NBC with unique plan for its fourth Dolphins game in 17 years. And final injury report
The Dolphins’ NBC game this weekend is a big deal, not only because the Sunday night games are considered the NFL’s marquee package, but also because the Dolphins have been featured so infrequently over the years, a byproduct of making just one playoff appearance in the past 13 years.
The Dolphins have appeared just three times in NBC’s 17 years as the Sunday night rights-holder.
Miami’s most recent Sunday night game was in 2017, a home loss to the Raiders. The Dolphins have had only two others during the non-cable era of “Sunday Night Football:” a loss against Pittsburgh in 2006 (NBC’s first game after taking over the Sunday night package) and a 2010 loss to the Jets.
So the Dolphins are 0-3 on Sunday nights since the games left cable television (ESPN).
“I spoke with [announcers] Mike [Tirico] and Cris [Collinsworth] and they’re really excited to get down to Miami,” said Rob Hyland, the coordinating producer for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” “Our presentation is better when we get to Miami. It’s an historic franchise.”
Hyland plans to allocate some air time to discussion of the 1972 Dolphins, who will be honored at halftime.
After the Sunday night schedule was released in May, “the first thing we began thinking about was how to celebrate the ‘ 72 team,” Hyland said. “I’ve worked with the NFL and the team past few months.”
PERFECT MEMORIES
Join us each Wednesday as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the perfect 1972 team
NBC interviewed Hall of Famers and ‘72 alums Larry Csonka, Larry Little and Paul Warfield at the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, this past summer and will air brief snippets of those conversations just before kickoff.
That piece also will be broadcast live on the Dolphins’ videoboard. “It’s sound from them on what it means to be perfect,” Hyland said.
NBC then will take the highly unusual step of airing the pregame coin toss, featuring Csonka, Little, Warfield and Bob Griese.
And throughout the game, Tirico will mention the ‘72 team, leading into short video clips.
NBC won’t carry the halftime presentation live but will weave in a highlight or two during the second half.
The question that NBC has worked to navigate, Hyland said, is “how do we [tell the story of 1972] without banging it over peoples’ heads and really appreciate what was accomplished and how hard it was? We’ll have a number of story telling elements.”
NBC’s Sunday night production always has been exemplary, and Hyland encourages his staff to uncover details beyond the obvious.
For example, one tidbit that Tirico might mention Sunday is that the Dolphins-Steelers AFC Championship Game during that Dolphins perfect season featured 17 Hall of Famers.
Tirico, in his first year as Al Michaels’ successor, worked his 200th NFL game last Sunday and is calling NFL games full time for the first time since leaving ESPN’s Monday Night Football after 2015.
He entered this season already having worked more than 20 games with Collinsworth, who’s bullish on the Dolphins.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Hyland said. “They get better with every game.”
Michaels, now working Thursday games for Amazon, will return to NBC for select assignments, including an NFL playoff game and the Olympics.
Couple other media notes involving this weekend’s 50th anniversary celebration:
▪ WQAM morning host and Dolphins radio analyst Joe Rose, NBC-6’s former longtime sports anchor, will make his first appearance on the station since leaving when he joins Ruthie Polinsky on a 60-minute combination of a newscast and Sports Final following Sunday night’s game on NBC.
Rose left NBC 6 in 2014, after 22 years at the station, because he grew tired of anchoring a sportscast late at night and then needing to wake up a few hours later to do a radio show.
▪ ESPN has an interesting 1972 Dolphins feature planned for “NFL Countdown” at 10 a.m. Sunday, about how several players went to a bar after practice on Thursdays and would pin a voodoo doll of the quarterback they would be facing that upcoming week.
According to ESPN, Robin Roper ended up unearthing the weathered dolls this past September in her mother’s attic.
The dolls were authentic and legitimate — they were painted with the same jersey numbers as the quarterbacks the Dolphins faced in 1972 – Terry Bradshaw, Joe Namath, Len Dawson — and they had the black cleats, which was the quintessential attire of a 1970’s player – with Namath a notable exception.
“I was like, ‘Wow these are the real things!’” ESPN feature produce Steve Buckheit recalled.
Here’s a snippet from the piece.
FINAL INJURY REPORT
The Dolphins listed one player as doubtful for Sunday: cornerback Keion Crossen (knee).
Byron Jones (ankle/Achilles) and Austin Jackson (ankle) remain out.
Nine players were listed as questionable: Terron Armstead (toe), Xavien Howard (groin), Emmanuel Ogbah (back), Kader Kohou (oblique), Greg Little (Achilles), Durham Smythe (hamstring), Jaylen Waddle (shoulder), Christian Wilkins (hand) and Skylar Thompson (thumb).
All nine were limited at Friday’s practice except Armstead, who didn’t practice.
Coach Mike McDaniel said “I feel pretty good” about Armstead’s availability Sunday “but I don’t feel 100 percent.” Armstead missed the past seven quarters with a toe injury sustained in the opener.
Ogbah did not practice on Wednesday or Thursday and was limited on Friday. McDaniel said his status would be determined on game day. He was moving around gingerly during a small portion of practice open to reporters.
Waddle said in the locker room on Friday that he’s good for Sunday. Durham Smythe also sounded optimistic. Howard - who was limited this week because of the groin and veteran’s rest - hasn’t given any indication that his status for Sunday is in question.
Kohou said: “I’m doing my best to play on Sunday.”
Noah Igbinoghene and Justin Bethel are the only cornerbacks not on the final injury report.
Bethel, known primarily as a special teams player, had played only 61 defensive snaps since the end of the 2017 season before being needed for 13 defense snaps last Sunday, all in the slot.
He said he takes defensive snaps every week. “I felt like I was able to get my bearings after a couple plays,” he said. “I think I have an easy time being able to pick up this defense. It’s easy for me to fit in and do what they ask of me.”
Bethel, who’s in his first season with the Dolphins, said the last time he played any boundary cornerback snaps “was a little bit when I was in New England” the past two seasons, when the Patriots had injuries at cornerback.
Cornerbacks coach Sam Madison offered an interesting anecdote on Igbinoghene from the Vikings game: “Throughout the course of the game, I was talking to him and then Raekwon Davis saw me talking to him and he was like ‘Coach, leave him alone. He knows what he’s doing.’ So I just let him go and just handle his business.”
With multiple injuries at cornerback, we could see more three-safety lineups - something the Dolphins used on seven defensive snaps against Minnesota. Eric Rowe began his NFL career at cornerback; Jevon Holland played cornerback in high school and during one year at Oregon.
“I think it’s just obviously a different type of player,” safeties coach Steve Gregory said of those lineups.
“Safety is a little bit more in tune to fitting the run, playing closer towards the box, different things like that. Obviously a safety as opposed to a corner, coverage skills playing like man coverage on a receiver might be a little bit different.“
BUONICONTI PLANS
The ‘72 Dolphins will be honored not only at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday night, but also on Monday night at the 37th Annual Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis Great Sports Legend Dinner at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.
Dick Anderson and Mercury Morris will accept the award for the team, and Buoniconti’s children - Nick Jr., Marc and their sister Gina - will accept on behalf of their father Nick Buoniconti, the Hall of Fame Dolphins linebacker who died in 2019.
Also scheduled to be honored on Monday: Former UM and NFL star running back Edgerrin James, former Heat and NBA Hall of Fame guard Tim Hardaway, Olympic-winning skiier Lindsey Vonn, former MLB star Vladimir Guerrero, stock car racing star Tony Stewart, paralympic skiier Sarah Will and former race car driver Shirley Muldowney.
The evening will include posthumous tribute to Nick Buoniconti, who founded, with Dr. Barth Green, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, in 1985 after Marc was paralyzed in a college football game.
Nick Buoniconti spent more than three decades dedicated to finding a cure for people affected by spinal cord injury, including his son and the millions of others around the world.
Since its inception in 1985, the Great Sports Legends Dinner has raised more than $130 million for The Miami Project’s spinal cord injury research programs.
The 37th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner begins at 5:30 PM at the Marriott Marquis, 1535 Broadway. Tickets and tables can be purchased by calling Jackie Manzano at (305)-243-4656 or www.bidpal.net/gsld2022. For more information about The Buoniconti Fund, visit www.TheBuonicontiFund.com.
