*** DOLPHINS NEWS ***
Dec 31, 1997: -- 3 Players Have Surgery --
** Abdul-Jabbar, Webb and Perriman Get 'Scoped
The Dolphins announced yesterday that Karim Abdul-Jabbar,
Richmond Webb and Brett Perriman all had arthoscopic surgery on their
knees yesterday to correct nagging problems that had been plaguing
them throughout the year.
Abdul-Jabbar had arthoscopic surgery on his right knee for
the removal of a small tear of the lateral meniscus and loose bodies,
as well as general joint debridement. Webb had similar surgery on his
left knee. Perriman had surgery to remove loose bodies on his left
knee, which was the same knee that was operated on earlier in the
year.
All 3 players are expected to be fully recovered in time for
the first team mini-camp, which is normally held right after the draft
in April.
Lawrence Phillips wasn't operated on yesterday, but it's
expected that he will also need surgery sometime in the off-season.
** Marino May Need Surgery on his arm
The Miami Herald is reporting this morning that Dan Marino may
need to have surgery on his right elbow, which has bothered him since
the middle of the season. This announcement follows an extensive
physical that Dan took Monday after the Patriots' game.
As of right now, no determination has been made on whether or
not surgery will be necessary, but if his elbow is operated on, it
will be the first time he's had surgery on his throwing arm. He has
had 9 different surgeries during his career, but they were all on his
legs.
** Rumors Surround Larry Beightol
The rumors are flying about the possible firing of offensive
line coach Larry Beightol. Because Larry Beightol is an "assistant
head coach", he must be fired if the Dolphins want to hire an
offensive coordinator away from another team. That is because of NFL
rules that require the Dolphins to offer a promotion to any assistant
coach that they want to hire away from another team.
When Larry Beightol was hired away from the Houston Oilers two
year ago, the Dolphins had to designate him a supervisor in order to
hire him. The NFL, however, ruled that the Dolphins must give up both
of their available supervisor positions (ie, assistant head coach
positions) in order to hire Beightol.
Beightol has said that he expects to be fired after the poor
performance of the offensive line at the end of the season.
My Comments:
We all knew that Webb was going to have his knee scoped and
the sooner it's done, the better. This was the first I had heard that
KAJ needed surgery, but again - the sooner, the better.
As for Marino, I hope that they can heal his arm without
surgery. I don't want to see a doctor get near that golden arm.
Now, you understand, it's not that I don't trust doctors. My
father is a doctor, but they are, after all, only human. They make
mistakes as much as anyone and just waving a knife at Marino's arm is
enough to make me nervous.
And I remember all too well what happened to Jim Kelly after
his shoulder was operated on. He was never the same.
As to Larry Beightol, I always wondered what the big deal was
about this guy. I kept hearing about how great an offensive line
coach he was, but when I look back on the teams he's coached, I don't
see great offensive lines. First he was with the Jets and then he
was with the Oilers. Neither of those teams had dominating offensive
lines when he was with them and I haven't seen him do much that was
good in Miami.
The rumor mill about replacements for Gary Stevens keeps
churning, with the most likely candidates being Dolphins' running
backs coach Kippy Brown and Cowboys' offensive coordinator Ernie
Zampese. Lindy Infante and San Diego State coach Ted Tollner are also
rumored candidates for the job.
Of course, Stevens has to be fired first, but I don't think
that there is much question that that will happen.
My personal preference would be Lindy Infante, I think. He
seems to be the best of the bunch at getting production out of people
and of designing schemes to deal with differing defenses.
As a replacement for Beightol, JJ would probably go after
Hudson Houck of the Cowboys, but Houck has to be fired first and I
wouldn't put it past Jerry Jones to keep Houck just so that JJ can't
get him.
I think that it's pretty clear that the Dolphins need a new
offensive coordinator. One of my biggest gripes about Tom Olivadotti
when he was the Dolphins' defensive coordinator was his inability to
make adjustments and the fact that he didn't change his schemes, even
when they didn't work. The most glaring example of that was the 1995
playoffs when Olivadotti used the same defense against the Bills in
the playoffs that had given up over 200 yards rushing against them
just 2 weeks earlier.
The result, of course, was that the Dolphins ended up giving
up a record number of rushing yards to the Bills in the playoffs.
Gary Stevens has just pulled the same stunt against the
Patriots and to me, that shows an astounding lack of creativity and
intelligence. It's time for him to get another job.
Related Info:
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Curt Fennell,
curt@phins.com, DOLFAN in New Rochelle (almost)
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