I write about and care about the Miami Dolphins unlike any other team. A fan's sensibility intrudes on the professional detachment, and it isn't something I try to deny or to change. It is a part of my DNA.
Growing up in South Florida I was an adult when the Heat came along. Had a family of my own by the time the Marlins and Panthers were born.
The Dolphins helped raise me.
You are reading the words of the 11-year-old boy sitting in a half-empty Orange Bowl that night in 1966 when it all became real on Joe Auer's franchise-christening 95-yard touchdown return with the first opening kickoff.