Through the grief of the eulogy, we do not bury merely a winner now ... not merely a leader of champions ... not merely a warrior hero with more successful conquests than anyone in the forever of America's gladiator game. No, we come with respect to bury a historic symbol ... and a different time ... in football, Miami, America.
Don Shula took Miami from black and white to color -- the football team, yes, but the sparkling seaside city, too. Horse racing and jai alai, that's all we had in South Florida before Shula's granite jaw led us somewhere bigger, better.