Tougher than the virus: Why the Dolphins are built to thrive during the pandemic
On Malcolm Perry’s first night at the Naval Academy, sleep ended abruptly at half past four by the clanging pots and shouting superiors.
The chaos was jarring. The miles-long run that followed in the dead of night was worse.
It was then that Perry, a freshman at Annapolis, Maryland, knew he underestimated just how demanding a service academy education would be.
“It took a lot of mental toughness not to quit,” Perry, now a rookie receiver for the Miami
Dolphins, said this week. “A lot of people who started with me didn’t end with me. And then on top of all the military stuff, you have rigorous academic and on top of that, you’ve got to go play football. It took a lot to stay there.”
Perry’s perseverance paid off. He was a distinguished three-year starter for Navy, first at receiver and then quarterback. As a senior, he was both the American Athletic Conference player of the year and a team captain, with the latter called by the school “the greatest honor a studentathlete can receive at Navy.”
Perry has a far smaller role with the Miami Dolphins seven months into his pro career, but with each game, that role has
COVID-19 has affected every team in the NFL. But not everyone has handled it as well as Brian Flores, Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins.
grown. He has proven that he can be trusted — on the field and off — in perhaps the most difficult circumstances possible for a first-year player.
Perry, like everyone in the NFL, had no offseason, no preseason, very little training camp and limited practice opportunities this season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
And yet, Perry is a totem of how the Dolphins franchise has not only survived the season of COVID-19, but thrived.
Despite having the league’s third-youngest roster and starting seven rookies in last Sunday’s game against the Chargers, Brian Flores’ Dolphins travel to Denver this weekend in search of a sixth consecutive win.
How have they done it? By overcoming their deficiencies in talent and experience with a fierce mental toughness embodied by their Brooklyn-born head coach.
When you escape one of New York City’s roughest neighborhoods, with poverty and crime all around, and rise to the top of your profession before age 40, there’s little adversity you can’t handle.
What’s dodging COVID-19 when you’ve had a gun pulled on you by police?
“I think we’ve all had experiences that have helped us grow and get better,” Flores said. “Everyone deals with some form of adversity throughout the course of their lives. Some are different than others.
“No one’s is more important than anyone else’s, but I think we learn from them and I know for me personally, they’ve made me better and I continue to try to get better for this team, this organization. I think all of our players feel the same way. They’ve all dealt with things as well that have helped us in this type of year.”
For Perry, it was his four years in Annapolis.
For Jakeem Grant, the Dolphins’ dynamic receiver and returner, it was becoming a father of three while a college undergrad. At first, the stress of being a parent, a student and an athlete was too much. After his twins were born, he nearly lost his spot on Kliff Kingsbury’s Texas Tech roster because of academics, yet overcame a suspension to earn second-team All-American honors as a senior.
Second-year defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, who spent the last two weeks away from the team because of COVID-19, lost his grandfather when he was just 15 to a wrongful police shooting.
Rookie right tackle Robert Hunt grew up so poor, his childhood home had holes in the floor and rats in the walls.
Ereck Flowers, a native South Floridian who attended the University of Miami, is the leader of the offensive line. But just a few years ago, he was considered a huge bust. Flowers didn’t quit after a rough first few NFL seasons and rebooted his career in a different city and at a different position.
The stories go on and on.
And it’s not an accident that the Dolphins’ roster is filled with such stories. The NFL demands a level of mental and physical toughness not found in most places.
The Dolphins, when building their roster, seemed to seek out players who have backstories out of a tragic novel. The hope is if they can survive and excel through adversity in their personal lives, they can do the same on the football field.
Again, that’s the hope.
“Really you really don’t know until you get them in the building and put them in those situations,” Dolphins special teams coordinator Danny Crossman said. “As we all know, this is a week-to-week league and it’s tough. It’s hard to win; and to put the time in in terms of meetings, practice, walk-throughs — and then you add to that the nutrition and the strength and conditioning — and you do all that stuff understanding that all it’s going to do is give you a chance.
“If you don’t do those things, you have no chance of competing in this league,” Crossman continued. “So if you’re willing to make those sacrifices to just give yourself a chance, then sometimes you’re going to win, sometimes you’re going to lose; but the more that you can have a history and recognize a history of guys having to overcome some things, you feel better when those things do come along, that you’re going to be able to overcome them.”
That theory was put to the test the last few weeks. COVID-19 got inside the Dolphins’ practice facility, forcing several assistants into quarantine, including Robby Brown, who coaches Tua Tagovailoa and Miami’s quarterbacks.
The Dolphins had to get creative. George Godsey, who usually leads the Dolphins’ tight ends, took over Brown’s duties. Kaleb Thornhill is Miami’s director of player engagement, yet last week, he helped coach the Dolphins’ defensive line and outside linebackers.
There was a danger of disaster with so many moving parts and so many people filling roles they usually don’t. And yet the Dolphins kept on winning — and Tagovailoa made strides by the game.
That shouldn’t be a surprise. If a clutch gene exists, Tagovailoa has it. As a freshman, he entered the national championship game cold at halftime with Alabama down 13 points. He brought the Crimson Tide all the way back and won the game in overtime with a walk-off touchdown pass.
It was the only title he won in college, due in large part to the major hip injury he sustained last November. There were fears at the time he would never play again. Tagovailoa crushed those fears by crushing his rehab with tireless dedication and a sunny disposition that he says he gets from his mother, Diane.
“I think he is a glass-half-full guy,” Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey said. “Everything is going to work out, everything is going to get better, everything is going to be just fine, let’s keep doing what we do. If the trainer says hop on your right foot 20 times, he hops on his right foot 20 times even if you’re not looking. He will do all of the little things to get where he needs to be. He has no reservations about any of that. He enjoys it. He enjoys the challenge.”
The Dolphins’ challenge this week is to fly two-thirds of the way across the country and play an unfamiliar opponent in the coldest conditions they have experienced this season.
Along the way, something will go wrong. Maybe the team bus will blow a tire on the way to the game. Perhaps more coaches or players will test positive. Or maybe it will be something as traditional as a first-half deficit.
But whatever comes up, it’s a safe bet it won’t be more than they can handle.
“[Flores] and [general manager Chris Grier] have done a great job of bringing guys into this building that are mentally tough, that can handle, ‘Hey, we’ve got to go through this protocol, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do that,’ and they don’t skip a beat because they’re focused on the task at hand,” Dolphins defensive coordinator Josh Boyer said. “I don’t think you really reflect on it or think about it. You’re just like, ‘What do I need to do to get the job done?’ And I think that’s the way our coaches, our players, everybody in our organization, I think that’s the way they approach it.”
COVID-19 FORCED THE DOLPHINS TO GET CREATIVE. THERE WAS A DANGER OF DISASTER WITH SO MANY PEOPLE FILLING NEW ROLES.