were talked about it, man. And you know something I

(47:46):
always talk about. This is part of our show right here.
We always do this thing called a two minute drill.
And no game or practice work ship without him, you know,
without great two minute drill. Yeah, the same thing goes
on with this podcast, and Jay was one of the
best at running two minute drill. He knew the offense
inside out, the hand signals and we uh we we
we had a lot of fun with that. But what
we're gonna do is we want to fire off some

(48:06):
questions at you and then we're gonna let you go.
But first, when I think of two minute drills, you know,
it brings back, I hate to say, bring me back
to an incident at one of our practices and involved
me and the guy a little bit bigger than me,
Daryl Gardner. One. My bad, Yeah, my bad for having
you know, for stirring sit up. But secondly, you know

(48:28):
what was going on in your mind when it was
going down. Yeah, I'm trying to all our when you
said you and Daryl Gardner you had to be in
the right, Darrel had to be wrong just knowing the players, huh.
I'm trying to remember the details of it. So take
take help me out a little bit. Yeah, so we're
I think we're I think we're in the training camp.

(48:48):
I'm obviously not practice. I'm banged up and I'm still
from coming back from my surgery, and you had us
doing two minute drill for conditioning going in and I'm
on the field, like going down to strip the plays,
and Darrell took himself out two minutes drill. And so
of course, me, with the big mouth that I have,
you know, challenge Darrell to get his ass back on
the field. And Darrell didn't like it very much. You

(49:08):
didn't like it at all. Actually, yeah, so he came
back on the field not to play defense, but to
get at me, you know what I mean. And so, yeah,
so we had a little I I remember, And now
did I throw Darrel off the field or did I
throw you off? I think you threw the whole team
off the field. I think that you were practice on
the spot. Everybody gets you know, it's it, you have

(49:29):
to We had to speak, but see I was already
walking out out anyways. But I think you talked to
the whole team about that ship. And yeah, but I
hope that, you know, hope it galvanize us a little bit,
you know what I mean? Well, absolutely no, I uh.
I drafted Bobby Ingram out of Penn State, and Bobby
and I are still good friends. He and offensive coordinator

(49:51):
up there at Wisconsin now. And when I drafted him
at the Bears. He was on the board and we
were talking about guys and I said, you know what,
this guy is a version the closest guy I've seen
the O J mcduckie about that on the field, mentality
off the field. We gotta have this guy on our

(50:11):
team because he will help us win. And that was
that was my conversation to draft him. We drafted Bobby
Ingram and uh and and Bobby came through for you.
He was unbelievable. Bobby did everything. Great guy. That's a
great guy man, you know, And that was one of
my you know, you know, we do it a Pain
State coach. You know, I'm the one that hosted him,
and of course I sealed the deal, you know what
I mean. You know another question I've got. You talked

(50:34):
speaking of a couple of Pains State guys. I don't
know if you remember this, but I remember I came
up to you and I asked you. I said, a coach,
what's the word on the street about a guy named
Kjohnah Carter? And you're like, Johnnah Carter, Well, I haven't
heard that name in a long time. And sir ship,
you gave him, you brought him in and gave him
a tryout, you know what I mean, I did, I did.
I remember the running back he had been with the

(50:54):
Bengals or somebody. I think it was right, and I
remember that yep, absolutely, yeah, Yeah, and you extended his
career because we didn't sign him, but he didn't. He
had to work out with Washington, I think in New
Orleans and he got a few more years in the
league because of that. Yeah, that's that's exactly right. That's
exactly right. And Coach Houston Kajana were neighbors, so I

(51:15):
think O J just didn't want some weird person moving
in next door to him, so he was trying to
get Kajana gig. So I know it meant a lot
to him that you gave him that shot. Well, I
gave lot of I made every time I do some
radio shows up here with Crew, who was a center
for the parish. Yeah, and we brought all and down
for a visit. I thought, you're gonna sign a free agent,
and they doubled his money up here. So every time
I see him, he says, man, you made me a

(51:36):
lot of money, coach down, Yeah, but you didn't. You
didn't come down here and block anybody for me, did
nothing for me, right right, exactly right. Yeah, I didn't
mean to get us all tracks. So here we go.
Oh wait a minute, coach. Now we also asked now
we're doing two minutes. You you want to be on
the defense side of the ball or the offense side

(51:56):
of the ball with this, because offense use you asked
for time, ouse defense wants just a clock. Keep running.
You tell us what you like. I'm I'm playing defense.
I'm not letting you two guys. I've got to defend
myself with you two guys. All right, well, we've got
some real fastballs here for you. Okay, First and foremost,
you already talked about it a little bit. You and

(52:17):
Harvey Green had a great personal and professional relationship. You
talked a little bit about his golf game. You also
were jogging, buddies. I want to know what was more impressive,
his running ability or his golf game running because he
only had to move straight ahead and move his legs,
he didn't have to move his whole body. Lateral movement
was gonna be trouble. That golf swing, I heard, is

(52:39):
pretty impressive. Golf swingers horrible. Charles Barkley is okay coach.
Three of your former Dolphin players, Sam Madison, Pastor Tan
and West Walker are currently members of the coaching staff. Now,
what other players junr tenure in Miami do you think
would be a great coach? Well, Jason Taylor and he
Steiner coaching at to you, so you knew Jason and

(53:00):
would be uh, you know who? Zach Thomas could be
an unbelievable coach with his personality and everything. Zach would
be off standing and you know we're talking offense. How
about Jay Feedler. I think Jay, you know, the smartest
guy in the in the room and uh and got
the personality I think to relate to the entire team.

(53:23):
Is a pretty good wide receiver coach. You think he'd
be a good coach? Yeah, I do. I I gotta
see that in action. I believe it when you see it.
Too good, too good? All right. I don't know if
you'll remember this one. And he's holding up the clock now,
but our very own d J. Priest is better known
to you as Shawn Todd, a former operations assistant. He
told a story on this podcast of you taking the

(53:44):
team in two thousand to remember the Titans, and he said,
you gave him one You gave him one job. He
had one job, and it was make sure we go
right to the movie. I don't want any credits, I
don't want any bullshit. Go right to the movie. And
then that the jector comes on and incomes that little
Pepsi girl walking through the saloon. What was going through

(54:06):
your head? I was looking for a todd I guar
the last thing I wanted was Tim Bowens or Darryl
Gardner heading back there with a handful of cash to
start buying candy and in a movie. We were wating
to watch the game, and we were coming back and
going to work. It was a business trip. Too funny,

(54:27):
too funny. We got one more. We're gonna get one
morning here. Now. I think that's I think that's good, good,
all right, we'll end it on that the two minute drill.
He is Dave wants that coach. Thank you so much
for answering my email, for crying out loud, let alone,
jumping on and spending some time with us. It really
really was a pleasure. Anything I can do to help
you guys, you let me know I'm in Okay, Thanks

(54:48):
for having in coach. Okay, see you guys, be safe.
I'm a minute stake who sitting down with step living down,
oh Jo. And this is strictly for them true fans,

(55:10):
Dol fans number one one of course, y'all. This how
ordinary sports talk. I've been a bitch take