Focusing on Irma
phins now must play 16 consecutive games without a bye week, an idea that caused some players to bristle Tuesday.
“Sixteen straight?” wide receiver Jarvis Landry said. “It’s a long season. Let’s be honest about it, the stretch after our bye week is one of the toughest, if you want to be real about it, it’s probably the toughest in the NFL. That bye week could give us an opportunity to get guys healthy.
“In this league you’re going to get banged up week in and week out, so that bye week for us comes at an appropriate time. To keep it there would be huge, but I know this is an unfortunate situation and it’s out of our hands.”
Linebacker Kiko Alonso agreed with Landry but was a bit more diplomatic.
“Obviously that would be unfavorable,” he said, “but we’re here to play and whenever they say we’re going to play, we’ll be ready.”
Tampa Bay defensive tackle Chris Baker tweeted his displeasure Wednesday morning, saying:
“Dear @NFL @NFLPA the players are not interested in playing 16 straight weeks #PLAYERSAFETY THIS IS CRAZY”
The Dolphins have shifted their Hurricane Harvey relief efforts into a Hurricane Irma relief drive.
The Dolphins have offered Hard Rock Stadium as a staging area, if necessary, for Miami-Dade County for distribution of relief supplies. Details will be provided by MiamiDade County when they become available.
As part of the Hurricane Irma focus, Hard Rock Stadium will be closed to the public and won’t accept drop-off donations for Hurricane Harvey.
chperkins @sunsentinel.com