Dolphins and Hurricanes have football in Miami riding a tandem high not felt in nearly 25 years | Opinion

Ewa Beach is a lovely town that arose from sugar cane fields on the leeward coast of Hawaii. Three generations of the Tagovailoa family lived there and the son they all called Tua — because given name Tuanigamanuolepola was a mouthful — was then a toddler aged 2.

It was December 30, 2000, and, on the mainland, Tua’s future employer, the Miami Dolphins, were winning a playoff football game for the last time..

Fast forward not quite 23 years and that same grown-up child, the one his father, Galu, taught to throw left-handed, has the Dolphins better than they have been in almost a quarter century and finally ready to end that playoff-win drought.

I know, I know. It has been one game.

Don’t care.

This is in its bones a football town, and South Florida football fans have been starving a long time, and so, yeah:

When Tagovailoa throws for 466 yards in an exhilarating season-opening road win, one day after the Miami Hurricanes beat ranked Texas A&M to climb to No. 22 in the polls — feel free to overreact, to get carried away. It is encouraged.

Tagovailoa and Canes QB Tyler Van Dyke combined passed for 840 yards and eight TDs and their teams totaled 84 points. Bottle that. Enjoy it.

Since 2001 the Fins have made the playoffs the same season the Canes won a bowl game only twice, and not since 2016. The two teams have not each won 10 games in a season since 2003.

UM, after three soft games starting Thursday night here vs. Bethune-Cookman, plays at No. 20 North Carolina. More litmus test challenges are coming. For now, though, the Canes look better than I thought, palpably, noticeably improved.

The Dolphins look as good as I thought they would be when I had them No. 4 in my NFL preseason rankings (ahead of Buffalo), and smiled through being called a homer on the Le Batard Show.

Until I’m proven wrong, the Dolphins are good, really good. And so is Tagovailoa, who is one healthy season playing like he did in Week 1 from elevating to elite in perception and getting the huge payday others at his position have.

The Dolphins are so good they just won “Monday Night Football” without even playing in it.

They won watching from the couch.

They won as Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending Achilles injury turned the New York Jets season from a rocket ship to the Hindenburg.

They won as the fraud-mighty Buffalo Bills couldn’t beat Zach Wilson because Josh Allen continues to produce more turnovers than a bakery and takes the front of the line of most overrated quarterbacks in the NFL.

The Dolphins (and their long-suffering fans) won as the AFC East instantly looked like theirs to win for the first time in just this side of forever.

A fast test of that optimism comes Sunday night at New England, where the Dolphins are small favorites to continue Bill Belichick’s post-Brady fall from G.O.A.T-genius to Guy Who No Longer Has The Greatest QB Ever.

For now and until further notice, the Dolphins bandwagon is picking up speed and there are no brakes to tap.

Tagovailoa just threw for 466 yards and beat forever-draft-rival Justin Herbert.

No Travis Kelce made Patrick Mahomes look mortal.

Joe Burrow, newly enriched by that megacontract, looked worse in an opening loss than he ever has.

Allen continues in the reckless lane.

Am I getting ahead of myself here? Oh hell yes. Am I a homer? Well, I live here, and I love it when my community is happy about its teams, genuinely pumped. And the chances to feel that with football have been so few this century. For UM fans, too.. The Canes won their last national championship on January 3, 2002. That was one year and four days after the Fins won their last playoff game.

It has been about that long since both of Miami’s big football teams, on consecutive days, had their fans on such an early season high.

Recent history would wag a cautious finger and tell us what Dolphins and Hurricanes fans are feeling right now won’t last.

Maybe. And if disappointment is coming, we have the collective scar tissue to handle it. But until that thud might happen let’s do get ahead of ourselves, because why not?

Optimism is free, and you can go back for seconds. There are no limits on your right to feel as good as you can, when you can.