March 9, 2023 • 43 mins
Miami Dolphins Tales From The Deep Regarded as the preeminent historian on professional football, Joe Horrigan has spent the past 45 years with the Pro Football Hall of Fame, serving in a multitude of positions, most recently as Executive Director and his current role as Senior Advisor. During his tenure, Joe has administered the selection process for hundreds of “Gold Jackets,” including all 11 Miami Dolphins who are enshrined in Canton. In this episode, Joe discusses Zach Thomas’ recent selection and shares legendary stories about Dolphins icons including Don Shula, Dan Marino, and Larry Csonka. Contributors to this episode include Sean “DJ Prec” Todd and Dolphins Productions. Theme song created and performed by The Honorable SoLo D. The Fish Tank is Presented by iHeart Radio.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're now diving sitting down and this is strictly for them.
Number one one, of course, yall, just all the nearest
(00:23):
was Talk Fish Tank. Welcome back to the Fish Tank,
presented by iHeartRadio right here on the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network.
Seth Levitt, DJ Pretich is missing in action today, but
the man with the best hands in the podcast business
is here O j McDuffie, Jews. How you feeling great,
big Seth. And then you know, I'm always feeling good
(00:43):
about certain things that we do. You know, offensive guys,
guys I played with, and definitely when you talk to
somebody from Ohio, it's always a big thing for me. Bro,
you know what I mean, Let's go yeah, pretty much.
Three things that will make it work. Well, that's somebody
from Ohio, isn't somebody? This is Joe Horigan. And for
those of you who that name doesn't ring a bell, uh,
(01:06):
you might be Miami Dolphins fans. We'll hope your Miami
Dolphins fans if you're in this podcast. But Joe Horrigan
is so kurt right now. I guess Joe, we're gonna
say Senior Advisor Hall of Fame as the title um
prior to that executive director and in your forty five
years with the Hall, I imagine you had a couple
of different hats that you wore. But I'm just gonna
(01:27):
call you one of the pre eminent football historians in
the country. That'll work just fine. I'll answer anything. Maybe
not anything, Joe. Let's see how this you know it was.
I was having a hard time getting it my uh,
my arms wrapped around the idea of being, you know,
somebody from Ohio. I mean, I'm thinking Ohio. I've only
been here forty five years ago, where you know where
(01:55):
we used to just scream scis. Don't do it so early.
I don't want to turn this thing off, all right,
So now I'll be I'll go back to being from
a Yeah, I playing Florida now because I've been most
of my life here. See that's it, yep, right right,
(02:18):
just when things were going good. So so, Joe, look,
I don't know if this is still the case, but
I know in your role as executive director at the
Hall of Fame, one of your responsibilities was to administer
the enshrined process, the selection process. Is that something you
still yeah, I still I still involved, although it's not
my primary responsibility like it was for about I don't know,
(02:40):
almost three decades. Yeah, it's Richter Roscher now, who was
a VP of Communications and Content took over that role
pretty much while I was going. He continues in that role.
I you know, I served his at his leisure in
any capacity. I can't God, you know, obviously he's certainly
is tapped the old institutional knowledge button now and then
(03:02):
institutional knowledge at this point for sure, I should be institutionalized.
That goes back to that story your wife was that
you were telling them about your wife too much fun,
So she was institutionalized with me being as she's saying,
you're right back to work. I love it. Oh, I
love it. So look we we uh Now, you know,
(03:24):
you kind of blew it with the buffalo squish the
fish thing. But what we tried to do here was
way to invite you on this show until after Zach
Thomas was actually selected, because the last thing we wanted
to do was feed you to our hungry doll fans
who have spent literally the last decade just beside themselves
that Zach didn't have a gold jacket, but now that
(03:44):
he will, that he's being fitted for one we can
talk a little bit about the process, and specifically, what
I want to ask you is, why do you think
certain players who ultimately are recognized as Hall of Famer
Zach would be one, you know, John Lynch comes to mind,
Guys like that, Why do you think they kind of
get caught up in the weeds for a little while
or even a long while in some case. Oh yeah,
it couldn't be very long. Sometimes. Yeah, it's so many
(04:07):
different reasons, but I guess the you know, in most
of the most of the cases, it comes down to numbers.
You know, there are only five modern era players selected
each year, and let's say three of them come off
one year or the five come off in one year.
That means that those ten from the fifteen finalists are
(04:28):
still sitting there, and they tend to come back. So
it doesn't open up a lot of slots every year
to bring in first year eligibles. You know, when you
have a guy, excuse me, like a Joe Thomas who
was a first year eligible candidate take a spot, that
leaves four for veteran players who weren't on that fifteen
finalists list a year before. So it's kind of this
this slow loss of position, if you will. Many times
(04:53):
a well deserved player kind of gets lost in the weeds,
as you said, as some body or multiple persons from
his position come out as first and second year players. Perhaps,
you know, we get log jams. We've done it a
couple of times with wide receivers, remember Chris Carter on
no need and Tim Brown just you know, just split
(05:14):
the vote for I don't know how many years went
on until finally, one at a time, Hall three eventually
made it. Kenny Riley's going in this year after waiting,
he came in as a senior candidate. And you know,
I knew Kenny, and Kenny I used to always tell
him when I would see him as a candidates, it's
a matter of time, not if. And that's a hard
thing for candidates to believe, but in most instances it's true.
(05:39):
And what we've been doing, we've been trying to do anyway,
is to catch up. Before I retired, we had a
something called the Centennial Class where we had an enlarged
group of numbers of senior candidates being considered report in ten.
That was to do some catch up work because these
guys that get put into the senior candidate pool really
(06:00):
get buried. So we brought and we were really lucky
and fortunate to get some of the guys here, but
we left somebody behind. We realized that it was just
you know, it was a great effort, great first step,
but it didn't solve the problem, and the problem will
never solve because there's so many great players coming out
that retire and so on. But anyway to reporter, our
president now decided that we would have three senior possibly
(06:21):
three senior nominees each year. They will have three d nominees.
We don't know if they'll get elected, but you know,
that's three more seniors than we would have been, two
more seniors than we would have been having every year.
So there's an attempt to make sure that we're going
back and looking looking at these guys that fell through
the cracks, that were victims of their own position perhaps
or the just a great number of first year eligible,
(06:44):
second and third year olds was coming out to push
the list further down. So we continue to look at
the system, always trying to refine it, make it work
without deluding it, right right right, there's that part too.
I know one of our great friends of this podcast,
Mark Clayton. He'll be happy to hear there's a few
more senior spots ago. But you know, we've had those
(07:04):
conversations here for quite some time. But we were glad
that Zach did get in and and uh, and we're
gonna talk a little bit more about that process, specifically
to Zach, just because obviously that's so fresh right now
in our hearts. But it was one of those deals
or people were watching and say, wait a second, how
is he not and this and that and this guy
and the whole thing. So we said we're gonna get
Joe on after Zach gets that. Well, I'm glad we
(07:28):
were able to agree. But you know, I took a
vacation and came back and Zach get selected some there
must be some connection. Well, welcome back Joe. That's well, yeah,
that's probably why he got Joe back in the building,
big sett. You know what I mean? If thinking of that, Joel,
how's that work? Are you actually in the room during
(07:49):
the selection process? I mean, I mean we understand you
know what it said in that room is it's kept
under wraps for sure, But this time you sense that
Zach was gonna, you know, was gaining momentum and that
this you know, over the past couple of years, and
it might be the opportunity you know, you can yeah,
see that. That's the thing is, you know, it's hard
to explain this to particularly the candidates, but the fans
even more. When they don't see their players' names, sometimes
(08:11):
they think, oh, he's forever forgotten, and it's usually not
the case. You know, if he gets to that twenty
five semifinalists list, that's a that's a great honor really,
and then you look at that listen, you say, how
on God's green earth are you're gonna get just take
five of these guys you're looking at, you know, great players.
So you kind of have to explain to folks that,
you know, somebody's gonna have to be cut. You know,
(08:33):
it's like a coach making a decision. And just like
a coach, sometimes he's not cutting, you know that you're
taking or keeping the best twenty or fifteen of twenty five.
He's making judicial decisions like, all right, i've got six
wide receivers here, they're not all going to get elected
this year. Let's let's pick our top three or whatever.
You know, each selector's mind works a little differently in
(08:55):
terms of making those cuts. It's not just looking at
you know, apples to apples times and that's the tough part.
So when it gets down to fifteen, that's where the
rubber really hits the road. And again I get to
that point where people don't understand. They'll say so and so,
first year eligible, he's a slam dunk and he doesn't
make it. Well, that's because these other guys that were
(09:15):
in the final fifteen the year before that were so close.
They get a little bit of an edge in the
sense that, hey, you know, he's been waiting seventeen years.
Let's take a look at him. He's either in or
he's out. You know, let's let's make a decision here
that eliminates the spot. So you know, it's it's a process.
It's really the only way I can say it. And
then when we get in the room and we're talking
(09:37):
about the fifteen modern era finalists and then now three seniors,
and we have another category either a coach or a contributor.
When you're talking about these eighteen people, it's life changing.
These guys. The selectors take that so seriously. They know
how much it means to each and every one of
them and their families. That's the tough part. Well, if
(09:57):
you ever have to make a phone call and tell
somebody they didn't make it, it's usually the family that reacts,
you know, rather than the player or the coach and
the contributor. They understand the process a little bit, but boy,
family sure takes it's this you had to, you know,
explain anything, and they do. They call you, Joe directly.
What happens when the family get well, you know, and
(10:19):
I'll say it this way most time, most of the
times the families don't call back, you know, as we
have called them in the sense of calling the player,
and frankly, if the wife is there, it's you know,
you know it. But it's more likely to happen when
the when the Hall of famers deceased and his children
or wife or whatever they're you know, they're so hopeful
(10:40):
for what they felt, you know, should have been, should
have occurred before the man passed. So it's very emotional
thing until they get elected. And then, like I constantly
tell people, once you're elected to the Pro Football Hall
of Fame, nobody remembers how many years you wait, you know,
Oh gee, let me ask you this, Lin Swan, great
less on, a great receiver, you know, fantastic, big playmaker.
(11:03):
Do you think he was selected in his first, second,
or third year of eligibility? Man, they won all the
super bows. Because you're asking me, I'm gonna say it's
third time. Actually it was his fourteenth year of eligi.
I did, yeah, year, fourteen years. They waited so and
(11:23):
nobody cares. You know, once you're elected, you're you know,
you're in the Hall of Fame. So that's the way
it really works. And Zach was here yesterday along with
Joe Thomas and Rondey Barber and then the families of
Don Coryelle and Ken Riley. And I'll tell you that's
a real good mix of what I'm talking about. We
(11:45):
had a first year eligible player, we had ronde Barber
who waited a little bit, and we had Zach and
we had two deceased Hall of famers. So you get
the feedback from each of these groups, and to a person,
they all said the same thing that it was a
painful wait, except for Joe Thomas differently. Yeah, but it's
all once it's over. But it was Joe Thomas who
(12:06):
was making the point it doesn't matter how long you waited,
you're in knowing who it is. But you know that
you know, And I can't say every times I've heard it,
you know, And I just think I got guys and
it feels good when they come back to see I
remember you're telling me it's a matter of when not if, Untie,
(12:26):
I want to ask you this on top of that, Now,
the guys that do get in that have been waiting,
have you had a bad reaction from some of those
families as well? Like, I mean, no, you know, it's
all forgetting, you know, it's you know, I went from
being a bumm to being their best friend right right.
As specific to Zach, and again, I like Drew said,
you know, you probably don't want to get into too much,
(12:47):
but we had some internet Jason Cole was on the
podcast recently and told a really cool story about Patrick
Willis's presenter actually advocating for Zach, which was kind of phenomenal.
And yeah, well, what at what point did you start?
I mean, I guess once they're in the room, you
already see that there's some momentum, But when did you
start to think that there was this shift that like
his time is coming soon. Well, you know, it's funny
(13:08):
because you know, as we're going through the process and
you can't help but do it. You know, you're in
the room and you're looking at that list and you're saying, well,
I'm going to do my own little voting here. How
close I get. I've never right so and I could
be more close to the system than I am, Yet
I can't. I mean, I could get the first guy
I can get. Joe Thomas is going to go from
(13:29):
fifteen to ten and probably ten to five. But I
you know, I'm saying, oh, maybe not. You know, but
it's the it's kind of the dark horses that emerge,
and you feel it when they're you know, when you
particularly when they cut to ten, when you get to
ten and they you know, they're really looking at now
this is the core group we're considering. Then you hear
the passion please and they really you know, get to
(13:51):
the put the meat on the bone, so to speak,
and give the case of why this guy and not
that guy. You know, if it comes down to the
same position or having waited twenty years, whatever it might be,
that's when all of the arguments are made and you
feel like boy, any one of these guys could go up,
I'm gonna guess and take five. Sure, and I'm lucky.
(14:12):
How well did ye? I was gonna say, how well
did you do? This year? I got three consent? You know,
your heart goes with some place some of them, you know,
and you know what you so you're it's it's really tough.
And I always told our selectors this as I'm so
glad you guys vote because I couldn't do it. I
(14:33):
really couldn't. It's just emotionally draining, it really is. Let's
move on to something that you and I got to
work together a little bit on, and that's the speeches.
So Zach mentioned to me recently that this class, what
is it now? Six or eight minutes? What are they technically? Well,
we actually told that it was six to eight up
till this year. Okay, and we are trying, like I say,
(14:54):
we always review and see what we can do to
make things better. We've gone from eight to ten. Okay,
so they've gotten a little expert Yeah, and I try
to explain, you know, each new class, you know, has
to understand this. You know, it's a televised event. Obviously,
not that that's totally dictating how we do this, but
it has an influence obviously. But if you just say
every Hall of Famer took the full ten minutes, which
(15:16):
is fine, there's also a three and a half minute
video that precedes them from you know, where we have
their presenter making their presentation remarks and then from there
they go. The presenter and the Hall of Famer then
unveiled the bronze bus together. So it's really about a
fifteen minute block that each Hall of Famer is given
during TV time And that's kind of how I kind
(15:37):
of look at it as we're setting this up. So
if you take that time's nine, you know, you're really
getting into two and a half hours of the three
hours show, and there's twenty four minutes of commercials, so
you're really hit three hours before you ever go over time. Yeah,
so that's for the last guy speaking. You know, you
(15:58):
don't want to have a four hour show. People have
fallen asleep, left or whatever. So that leads me to
where I'm going with this thing, because back in twenty
seventeen when JT went in, there was a little bit
more time that they had, and then they also took
some liberties done on that time, and so I remember,
so juice is kind of a cool thing, you know.
(16:19):
I got to know JT and I met two or
three ten times a week because he was preparing for
the speech, and we went over everything. And then once
it was a first draft, the requirement was we needed
to send it to Joe Horgan. So I sent it
to Joe and Joe said, hey, this is good, or
this is that you might you know, maybe you could
trim some fat here with some words. It was really
kind of a cool editing process. What do you do
(16:40):
when someone turned something into you and you can look
at it right away and no, yeah, this is like
a novel here, like, you know, how do you handle that?
Two bad things? Two things can happen. One can be
like that where it's just so long there's just no
way to edit it. Or the other guy who comes
in and says, hey, eight minutes, I can handle this.
I don't even need notes. Oh oh my, that's that's
(17:05):
the worst. I won't give you his name, but somebody
told me that not too long ago, and then went
twenty eight minutes. You know. So, but in any case,
but the long ones, you know, to your point set
is really what people when they send it to me,
and I try to tell them this. I will not
edit content, I will not take out content, but I
can tell you how to eliminate redundancies. You know, you
(17:28):
thank your mom six times? I think one was enough,
you know. Or you can use contractions instead of two words.
He did not, No, he didn't. You know, Just get colloquial,
Get comfortable with the way you're speaking, the two year
every day speak, you know, don't try to, you know,
sound like Daniel Webster up there every time. You know,
it's good to be prepared, but be yourself. And we
(17:50):
have a teleprompter and it moves only at the pace
of the speaker, so it's you know, it's a much
smoother process right now, even since jat, I mean it
really is. It really has gotten to the point where
they believe, first of all, that what we're telling them
that we're cutting the time on the speeches so that
everybody has an even uh let's call it a level
(18:11):
playing field. You don't want one guy to dominate the time.
And then we also bring in, you know, the professionals
aside for myself and Rich de Rosier, you know, who
is now helping edit some of these speeches, and I
don't even like calling it editing. It's it's more of advising.
You know, just here's your speech. I got it, here's
the highlights. They're great. But you know, maybe you don't
(18:32):
need an engineers. And I think that's fair, Joe, because
that was the experience that I had with you. I
didn't feel like you were telling us what needed to
be in there, but there was definitely some advice to
right right. Well, I've had speeches where when they start
with you know, well in the first grade, I think no, no, no, no, no, no.
You know we had one, we had one Hall of Famer,
(18:52):
thank you the doctor who delivered him. Well, I think
that's starting at the beginning. Indeed, indeed, so let me.
I'm almost scared to ask you this, but I actually
I think I know the answer, So I'm really scared
to ask. But do we know which Miami dolphin delivered
the longest speech of any dolphin that's in the Hall
of Fame? Oh? You know what, They've been pretty good,
(19:15):
you know, um, dolphins are disciplined, particularly the Don Shula dolphins.
Jason May Jason may have been the longest, and it
wasn't bad. It really wasn't you know good, you know,
back in the day, and I see this truth that,
you know, when we used to have the enshrinment ceremony
out on the front steps in the sun, getting beaten
(19:38):
down as hot. We didn't have TV. It was just
a continuous go so the pressure wasn't on. But ironically
there was really not much need for coaching because they
most of the guys got up and were two or
three minutes. I mean, they were very quick. As it
got to be a television production and each year Hall
of Famers new Hall of Famers, they've seen, you know,
the last ten years or whatever. We make it so
(20:00):
dramatically produced, too well produced, that I think they feel
this obligation sometimes to be you know, the I don't
know that the best they can be in terms of
their or art. Let me get the right word here,
horrible skills, you know, they want to get the right
word there. But I think you're right though. Yeah, it
(20:27):
is a lot of showman ship and that gets you know,
it opens the windows so we can all see a
little bit of the guys person. I think it's funny
to me mix Steff because there's a lot of guys
that we'll probably hear his speech drums like, you know,
I hang out with that dude. He doesn't talk like
that at all. But you can go watch them all
on YouTube now. So I think you're right, Joe, it's
(20:48):
going to take a few more years so that when
the next you know, when the class goes in, that
the last two or three years worth that they watch
are more compressed, because if you're watching, there's a certain
period of time. And certainly twenty seventeen class was in there.
I was watching guys and this one's twenty two minutes,
this one's thirty eight minutes, this one, and I'm like,
oh man, this is a real speech you need to
(21:08):
come up with. JT. Well, yeah, but you think about it,
and you know you can understand oj that, you know,
we're asking people to compress, you know, ten fourteen, fifteen
year careers into a few minutes. So it really isn't
a recap of your career. It's a recap of the emotion.
You know, how do you feel? You know, what does
it mean to you? Who were the folks that most
(21:30):
influenced you in your life? That's kind of really where
it needs to. You know, if you were to say,
what do you want to hear? That's what the folks
want to hear. They can they can look at the
ESPN highlights, you know, until your eyes bleed and you're
already elected. You don't have to prove up with your
you know, so tell us about, you know, the emotion
of the this class. This year we have we have
what we call sizing Saturday of the Super Bowl. Saturday
(21:51):
before the Super Bowl, we get the new class in
a room. They get fitted for their gold jacket and
their bronze bust and they're Hall of Fame ring. And
that's really cool because there's still cloud night. They haven't
gone through anything yet. This is kind of the first
time they're together, and it's the reality sinking in, particularly
when they're getting measured for their bust. And we asked
them to just tell us something about themselves that we
won't find on Google. And that is the most interesting thing.
(22:13):
And I tell them, you know, I haven't told those
classes yet because it hasn't been need yet. Think about
what you said when we asked you that that's probably
the best thing you could put in your speech. Something
people don't know about you that you'd like them to
do that. It is so good. So let's talk about
some of the other Miami Dolphins that you know have
busting can real quick, you know, you know, giving your
(22:33):
forty five years, you know with the hall, I think
that you know, that would mean you you've been there
for the instronment for probably every Dolphin, every one of them. Right,
So you have to have some fun stories about some
of the legends, and of course for our favorite team,
got us. I know it's not your favorite team, but
our favorite team, you know what I mean, you walk
(22:56):
right into a joke. I have one, right, that's it.
That's a pretty good big you know, but I understand
you've got, you know, a pretty good one about my coach,
the great Don Shula. Yeah, you know Don Shula is
you know, was no shrinking violet uh. And if ever
(23:19):
there was a candidate that knew he was going to
be elected in his first true of eligibility the winning
is coach in football history, it was Don Shula. So
I was making a call before we now, you know,
and now the when we have our selection announces the
NFL Honors is on TV. Before that, we had a
you know, kind of a big press conference with NFL Network.
(23:40):
But in the days when Don Shula was eligible, we
would go right from the meeting to a kind of
a press conference area, mostly print media, and then ESPN
would do a cutaway maybe, But in any case, I
knew Don Chela was going to get elected. So I'm saying, well,
wouldn't it be great if Don would be at the
super Bowl, which we expected he would be, and we
(24:01):
would just bring him on, you know, bring him on
at the press conference, introduce him to the crowd, and
so on. So I call him to make sure that
he's going to be at the press or at the
super Bowl, and so, oh, yeah, I'm going to be
at the super Bowl, And I spill, coach, if you're
there as soon as we know, you know that we
got the envelope and we announced the class. We'd like
to have your stash back in a green room and
you could come right out and you address the media.
(24:22):
Oh no, no, no, I don't want to do that.
Why not, Oh I don't want to make any assumptions that, oh,
you know, I can't I can't assume that I'm gonna
get like as a coach, and said, you know, come on,
let's let's be honest, you're gonna make it. Oh, I
don't know. I can't do that, Joe. I'll be in
my hotel room. You could just call me and I'll
come down as quickly as I can get there. Well, okay,
(24:43):
if that's the way you want to do, and that's fine.
So of course we announced the class and no dune
Us in the class, and I quick get on the phone.
I call him up in his room, and it was
the strangest call. I call coach Joe Horrigan. Oh, Joe
Horrigan from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is who
I am? Oh, what is it, Joe, coach? You've been
(25:04):
elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Oh, congratulate,
Oh Joe Horrigan, thank you for you know. I don't
think this is the strangest call I've ever had, you know,
keeps repeating my name to the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
And okay, all right, great coach, can you come down.
I'll be right down, you know. And so he comes down,
does the press conference. It always well, a great job.
About a week later, I get a friend calls me
(25:26):
from Miami said, hey, I heard you on TV the
other days. What do you mean you heard me? On
TV and he goes, when when you called Shula, what
do you mean you heard me? Oh, he was doing
an exclusive with Jimmy Cefalo in his room. Man, he
said he gave an exclusive before he went down for
(25:48):
that press conference. Yeah, so Jimmy got oh that's so good,
that's so good. So another story you were telling me,
and and what from minded me of this is when
I first spoke was Zack after you know, everything heard
about the Jimmy Johnson thing and everything, and congratulated him,
and he, you know, I made some kind of a joke.
(26:10):
You know, you're in now. They can't take that gold
jacket away from you. And you were telling me that
there actually is one individual who was indeed kicked out
of the Hall of Fame. Yeah, you know, back there
was there was I can't remember the exact situation with
the NHL, the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was I
think it was the Player of Association president or something
got some hot water, and you know, they were going
(26:31):
to take him out of the Hall of Fame. And
I think they may in fact have. I don't want
to say things that I'm not sure, but that that
was kind of the basis I was getting phone calls
as there ever been anybody kicked out of the Pro
Football Hall of Fame, and of course no. Well, years
later I realized I was wrong. There was actually a
Hall of Famer who got kicked out of the Hall
of Fame, not once, but twice. That was Larry result Oja,
(26:57):
another Ohio guy. Hey, hey, he came down here in
nineteen sixty three when the Hall of Fame opened, all
were opening. He gets some friends from Stole Hio where
he listened from his football team. I think he was
a junior in high school. Came down here and they
came for the ribbon cutting, and then he tried to
sneak in and he got caught and they threw him out.
(27:18):
So he came back letters later tried it again and
got tried out a second time. So we had one
Hall of Famer has been thrown out of trucks. I
love it. So he literally had to go and be
one of the best players in the history of the
game to ensure that he wasn't gonna get kicked out
a third time. Mary had to pay to get in there.
Big sad. Well, he's good. I think Zon is good now,
(27:39):
you know, And I think it was like rusty cents
for kids to get in. It wasn't like, you know,
so so good, too good, right were So we covered
Zach and JT and Coach Sula, and of course we
talked a little bit about Larry Zonk and getting kicked
out a couple of times. So how about my QB one,
My god, damn Marino. You know, one of my favorite,
one of the favorite moments, you know, I all on
(28:00):
the speech was when Danny you know, started licking his
fingers like he did, and you know, at the end
you want to throw one last you know, deep ball,
And of course you called him Mark Clayton, one of
his favorite targets, probably his favorite target of all time.
Now I'm okay saying that. You know, I mean him
and Clayton, the magical year they had together, you know
what I mean, and years they had together. It's pretty
pretty impressive, you know, and Clayton in the center aisle
(28:20):
and you know, and and Danny's last past you know,
from the podium. It's a moment like that's something you've
already been aware were you were aware of that coming up?
Joe or no, oh no, no, And that's that was
the beauty of it. And there has been a couple
of things like that, but that one scared me because
if you look at the footage of that, he's asking
Mark Clayton to run down the center aisle where you
(28:40):
have all these cable bridges right the TV cables, And
I'm thinking, if he starts running and trips over this
on national TV, that's not gonna be good. So I
worry about things like that. So Mark was smart enough
to just kind of meander th He wasn't running his
street batter of any kind. But it was a great
moment because it kind of, you know, showed the relationship
(29:01):
between the two, but it also was making sense out
of the moment, you know what I mean. It was
just bringing it back down to the grassroots level. This
is really a game for guys to play, you know.
It's not just a storybook career. It's a little bit
of This is something he'd been planning, it's not planning,
but preparing for since his peewee football days. And to
(29:24):
have fun with it at that level, that's really something.
But I'll tell you something else though, with with Dan Marino.
One of the great moments in gosh many years here
when we used to have the Hall of Fame game
was after the induction ceremony the following day and sometimes
two days away, depending upon the schedule. But in any case,
that particular year when Dan was elected, we would do
(29:45):
sideline interviews with each of the new class for the
Hall of Fame game. And Dan came to me and asked, heyn,
after I do my interview, can I take my family
over to the Hall of Fame to see my bust
because it's already been installed in its place. I think
we've never done that before, you know, but the buildings closed,
locked up, you know, we're at the game. I thought, gee,
(30:06):
there's no good reason why not. I said, yeah, once
you're done, you know where your family is sitting in
the stands. Heause, yep. So we sent a volunteer up there.
Whenever we thousands of volunteers working for us over the
Hall of Fame, we could send them up there to
find the family. Got them quietly out of their seats
down to the end of the field, and I walked
them over to the Hall of Fame. Now it's interesting
(30:27):
because now with our new stadium, you know, we could
go under a tongue when we get in there, but
way to go out through the public concourse and across
the parking lot and so on. People are respectful. But anyway,
we got it in there. And really it was a
really moving moment because he has his mom and dad
there and they go up and the bust is up
there and they're all kind of taking picture. Then all
of a sudden, I look over and there's Dan and
(30:48):
his mother standing in front of the bust, hugging and crying.
I thought, that is you know, that's just too much
and that meant so much me to be the you know,
the fly on the wall, but it showed how much
it into the family and that that really that really
moved me. And it was kind of a real, I
don't know, gripping moment for me in a long career.
(31:09):
That's super cool, man. And you know, it's one of
those things too. It's like like Dan Marino knows Tula
this year. Remember he said Dan knows who he is
our podcast. He's like, damn, Dan's very aware of who
he is. Sure, And you don't have a career like
that and not know that you were pretty good at football.
But then the you know, to be overwhelmed by that's
(31:30):
a super cool thing. And and the whole place is
closed down, so there's nobody in the building because the
game's going on, but but the Marino. And really, you
know what what it really meant to me, though, is
how important I keep saying, this is how important it
was to his family, not just him, this right, you know,
as Chris Carter said when he was let to Mama,
stand up, You're in the Hall of Fame too. That
(31:50):
was a great and it is and that's kind of
how it works. You know, people look back who suffered
for them or prepared help them prepare, went through the
hard times, you know the good times. It's all an
encompassing thing. And it is, and I say it all
the time. It's a life changing experience to be elected
to the Hall of Fame. I agree, it's magical. I
had the honor of being at that enshrinement. I had
(32:12):
just left the Dolphins, and I was helping Ralph Stringer,
who is Stand's right hand man. I helped him through
the whole process. So that was really cool because it
was the first time I'd ever I'd been to the
Hall once when I did my internship with the Cleveland Cavaliers,
had Nicolas, so I had to stop in Ghanton. But
you know, that was the first time I'd ever been
to Enshrinement in person. Obviously, I got to be really
involved in JT's experience in twenty seventeen, and it's just
(32:35):
even in that period of time, it's amazing to see
the evolution of what Enshrinement Week has become. Oh yeah,
it's it's an amazing thing. And when when I came
here in nineteen seventy seven, the little stadium next door,
I said, you know who plays there? He said, well,
it's high school. I said, I wouldn't impressed that little
whole stadium for high schools. We had a right, yeah,
(32:57):
and they said, oh we sell this out at twenty
thousand out here for high school. It was very you know,
it kind of told me a little bit about Canon.
It was very cosmopolitan. You know. It was just a
small town with a with a big vision. And we
have now If you haven't been here a couple of years, seth,
it's just, uh, I don't know, oj you've ever been
(33:18):
to an Okay, great, so you remember what it looked
like that Now we have a new stadium. It is
state of the art. We also have developing around us
what's called Hall of Fame Village and a whole separate
company of retail restaurants, Closed Dome, nine youth fields, ferris
Wheel and all sorts of the thing at the hotel
(33:40):
is being built right now on a water park, so
it's it's just exploding into this. It's an attraction on
top of being a great museum in the great experience
of the All of Fame Trimate ceremony, but it is
truly kept its its feel, even through that of this
small city that just embraces the new class every year
(34:00):
and the returning Hall of famers. You know, this is
their second home. That we always tell them they feel
welcomed here, and we always make sure that not to
over commercialize it, but at the same time give the
guys a fraternal feel that they come back and this
is their home, their fraternity, and their opportunity to bond
again every year. And I imagine, I mean, I've seen
some of that, and I imagine that that's a really
(34:22):
special thing for those guys, especially the further they get
away from the game. But it's not just the gold Jackets,
it's also the fans, and I have to imagine there
will be no shortage of aquand orange at this year ceremony.
We certainly hope so, right right, I think there will
be so well that you know, how much of those
things you just describe do fans get to participate in.
(34:44):
I'm just wondering for folks that are listening to this
podcast and intend to go to Canton, like yeah, And
the reality is this year is everything's going to sell
out very quickly, you know, the gaming and trying to
still have tickets left. But what I'm saying is that
the popularity of Joe Thomas being in Cleveland, you have
(35:05):
two New York Jets, and the Jets have been a
little bit longing for another Hall of Famer, if you will. Uh,
And those those two factors right there alone, tickets are
going to get tight. But we've seen already early on
a lot of Aqua ordering tickets, so I would not
I would tell you not to hesitate. Go online to
(35:25):
our website. I'll plug it here pro Football hof dot
com and follow very closely the dates for ticket But
there are packages available for all sorts of events. There's
a lot of free events for fans once they get here.
One of the more popular ones. You've seen it, probably both.
I've been here forty five years and I've never seen it.
(35:45):
But they have a great parade. From what I hear,
I never been to it. It's the day of the enshrinement.
I can't. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Fans love it,
and you know, we do other things where fans have
that up close and personal experience. And I say, just
you know, in general, you know, just for the photowop.
(36:08):
You know, we have a you know, photo wop every
year with the new class and the returning Hall of Famers.
I said, nowhere on Earth, I don't care what sport
it is, or even multiple sports, will you ever have
one hundred and ten Hall of Famers at the same
place at the same time. It's just a great fan
experience to see that, and you know, getting the handshakes
(36:28):
and the ie fives and the autographs, all that's all
very much a part of what we do here. You
know what's really interesting. Oj you know, and you know
what you know, you have a playing career, and when
you're playing people everybody recognize you, recognizes you. All our
Hall of Famers after the year's passed, they they're not
always recognizable to the average fan. We've done a couple
of things, or a couple of different times, the same thing.
(36:49):
We have undercover Hall of Famer. We'll put them in
one of our volunteers shirts and the law cap and credential,
and he'll be walking around on the bus gallery asking people, cause,
who's your favorite Hall of Famer? I'm I'm here because
there's a camera we're saying. He goes, I'm here training.
I'm being trained to be a volunteer here, and they
videotape me and the critique being all fans are very
(37:11):
oh that's nice, and you it'll talk to them and
some of your Hall of Fame, favorite Hall of Famers.
They never say the guy that's being you know, standing
there right right, and I say, how about this guy
over here? And he'll take him over to his bust
and they'll look and oh, yeah, he was pretty good.
And then all of a sudden they look back and
it's so cool. Yeah, it really is. But that's kind
(37:31):
of what the world we're in is that you know,
while you were a player and you had a helmet
on and he had number, that's what folks knew. When
the Hall of Famers get together. You know, you're talking
about seeing Tony Dorset in the parking lot and Bob
Greasy at the computer. They can get away with that,
and can't you know, because they're here so often. First
of all, that they're you know, they are known and
(37:51):
recognize here, but some of them are not. You know,
still they can still walk through the streets and not
you know, be hounded by their home like their hometown
fans would recognize them. So it's a really good experience
for them. But for the most part, the fans really
do know them and understand them and appreciate that they
come back man so good. I mean, I don't nobody
recognizing me, Joe until I started doing this podcast. So
don't let them tell you high podcast put me on
(38:15):
the map, and I'm telling you that right now. Whatever,
here's here's what you do, or you just put your
jersey on and walk through this trucks and buffalo one time,
you see before we let you go out here. Joe.
You know, we know you're an expert, you know, in
football history. But we're going to wrap this thing up.
(38:35):
It's the interview by seeing you know, how well you
can handle a two minute drill? All right, big Seth
and I were going to throw you, you know, two
minutes on the clock and have some rapid fire questions
for you, and uh, we'll see how good you how
well you handle this? Man? You up for the challenge?
Should I hang up? Don't run away from the two
minute drill? You got this, Joe. I've got faith in you. Okay,
(38:56):
all right, we don't have the two minute clock. I'm
just gonna have to watch the tim here just because
DJ Priessch's is like working a real job. We'll superimpose
it later, so you start when you're ready, all right.
Back when Hall of Famers had illustrations a company of
their bronze bus, Paul Warfield had a Dolphin's logo, but
he was wearing a Brown's jersey. Who made that call?
(39:16):
The artist Gary Thomas? Well quick, that was okay, and
you just have to accept what it is. Yeah, yeah,
I would have preferred I don't know, I think I
would have preferred. Well, I guess what Brown's logo was
he going to put up there? Well, that's part of it.
But maybe a better answer is he would run up
by us because what we tried to do a show
when they had a duel teams that they played for
tried to represent both of them. Uh, and I guess
(39:39):
the artistic call was made as to which one is
the feature we selfish dolphin? Okay, which Miami Dolphins Hall
of Famer returns to Canton most frequently? Oh my, let's see.
Oh gosh, that's that's pretty tough question, is they. Well?
Nick Bonacondy before he passed, never missed one. Larry Little
is here every years I have been. It's Larry, Larry Little.
(40:04):
Larry love Larry. You mean, well, I know we're in
a two minute drip, but you know Larry just you
know his whole story. There's no way he's gonna miss
that trip. Right, It's all right, here we go. Now,
this is my favorite question of all time. Joe. You
know your father was a sports ride for Buffalo Evening
News and eventually the VP of public relations for the Bills.
(40:24):
How much the really really really love sinning but the
Miami Dolphins and shining can oh? I love it? I mean,
this is I gotta answer, you know, truly. You know,
Dunshel and I became very good friends. I mean, go down.
I did a long interview at his home and and Uh.
You know, he never forgot, and he would he would
share stories about how going to Buffalo. He was telling
(40:46):
his wife, he says, the first time he brought his
wife to a game of Buffalo, he says, people were
moving them and she says, oh my god, do this
everyone Buffalo, justin Buffalo, justin Buffalo. And that believe the
Minamie Dolphins because we've seen that too for sure. Final question,
Zach Thomas is of course the newest former Miami Dolphin
(41:08):
to be selected for football Immortality here in the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. The next Miami Dolphin who should
be in the conversation is here you go. That is
the two minute drill. He is Joe Horrigan. Despite where
he was born, folks, he still gives your Miami Dolphins
not of love in uh in football heaven and man,
(41:30):
I appreciate you making the time. I know this is
a busy time of year for you. No, not at all.
I've enjoined that. I'm chatmans hey, thanks for diving in. Joe,
you're now diving down. Oh and this is strictly but
(41:56):
I'm true Number one one. Of course, the ordinariest was
talk never been that pitch tank don't get show I
got one yet. Kind of never been that pitch tank.
It's only legend that we're talking when you never been
that pitch tank. Rocking well, old Chain and sethful, you've
(42:17):
never been that pitch tank. Fans were added to kind
of damn them down, celebrate big or cry hard. Leave
it all on the field. We're gonna try hard. Old
school a new school, mixing in feeling like we're up
close when we listened in Dolphins tells here Miami is
the deep end. We're ribbing with our favorite players. No
(42:38):
seap bread we get with Seth and Duffi bringing up
stars we never heard to the public, but we love me.
Dolphins fans never brushed. We're loyal to the team. Wasn't happier,
we upset, We'd be like, what's next. Don't twist the subject.
You know what's all about the fens hint if you
read it for that one time to dive in, don't
twist the subject. You know what's all about the fens Hint.
If you're downe with Dolphin's nations, time to dive in.
(43:00):
I'm flush this up that you know what's all about
the fence? You're looking at that fish tank. It's time
to down in pitch tank. Okay, so Aquot orange Kins,
time to devil bent a pitch tank. It's on the
legend that we're talking when you devenpent that pitch tank.
Rocking Old Jake is Seth Twinny. Devilment and pitch tank
(43:25):
don't ever had a talking about the devinment
You're now diving sitting down and this is strictly for them.
Number one one, of course, yall, just all the nearest
(00:23):
was Talk Fish Tank. Welcome back to the Fish Tank,
presented by iHeartRadio right here on the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network.
Seth Levitt, DJ Pretich is missing in action today, but
the man with the best hands in the podcast business
is here O j McDuffie, Jews. How you feeling great,
big Seth. And then you know, I'm always feeling good
(00:43):
about certain things that we do. You know, offensive guys,
guys I played with, and definitely when you talk to
somebody from Ohio, it's always a big thing for me. Bro,
you know what I mean, Let's go yeah, pretty much.
Three things that will make it work. Well, that's somebody
from Ohio, isn't somebody? This is Joe Horigan. And for
those of you who that name doesn't ring a bell, uh,
(01:06):
you might be Miami Dolphins fans. We'll hope your Miami
Dolphins fans if you're in this podcast. But Joe Horrigan
is so kurt right now. I guess Joe, we're gonna
say Senior Advisor Hall of Fame as the title um
prior to that executive director and in your forty five
years with the Hall, I imagine you had a couple
of different hats that you wore. But I'm just gonna
(01:27):
call you one of the pre eminent football historians in
the country. That'll work just fine. I'll answer anything. Maybe
not anything, Joe. Let's see how this you know it was.
I was having a hard time getting it my uh,
my arms wrapped around the idea of being, you know,
somebody from Ohio. I mean, I'm thinking Ohio. I've only
been here forty five years ago, where you know where
(01:55):
we used to just scream scis. Don't do it so early.
I don't want to turn this thing off, all right,
So now I'll be I'll go back to being from
a Yeah, I playing Florida now because I've been most
of my life here. See that's it, yep, right right,
(02:18):
just when things were going good. So so, Joe, look,
I don't know if this is still the case, but
I know in your role as executive director at the
Hall of Fame, one of your responsibilities was to administer
the enshrined process, the selection process. Is that something you
still yeah, I still I still involved, although it's not
my primary responsibility like it was for about I don't know,
(02:40):
almost three decades. Yeah, it's Richter Roscher now, who was
a VP of Communications and Content took over that role
pretty much while I was going. He continues in that role.
I you know, I served his at his leisure in
any capacity. I can't God, you know, obviously he's certainly
is tapped the old institutional knowledge button now and then
(03:02):
institutional knowledge at this point for sure, I should be institutionalized.
That goes back to that story your wife was that
you were telling them about your wife too much fun,
So she was institutionalized with me being as she's saying,
you're right back to work. I love it. Oh, I
love it. So look we we uh Now, you know,
(03:24):
you kind of blew it with the buffalo squish the
fish thing. But what we tried to do here was
way to invite you on this show until after Zach
Thomas was actually selected, because the last thing we wanted
to do was feed you to our hungry doll fans
who have spent literally the last decade just beside themselves
that Zach didn't have a gold jacket, but now that
(03:44):
he will, that he's being fitted for one we can
talk a little bit about the process, and specifically, what
I want to ask you is, why do you think
certain players who ultimately are recognized as Hall of Famer
Zach would be one, you know, John Lynch comes to mind,
Guys like that, Why do you think they kind of
get caught up in the weeds for a little while
or even a long while in some case. Oh yeah,
it couldn't be very long. Sometimes. Yeah, it's so many
(04:07):
different reasons, but I guess the you know, in most
of the most of the cases, it comes down to numbers.
You know, there are only five modern era players selected
each year, and let's say three of them come off
one year or the five come off in one year.
That means that those ten from the fifteen finalists are
(04:28):
still sitting there, and they tend to come back. So
it doesn't open up a lot of slots every year
to bring in first year eligibles. You know, when you
have a guy, excuse me, like a Joe Thomas who
was a first year eligible candidate take a spot, that
leaves four for veteran players who weren't on that fifteen
finalists list a year before. So it's kind of this
this slow loss of position, if you will. Many times
(04:53):
a well deserved player kind of gets lost in the weeds,
as you said, as some body or multiple persons from
his position come out as first and second year players. Perhaps,
you know, we get log jams. We've done it a
couple of times with wide receivers, remember Chris Carter on
no need and Tim Brown just you know, just split
(05:14):
the vote for I don't know how many years went
on until finally, one at a time, Hall three eventually
made it. Kenny Riley's going in this year after waiting,
he came in as a senior candidate. And you know,
I knew Kenny, and Kenny I used to always tell
him when I would see him as a candidates, it's
a matter of time, not if. And that's a hard
thing for candidates to believe, but in most instances it's true.
(05:39):
And what we've been doing, we've been trying to do anyway,
is to catch up. Before I retired, we had a
something called the Centennial Class where we had an enlarged
group of numbers of senior candidates being considered report in ten.
That was to do some catch up work because these
guys that get put into the senior candidate pool really
(06:00):
get buried. So we brought and we were really lucky
and fortunate to get some of the guys here, but
we left somebody behind. We realized that it was just
you know, it was a great effort, great first step,
but it didn't solve the problem, and the problem will
never solve because there's so many great players coming out
that retire and so on. But anyway to reporter, our
president now decided that we would have three senior possibly
(06:21):
three senior nominees each year. They will have three d nominees.
We don't know if they'll get elected, but you know,
that's three more seniors than we would have been, two
more seniors than we would have been having every year.
So there's an attempt to make sure that we're going
back and looking looking at these guys that fell through
the cracks, that were victims of their own position perhaps
or the just a great number of first year eligible,
(06:44):
second and third year olds was coming out to push
the list further down. So we continue to look at
the system, always trying to refine it, make it work
without deluding it, right right right, there's that part too.
I know one of our great friends of this podcast,
Mark Clayton. He'll be happy to hear there's a few
more senior spots ago. But you know, we've had those
(07:04):
conversations here for quite some time. But we were glad
that Zach did get in and and uh, and we're
gonna talk a little bit more about that process, specifically
to Zach, just because obviously that's so fresh right now
in our hearts. But it was one of those deals
or people were watching and say, wait a second, how
is he not and this and that and this guy
and the whole thing. So we said we're gonna get
Joe on after Zach gets that. Well, I'm glad we
(07:28):
were able to agree. But you know, I took a
vacation and came back and Zach get selected some there
must be some connection. Well, welcome back Joe. That's well, yeah,
that's probably why he got Joe back in the building,
big sett. You know what I mean? If thinking of that, Joel,
how's that work? Are you actually in the room during
(07:49):
the selection process? I mean, I mean we understand you
know what it said in that room is it's kept
under wraps for sure, But this time you sense that
Zach was gonna, you know, was gaining momentum and that
this you know, over the past couple of years, and
it might be the opportunity you know, you can yeah,
see that. That's the thing is, you know, it's hard
to explain this to particularly the candidates, but the fans
even more. When they don't see their players' names, sometimes
(08:11):
they think, oh, he's forever forgotten, and it's usually not
the case. You know, if he gets to that twenty
five semifinalists list, that's a that's a great honor really,
and then you look at that listen, you say, how
on God's green earth are you're gonna get just take
five of these guys you're looking at, you know, great players.
So you kind of have to explain to folks that,
you know, somebody's gonna have to be cut. You know,
(08:33):
it's like a coach making a decision. And just like
a coach, sometimes he's not cutting, you know that you're
taking or keeping the best twenty or fifteen of twenty five.
He's making judicial decisions like, all right, i've got six
wide receivers here, they're not all going to get elected
this year. Let's let's pick our top three or whatever.
You know, each selector's mind works a little differently in
(08:55):
terms of making those cuts. It's not just looking at
you know, apples to apples times and that's the tough part.
So when it gets down to fifteen, that's where the
rubber really hits the road. And again I get to
that point where people don't understand. They'll say so and so,
first year eligible, he's a slam dunk and he doesn't
make it. Well, that's because these other guys that were
(09:15):
in the final fifteen the year before that were so close.
They get a little bit of an edge in the
sense that, hey, you know, he's been waiting seventeen years.
Let's take a look at him. He's either in or
he's out. You know, let's let's make a decision here
that eliminates the spot. So you know, it's it's a process.
It's really the only way I can say it. And
then when we get in the room and we're talking
(09:37):
about the fifteen modern era finalists and then now three seniors,
and we have another category either a coach or a contributor.
When you're talking about these eighteen people, it's life changing.
These guys. The selectors take that so seriously. They know
how much it means to each and every one of
them and their families. That's the tough part. Well, if
(09:57):
you ever have to make a phone call and tell
somebody they didn't make it, it's usually the family that reacts,
you know, rather than the player or the coach and
the contributor. They understand the process a little bit, but boy,
family sure takes it's this you had to, you know,
explain anything, and they do. They call you, Joe directly.
What happens when the family get well, you know, and
(10:19):
I'll say it this way most time, most of the
times the families don't call back, you know, as we
have called them in the sense of calling the player,
and frankly, if the wife is there, it's you know,
you know it. But it's more likely to happen when
the when the Hall of famers deceased and his children
or wife or whatever they're you know, they're so hopeful
(10:40):
for what they felt, you know, should have been, should
have occurred before the man passed. So it's very emotional
thing until they get elected. And then, like I constantly
tell people, once you're elected to the Pro Football Hall
of Fame, nobody remembers how many years you wait, you know,
Oh gee, let me ask you this, Lin Swan, great
less on, a great receiver, you know, fantastic, big playmaker.
(11:03):
Do you think he was selected in his first, second,
or third year of eligibility? Man, they won all the
super bows. Because you're asking me, I'm gonna say it's
third time. Actually it was his fourteenth year of eligi.
I did, yeah, year, fourteen years. They waited so and
(11:23):
nobody cares. You know, once you're elected, you're you know,
you're in the Hall of Fame. So that's the way
it really works. And Zach was here yesterday along with
Joe Thomas and Rondey Barber and then the families of
Don Coryelle and Ken Riley. And I'll tell you that's
a real good mix of what I'm talking about. We
(11:45):
had a first year eligible player, we had ronde Barber
who waited a little bit, and we had Zach and
we had two deceased Hall of famers. So you get
the feedback from each of these groups, and to a person,
they all said the same thing that it was a
painful wait, except for Joe Thomas differently. Yeah, but it's
all once it's over. But it was Joe Thomas who
(12:06):
was making the point it doesn't matter how long you waited,
you're in knowing who it is. But you know that
you know, And I can't say every times I've heard it,
you know, And I just think I got guys and
it feels good when they come back to see I
remember you're telling me it's a matter of when not if, Untie,
(12:26):
I want to ask you this on top of that, Now,
the guys that do get in that have been waiting,
have you had a bad reaction from some of those
families as well? Like, I mean, no, you know, it's
all forgetting, you know, it's you know, I went from
being a bumm to being their best friend right right.
As specific to Zach, and again, I like Drew said,
you know, you probably don't want to get into too much,
(12:47):
but we had some internet Jason Cole was on the
podcast recently and told a really cool story about Patrick
Willis's presenter actually advocating for Zach, which was kind of phenomenal.
And yeah, well, what at what point did you start?
I mean, I guess once they're in the room, you
already see that there's some momentum, But when did you
start to think that there was this shift that like
his time is coming soon. Well, you know, it's funny
(13:08):
because you know, as we're going through the process and
you can't help but do it. You know, you're in
the room and you're looking at that list and you're saying, well,
I'm going to do my own little voting here. How
close I get. I've never right so and I could
be more close to the system than I am, Yet
I can't. I mean, I could get the first guy
I can get. Joe Thomas is going to go from
(13:29):
fifteen to ten and probably ten to five. But I
you know, I'm saying, oh, maybe not. You know, but
it's the it's kind of the dark horses that emerge,
and you feel it when they're you know, when you
particularly when they cut to ten, when you get to
ten and they you know, they're really looking at now
this is the core group we're considering. Then you hear
the passion please and they really you know, get to
(13:51):
the put the meat on the bone, so to speak,
and give the case of why this guy and not
that guy. You know, if it comes down to the
same position or having waited twenty years, whatever it might be,
that's when all of the arguments are made and you
feel like boy, any one of these guys could go up,
I'm gonna guess and take five. Sure, and I'm lucky.
(14:12):
How well did ye? I was gonna say, how well
did you do? This year? I got three consent? You know,
your heart goes with some place some of them, you know,
and you know what you so you're it's it's really tough.
And I always told our selectors this as I'm so
glad you guys vote because I couldn't do it. I
(14:33):
really couldn't. It's just emotionally draining, it really is. Let's
move on to something that you and I got to
work together a little bit on, and that's the speeches.
So Zach mentioned to me recently that this class, what
is it now? Six or eight minutes? What are they technically? Well,
we actually told that it was six to eight up
till this year. Okay, and we are trying, like I say,
(14:54):
we always review and see what we can do to
make things better. We've gone from eight to ten. Okay,
so they've gotten a little expert Yeah, and I try
to explain, you know, each new class, you know, has
to understand this. You know, it's a televised event. Obviously,
not that that's totally dictating how we do this, but
it has an influence obviously. But if you just say
every Hall of Famer took the full ten minutes, which
(15:16):
is fine, there's also a three and a half minute
video that precedes them from you know, where we have
their presenter making their presentation remarks and then from there
they go. The presenter and the Hall of Famer then
unveiled the bronze bus together. So it's really about a
fifteen minute block that each Hall of Famer is given
during TV time And that's kind of how I kind
(15:37):
of look at it as we're setting this up. So
if you take that time's nine, you know, you're really
getting into two and a half hours of the three
hours show, and there's twenty four minutes of commercials, so
you're really hit three hours before you ever go over time. Yeah,
so that's for the last guy speaking. You know, you
(15:58):
don't want to have a four hour show. People have
fallen asleep, left or whatever. So that leads me to
where I'm going with this thing, because back in twenty
seventeen when JT went in, there was a little bit
more time that they had, and then they also took
some liberties done on that time, and so I remember,
so juice is kind of a cool thing, you know.
(16:19):
I got to know JT and I met two or
three ten times a week because he was preparing for
the speech, and we went over everything. And then once
it was a first draft, the requirement was we needed
to send it to Joe Horgan. So I sent it
to Joe and Joe said, hey, this is good, or
this is that you might you know, maybe you could
trim some fat here with some words. It was really
kind of a cool editing process. What do you do
(16:40):
when someone turned something into you and you can look
at it right away and no, yeah, this is like
a novel here, like, you know, how do you handle that?
Two bad things? Two things can happen. One can be
like that where it's just so long there's just no
way to edit it. Or the other guy who comes
in and says, hey, eight minutes, I can handle this.
I don't even need notes. Oh oh my, that's that's
(17:05):
the worst. I won't give you his name, but somebody
told me that not too long ago, and then went
twenty eight minutes. You know. So, but in any case,
but the long ones, you know, to your point set
is really what people when they send it to me,
and I try to tell them this. I will not
edit content, I will not take out content, but I
can tell you how to eliminate redundancies. You know, you
(17:28):
thank your mom six times? I think one was enough,
you know. Or you can use contractions instead of two words.
He did not, No, he didn't. You know, Just get colloquial,
Get comfortable with the way you're speaking, the two year
every day speak, you know, don't try to, you know,
sound like Daniel Webster up there every time. You know,
it's good to be prepared, but be yourself. And we
(17:50):
have a teleprompter and it moves only at the pace
of the speaker, so it's you know, it's a much
smoother process right now, even since jat, I mean it
really is. It really has gotten to the point where
they believe, first of all, that what we're telling them
that we're cutting the time on the speeches so that
everybody has an even uh let's call it a level
(18:11):
playing field. You don't want one guy to dominate the time.
And then we also bring in, you know, the professionals
aside for myself and Rich de Rosier, you know, who
is now helping edit some of these speeches, and I
don't even like calling it editing. It's it's more of advising.
You know, just here's your speech. I got it, here's
the highlights. They're great. But you know, maybe you don't
(18:32):
need an engineers. And I think that's fair, Joe, because
that was the experience that I had with you. I
didn't feel like you were telling us what needed to
be in there, but there was definitely some advice to
right right. Well, I've had speeches where when they start
with you know, well in the first grade, I think no, no, no, no, no, no.
You know we had one, we had one Hall of Famer,
(18:52):
thank you the doctor who delivered him. Well, I think
that's starting at the beginning. Indeed, indeed, so let me.
I'm almost scared to ask you this, but I actually
I think I know the answer, So I'm really scared
to ask. But do we know which Miami dolphin delivered
the longest speech of any dolphin that's in the Hall
of Fame? Oh? You know what, They've been pretty good,
(19:15):
you know, um, dolphins are disciplined, particularly the Don Shula dolphins.
Jason May Jason may have been the longest, and it
wasn't bad. It really wasn't you know good, you know,
back in the day, and I see this truth that,
you know, when we used to have the enshrinment ceremony
out on the front steps in the sun, getting beaten
(19:38):
down as hot. We didn't have TV. It was just
a continuous go so the pressure wasn't on. But ironically
there was really not much need for coaching because they
most of the guys got up and were two or
three minutes. I mean, they were very quick. As it
got to be a television production and each year Hall
of Famers new Hall of Famers, they've seen, you know,
the last ten years or whatever. We make it so
(20:00):
dramatically produced, too well produced, that I think they feel
this obligation sometimes to be you know, the I don't
know that the best they can be in terms of
their or art. Let me get the right word here,
horrible skills, you know, they want to get the right
word there. But I think you're right though. Yeah, it
(20:27):
is a lot of showman ship and that gets you know,
it opens the windows so we can all see a
little bit of the guys person. I think it's funny
to me mix Steff because there's a lot of guys
that we'll probably hear his speech drums like, you know,
I hang out with that dude. He doesn't talk like
that at all. But you can go watch them all
on YouTube now. So I think you're right, Joe, it's
(20:48):
going to take a few more years so that when
the next you know, when the class goes in, that
the last two or three years worth that they watch
are more compressed, because if you're watching, there's a certain
period of time. And certainly twenty seventeen class was in there.
I was watching guys and this one's twenty two minutes,
this one's thirty eight minutes, this one, and I'm like,
oh man, this is a real speech you need to
(21:08):
come up with. JT. Well, yeah, but you think about it,
and you know you can understand oj that, you know,
we're asking people to compress, you know, ten fourteen, fifteen
year careers into a few minutes. So it really isn't
a recap of your career. It's a recap of the emotion.
You know, how do you feel? You know, what does
it mean to you? Who were the folks that most
(21:30):
influenced you in your life? That's kind of really where
it needs to. You know, if you were to say,
what do you want to hear? That's what the folks
want to hear. They can they can look at the
ESPN highlights, you know, until your eyes bleed and you're
already elected. You don't have to prove up with your
you know, so tell us about, you know, the emotion
of the this class. This year we have we have
what we call sizing Saturday of the Super Bowl. Saturday
(21:51):
before the Super Bowl, we get the new class in
a room. They get fitted for their gold jacket and
their bronze bust and they're Hall of Fame ring. And
that's really cool because there's still cloud night. They haven't
gone through anything yet. This is kind of the first
time they're together, and it's the reality sinking in, particularly
when they're getting measured for their bust. And we asked
them to just tell us something about themselves that we
won't find on Google. And that is the most interesting thing.
(22:13):
And I tell them, you know, I haven't told those
classes yet because it hasn't been need yet. Think about
what you said when we asked you that that's probably
the best thing you could put in your speech. Something
people don't know about you that you'd like them to
do that. It is so good. So let's talk about
some of the other Miami Dolphins that you know have
busting can real quick, you know, you know, giving your
(22:33):
forty five years, you know with the hall, I think
that you know, that would mean you you've been there
for the instronment for probably every Dolphin, every one of them. Right,
So you have to have some fun stories about some
of the legends, and of course for our favorite team,
got us. I know it's not your favorite team, but
our favorite team, you know what I mean, you walk
(22:56):
right into a joke. I have one, right, that's it.
That's a pretty good big you know, but I understand
you've got, you know, a pretty good one about my coach,
the great Don Shula. Yeah, you know Don Shula is
you know, was no shrinking violet uh. And if ever
(23:19):
there was a candidate that knew he was going to
be elected in his first true of eligibility the winning
is coach in football history, it was Don Shula. So
I was making a call before we now, you know,
and now the when we have our selection announces the
NFL Honors is on TV. Before that, we had a
you know, kind of a big press conference with NFL Network.
(23:40):
But in the days when Don Shula was eligible, we
would go right from the meeting to a kind of
a press conference area, mostly print media, and then ESPN
would do a cutaway maybe, But in any case, I
knew Don Chela was going to get elected. So I'm saying, well,
wouldn't it be great if Don would be at the
super Bowl, which we expected he would be, and we
(24:01):
would just bring him on, you know, bring him on
at the press conference, introduce him to the crowd, and
so on. So I call him to make sure that
he's going to be at the press or at the
super Bowl, and so, oh, yeah, I'm going to be
at the super Bowl, And I spill, coach, if you're
there as soon as we know, you know that we
got the envelope and we announced the class. We'd like
to have your stash back in a green room and
you could come right out and you address the media.
(24:22):
Oh no, no, no, I don't want to do that.
Why not, Oh I don't want to make any assumptions that, oh,
you know, I can't I can't assume that I'm gonna
get like as a coach, and said, you know, come on,
let's let's be honest, you're gonna make it. Oh, I
don't know. I can't do that, Joe. I'll be in
my hotel room. You could just call me and I'll
come down as quickly as I can get there. Well, okay,
(24:43):
if that's the way you want to do, and that's fine.
So of course we announced the class and no dune
Us in the class, and I quick get on the phone.
I call him up in his room, and it was
the strangest call. I call coach Joe Horrigan. Oh, Joe
Horrigan from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is who
I am? Oh, what is it, Joe, coach? You've been
(25:04):
elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Oh, congratulate,
Oh Joe Horrigan, thank you for you know. I don't
think this is the strangest call I've ever had, you know,
keeps repeating my name to the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
And okay, all right, great coach, can you come down.
I'll be right down, you know. And so he comes down,
does the press conference. It always well, a great job.
About a week later, I get a friend calls me
(25:26):
from Miami said, hey, I heard you on TV the
other days. What do you mean you heard me? On
TV and he goes, when when you called Shula, what
do you mean you heard me? Oh, he was doing
an exclusive with Jimmy Cefalo in his room. Man, he
said he gave an exclusive before he went down for
(25:48):
that press conference. Yeah, so Jimmy got oh that's so good,
that's so good. So another story you were telling me,
and and what from minded me of this is when
I first spoke was Zack after you know, everything heard
about the Jimmy Johnson thing and everything, and congratulated him,
and he, you know, I made some kind of a joke.
(26:10):
You know, you're in now. They can't take that gold
jacket away from you. And you were telling me that
there actually is one individual who was indeed kicked out
of the Hall of Fame. Yeah, you know, back there
was there was I can't remember the exact situation with
the NHL, the Hockey Hall of Fame. It was I
think it was the Player of Association president or something
got some hot water, and you know, they were going
(26:31):
to take him out of the Hall of Fame. And
I think they may in fact have. I don't want
to say things that I'm not sure, but that that
was kind of the basis I was getting phone calls
as there ever been anybody kicked out of the Pro
Football Hall of Fame, and of course no. Well, years
later I realized I was wrong. There was actually a
Hall of Famer who got kicked out of the Hall
of Fame, not once, but twice. That was Larry result Oja,
(26:57):
another Ohio guy. Hey, hey, he came down here in
nineteen sixty three when the Hall of Fame opened, all
were opening. He gets some friends from Stole Hio where
he listened from his football team. I think he was
a junior in high school. Came down here and they
came for the ribbon cutting, and then he tried to
sneak in and he got caught and they threw him out.
(27:18):
So he came back letters later tried it again and
got tried out a second time. So we had one
Hall of Famer has been thrown out of trucks. I
love it. So he literally had to go and be
one of the best players in the history of the
game to ensure that he wasn't gonna get kicked out
a third time. Mary had to pay to get in there.
Big sad. Well, he's good. I think Zon is good now,
(27:39):
you know, And I think it was like rusty cents
for kids to get in. It wasn't like, you know,
so so good, too good, right were So we covered
Zach and JT and Coach Sula, and of course we
talked a little bit about Larry Zonk and getting kicked
out a couple of times. So how about my QB one,
My god, damn Marino. You know, one of my favorite,
one of the favorite moments, you know, I all on
(28:00):
the speech was when Danny you know, started licking his
fingers like he did, and you know, at the end
you want to throw one last you know, deep ball,
And of course you called him Mark Clayton, one of
his favorite targets, probably his favorite target of all time.
Now I'm okay saying that. You know, I mean him
and Clayton, the magical year they had together, you know
what I mean, and years they had together. It's pretty
pretty impressive, you know, and Clayton in the center aisle
(28:20):
and you know, and and Danny's last past you know,
from the podium. It's a moment like that's something you've
already been aware were you were aware of that coming up?
Joe or no, oh no, no, And that's that was
the beauty of it. And there has been a couple
of things like that, but that one scared me because
if you look at the footage of that, he's asking
Mark Clayton to run down the center aisle where you
(28:40):
have all these cable bridges right the TV cables, And
I'm thinking, if he starts running and trips over this
on national TV, that's not gonna be good. So I
worry about things like that. So Mark was smart enough
to just kind of meander th He wasn't running his
street batter of any kind. But it was a great
moment because it kind of, you know, showed the relationship
(29:01):
between the two, but it also was making sense out
of the moment, you know what I mean. It was
just bringing it back down to the grassroots level. This
is really a game for guys to play, you know.
It's not just a storybook career. It's a little bit
of This is something he'd been planning, it's not planning,
but preparing for since his peewee football days. And to
(29:24):
have fun with it at that level, that's really something.
But I'll tell you something else though, with with Dan Marino.
One of the great moments in gosh many years here
when we used to have the Hall of Fame game
was after the induction ceremony the following day and sometimes
two days away, depending upon the schedule. But in any case,
that particular year when Dan was elected, we would do
(29:45):
sideline interviews with each of the new class for the
Hall of Fame game. And Dan came to me and asked, heyn,
after I do my interview, can I take my family
over to the Hall of Fame to see my bust
because it's already been installed in its place. I think
we've never done that before, you know, but the buildings closed,
locked up, you know, we're at the game. I thought, gee,
(30:06):
there's no good reason why not. I said, yeah, once
you're done, you know where your family is sitting in
the stands. Heause, yep. So we sent a volunteer up there.
Whenever we thousands of volunteers working for us over the
Hall of Fame, we could send them up there to
find the family. Got them quietly out of their seats
down to the end of the field, and I walked
them over to the Hall of Fame. Now it's interesting
(30:27):
because now with our new stadium, you know, we could
go under a tongue when we get in there, but
way to go out through the public concourse and across
the parking lot and so on. People are respectful. But anyway,
we got it in there. And really it was a
really moving moment because he has his mom and dad
there and they go up and the bust is up
there and they're all kind of taking picture. Then all
of a sudden, I look over and there's Dan and
(30:48):
his mother standing in front of the bust, hugging and crying.
I thought, that is you know, that's just too much
and that meant so much me to be the you know,
the fly on the wall, but it showed how much
it into the family and that that really that really
moved me. And it was kind of a real, I
don't know, gripping moment for me in a long career.
(31:09):
That's super cool, man. And you know, it's one of
those things too. It's like like Dan Marino knows Tula
this year. Remember he said Dan knows who he is
our podcast. He's like, damn, Dan's very aware of who
he is. Sure, And you don't have a career like
that and not know that you were pretty good at football.
But then the you know, to be overwhelmed by that's
(31:30):
a super cool thing. And and the whole place is
closed down, so there's nobody in the building because the
game's going on, but but the Marino. And really, you
know what what it really meant to me, though, is
how important I keep saying, this is how important it
was to his family, not just him, this right, you know,
as Chris Carter said when he was let to Mama,
stand up, You're in the Hall of Fame too. That
(31:50):
was a great and it is and that's kind of
how it works. You know, people look back who suffered
for them or prepared help them prepare, went through the
hard times, you know the good times. It's all an
encompassing thing. And it is, and I say it all
the time. It's a life changing experience to be elected
to the Hall of Fame. I agree, it's magical. I
had the honor of being at that enshrinement. I had
(32:12):
just left the Dolphins, and I was helping Ralph Stringer,
who is Stand's right hand man. I helped him through
the whole process. So that was really cool because it
was the first time I'd ever I'd been to the
Hall once when I did my internship with the Cleveland Cavaliers,
had Nicolas, so I had to stop in Ghanton. But
you know, that was the first time I'd ever been
to Enshrinement in person. Obviously, I got to be really
involved in JT's experience in twenty seventeen, and it's just
(32:35):
even in that period of time, it's amazing to see
the evolution of what Enshrinement Week has become. Oh yeah,
it's it's an amazing thing. And when when I came
here in nineteen seventy seven, the little stadium next door,
I said, you know who plays there? He said, well,
it's high school. I said, I wouldn't impressed that little
whole stadium for high schools. We had a right, yeah,
(32:57):
and they said, oh we sell this out at twenty
thousand out here for high school. It was very you know,
it kind of told me a little bit about Canon.
It was very cosmopolitan. You know. It was just a
small town with a with a big vision. And we
have now If you haven't been here a couple of years, seth,
it's just, uh, I don't know, oj you've ever been
(33:18):
to an Okay, great, so you remember what it looked
like that Now we have a new stadium. It is
state of the art. We also have developing around us
what's called Hall of Fame Village and a whole separate
company of retail restaurants, Closed Dome, nine youth fields, ferris
Wheel and all sorts of the thing at the hotel
(33:40):
is being built right now on a water park, so
it's it's just exploding into this. It's an attraction on
top of being a great museum in the great experience
of the All of Fame Trimate ceremony, but it is
truly kept its its feel, even through that of this
small city that just embraces the new class every year
(34:00):
and the returning Hall of famers. You know, this is
their second home. That we always tell them they feel
welcomed here, and we always make sure that not to
over commercialize it, but at the same time give the
guys a fraternal feel that they come back and this
is their home, their fraternity, and their opportunity to bond
again every year. And I imagine, I mean, I've seen
some of that, and I imagine that that's a really
(34:22):
special thing for those guys, especially the further they get
away from the game. But it's not just the gold Jackets,
it's also the fans, and I have to imagine there
will be no shortage of aquand orange at this year ceremony.
We certainly hope so, right right, I think there will
be so well that you know, how much of those
things you just describe do fans get to participate in.
(34:44):
I'm just wondering for folks that are listening to this
podcast and intend to go to Canton, like yeah, And
the reality is this year is everything's going to sell
out very quickly, you know, the gaming and trying to
still have tickets left. But what I'm saying is that
the popularity of Joe Thomas being in Cleveland, you have
(35:05):
two New York Jets, and the Jets have been a
little bit longing for another Hall of Famer, if you will. Uh,
And those those two factors right there alone, tickets are
going to get tight. But we've seen already early on
a lot of Aqua ordering tickets, so I would not
I would tell you not to hesitate. Go online to
(35:25):
our website. I'll plug it here pro Football hof dot
com and follow very closely the dates for ticket But
there are packages available for all sorts of events. There's
a lot of free events for fans once they get here.
One of the more popular ones. You've seen it, probably both.
I've been here forty five years and I've never seen it.
(35:45):
But they have a great parade. From what I hear,
I never been to it. It's the day of the enshrinement.
I can't. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Fans love it,
and you know, we do other things where fans have
that up close and personal experience. And I say, just
you know, in general, you know, just for the photowop.
(36:08):
You know, we have a you know, photo wop every
year with the new class and the returning Hall of Famers.
I said, nowhere on Earth, I don't care what sport
it is, or even multiple sports, will you ever have
one hundred and ten Hall of Famers at the same
place at the same time. It's just a great fan
experience to see that, and you know, getting the handshakes
(36:28):
and the ie fives and the autographs, all that's all
very much a part of what we do here. You
know what's really interesting. Oj you know, and you know
what you know, you have a playing career, and when
you're playing people everybody recognize you, recognizes you. All our
Hall of Famers after the year's passed, they they're not
always recognizable to the average fan. We've done a couple
of things, or a couple of different times, the same thing.
(36:49):
We have undercover Hall of Famer. We'll put them in
one of our volunteers shirts and the law cap and credential,
and he'll be walking around on the bus gallery asking people, cause,
who's your favorite Hall of Famer? I'm I'm here because
there's a camera we're saying. He goes, I'm here training.
I'm being trained to be a volunteer here, and they
videotape me and the critique being all fans are very
(37:11):
oh that's nice, and you it'll talk to them and
some of your Hall of Fame, favorite Hall of Famers.
They never say the guy that's being you know, standing
there right right, and I say, how about this guy
over here? And he'll take him over to his bust
and they'll look and oh, yeah, he was pretty good.
And then all of a sudden they look back and
it's so cool. Yeah, it really is. But that's kind
(37:31):
of what the world we're in is that you know,
while you were a player and you had a helmet
on and he had number, that's what folks knew. When
the Hall of Famers get together. You know, you're talking
about seeing Tony Dorset in the parking lot and Bob
Greasy at the computer. They can get away with that,
and can't you know, because they're here so often. First
of all, that they're you know, they are known and
(37:51):
recognize here, but some of them are not. You know,
still they can still walk through the streets and not
you know, be hounded by their home like their hometown
fans would recognize them. So it's a really good experience
for them. But for the most part, the fans really
do know them and understand them and appreciate that they
come back man so good. I mean, I don't nobody
recognizing me, Joe until I started doing this podcast. So
don't let them tell you high podcast put me on
(38:15):
the map, and I'm telling you that right now. Whatever,
here's here's what you do, or you just put your
jersey on and walk through this trucks and buffalo one time,
you see before we let you go out here. Joe.
You know, we know you're an expert, you know, in
football history. But we're going to wrap this thing up.
(38:35):
It's the interview by seeing you know, how well you
can handle a two minute drill? All right, big Seth
and I were going to throw you, you know, two
minutes on the clock and have some rapid fire questions
for you, and uh, we'll see how good you how
well you handle this? Man? You up for the challenge?
Should I hang up? Don't run away from the two
minute drill? You got this, Joe. I've got faith in you. Okay,
(38:56):
all right, we don't have the two minute clock. I'm
just gonna have to watch the tim here just because
DJ Priessch's is like working a real job. We'll superimpose
it later, so you start when you're ready, all right.
Back when Hall of Famers had illustrations a company of
their bronze bus, Paul Warfield had a Dolphin's logo, but
he was wearing a Brown's jersey. Who made that call?
(39:16):
The artist Gary Thomas? Well quick, that was okay, and
you just have to accept what it is. Yeah, yeah,
I would have preferred I don't know, I think I
would have preferred. Well, I guess what Brown's logo was
he going to put up there? Well, that's part of it.
But maybe a better answer is he would run up
by us because what we tried to do a show
when they had a duel teams that they played for
tried to represent both of them. Uh, and I guess
(39:39):
the artistic call was made as to which one is
the feature we selfish dolphin? Okay, which Miami Dolphins Hall
of Famer returns to Canton most frequently? Oh my, let's see.
Oh gosh, that's that's pretty tough question, is they. Well?
Nick Bonacondy before he passed, never missed one. Larry Little
is here every years I have been. It's Larry, Larry Little.
(40:04):
Larry love Larry. You mean, well, I know we're in
a two minute drip, but you know Larry just you
know his whole story. There's no way he's gonna miss
that trip. Right, It's all right, here we go. Now,
this is my favorite question of all time. Joe. You
know your father was a sports ride for Buffalo Evening
News and eventually the VP of public relations for the Bills.
(40:24):
How much the really really really love sinning but the
Miami Dolphins and shining can oh? I love it? I mean,
this is I gotta answer, you know, truly. You know,
Dunshel and I became very good friends. I mean, go down.
I did a long interview at his home and and Uh.
You know, he never forgot, and he would he would
share stories about how going to Buffalo. He was telling
(40:46):
his wife, he says, the first time he brought his
wife to a game of Buffalo, he says, people were
moving them and she says, oh my god, do this
everyone Buffalo, justin Buffalo, justin Buffalo. And that believe the
Minamie Dolphins because we've seen that too for sure. Final question,
Zach Thomas is of course the newest former Miami Dolphin
(41:08):
to be selected for football Immortality here in the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. The next Miami Dolphin who should
be in the conversation is here you go. That is
the two minute drill. He is Joe Horrigan. Despite where
he was born, folks, he still gives your Miami Dolphins
not of love in uh in football heaven and man,
(41:30):
I appreciate you making the time. I know this is
a busy time of year for you. No, not at all.
I've enjoined that. I'm chatmans hey, thanks for diving in. Joe,
you're now diving down. Oh and this is strictly but
(41:56):
I'm true Number one one. Of course, the ordinariest was
talk never been that pitch tank don't get show I
got one yet. Kind of never been that pitch tank.
It's only legend that we're talking when you never been
that pitch tank. Rocking well, old Chain and sethful, you've
(42:17):
never been that pitch tank. Fans were added to kind
of damn them down, celebrate big or cry hard. Leave
it all on the field. We're gonna try hard. Old
school a new school, mixing in feeling like we're up
close when we listened in Dolphins tells here Miami is
the deep end. We're ribbing with our favorite players. No
(42:38):
seap bread we get with Seth and Duffi bringing up
stars we never heard to the public, but we love me.
Dolphins fans never brushed. We're loyal to the team. Wasn't happier,
we upset, We'd be like, what's next. Don't twist the subject.
You know what's all about the fens hint if you
read it for that one time to dive in, don't
twist the subject. You know what's all about the fens Hint.
If you're downe with Dolphin's nations, time to dive in.
(43:00):
I'm flush this up that you know what's all about
the fence? You're looking at that fish tank. It's time
to down in pitch tank. Okay, so Aquot orange Kins,
time to devil bent a pitch tank. It's on the
legend that we're talking when you devenpent that pitch tank.
Rocking Old Jake is Seth Twinny. Devilment and pitch tank
(43:25):
don't ever had a talking about the devinment
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