Miami Dolphins In Depth

How much does Wayne Huizenga really know?

Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga puzzles me.

I know he has a brilliant business mind because he is the only person in America to be responsible for six companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and to have three make the Fortune 500 list. Everything he touches makes money and the Dolphins are no different as his investment in the team will eventually bring him 10 times what he paid.

But ...

The man apparently does not know what is going on with his most recognized company. On Wednesday morning you might have read that Huizenga told my colleague Barry Jackson in an exclusive interview that he would not tell Bill Parcells what to do on the Jason Taylor matter.

No problem. The hands off owner is being, well, hands off.

But Huizenga also said in the article that, "as far as I'm concerned, [Taylor's] happy [here]." He went on to tell Jackson that he's read accounts of Taylor being disgruntled and asking to be traded but simply didn't believe the stories in the press.

To which I respond: Amaaaaazing!

So let's break this down because, frankly, I cannot fathom this stuff. [Huizenga, by the way, will be a chapter in my Dolphins book someday.] On the same day the owner of the Dolphins tells the biggest media outlet that regularly covers the team he believes Taylor is happy in Miami, the head coach holds a press conference to announce Taylor ain't showing up for OTAs, ain't showing up for voluntary and mandatory minicamps and ain't showing up for TRAINING CAMP.

Sound like a happy player to you?

That leaves me only two possible explanations. Either Mr. H was lying stretching the truth when he talked to Jackson or he is simply out of the loop, unaware and uninformed. I don't believe Huizenga said something he didn't believe to be the case.

So I have to conclude that he is just ignorant to some things that are going on, even some significant things such as this.

And that lack of awareness comes despite the fact Huizenga was at the team facility during draft weekend -- while the Dolphins were trying to trade Taylor. It comes despite the fact he visited during the rookie minicamp and had ample opportunity to speak to Bill Parcells or Jeff Ireland or Sparano or anybody else he wanted because he's the friggan' owner.

So what we have here is another example of why the Dolphins got so putrid the past decade. In many respects, their problem started at the top.

An update about this blog: Yesterday was significant in that Dolphins In Depth surpassed 1 million page views for the year. We're at 1,005,543 and the season isn't even here yet. I thank you for visiting. And tell other Dolfans about it.

Taylor advancing on Dancing good or bad?

Jason Taylor just advanced to the Dancing with the Stars finals.

I admit it. I watch.

So does the rest of the world, apparently. Taylor was just on the cover of TV Guide (Didn't realize that was still around). He also is said to have met with Denzel Washington and some executive muckety muck at 20th Century Fox that told him he should be in pictures.

I want Taylor to win Dancing because, at least for now, he represents South Florida and I'm for South Florida through and through. But although it is good that Taylor goes on to next week's finals, it is also true another week of Taylor on Dancing means another week he's not in the Dolphins conditioning program.

You know how I feel about the importance of offseason conditioning. I also think players make huge salaries and owe their teams and themselves the best opportunity to play well during the season by getting as strong and as finely conditioned as possible during the offseason.

But I'm wondering what you think. Maybe you guys don't think it's a big deal Taylor has missed seven weeks of the program so far so that he could be on, well, the other program. And maybe you don't care if he misses the whole darn thing. So here's your chance to voice your opinion.

Tell me when Jason Taylor should rejoin the Dolphins for conditioning work. Tell me if you think he should join the program at all. Tell me if you believe it is no biggie. Also, take the poll below. I just learned how to configure it so make me happy and cooperate.

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