Don’t expect the worst, just enjoy the ride

“If you don’t heal what hurt you, you’ll bleed on people who didn’t cut you.” — Unknown

This quote describes a good amount of people in the Miami Dolphins fan base, which has been skeptical of the team’s new coaches and players for the past two decades.

This fan base is in so much pain because of years of mediocrity since Dan Marino retired after the 1999 season, they cannot fully enjoy moments of triumph.

The Dolphins are 4-2 heading into Sunday’s home game against the Detroit Lions (2-3), and it seems as if fans are uncomfortable cheering for a winning football team.

A large portion of Dolphins fans (and the media that covers them) are impatiently waiting for an anvil to drop out of the sky and fall on some Dolphins player’s head.

Reoccurring mistakes and traumatic losses have led to this level of distrust, and produced a seemingly endless cycle of misery for two decades.

It doesn’t help that the New England Patriots, who share the AFC East with Miami, has spent the past 18 seasons build-

ing the NFL’s most successful dynasty.

Every time it has seemed like “this could work out” for Miami something happens, like running back Ricky Williams basically picking weed over football and abruptly retiring, or Nick Saban deciding he dislikes coaching pro athletes, quitting and going on to become a legendary college coach at the University of Alabama.

Or quarterback Chad Pennington getting hurt (twice) in seasons where Miami possessed a good defense, Bullygate sideswiping a promising 2013 season, and quarterback Ryan Tannehill suffering his first knee injury in 2016 while the Dolphins were making their push for the playoffs.

Fans skepticism is justified. However, it has kept you from enjoying when things have gone right.

Have you truly tried to trust coach Adam Gase, who owns as 20-18 record while playing 20 games without Tannehill? Or are you just waiting for him to mess up too like the last coach, or the one before him?

Have you appreciated the Ring of Honor worthy careers that Cameron Wake and Reshad Jones have put together this decade? Or are you more obsessed with early draft picks — Jonathan Martin, Daniel Thomas, Pat White — that fizzled out?

Or do you focus on the free agents — Jarvis Landry, Olivier Vernon, Lamar Miller — that weren’t re-signed, and not the gems like Albert Wilson and Nick O’Leary that the Dolphins have unearthed?

Being emotional and having knee-jerk reactions to losses, each decision, is part of fanhood. But Dolphins fans need to understand that every season — for every franchise — is going to be filled with ups and downs, adversity, and injuries.

If they’ve proven anything, these 2018 Dolphins have shown that they are a resilient bunch. They might not always win, and might at times embarrass themselves like they did against the Patriots, and gift-wrap games to the opponent (like they did vs. the Bengals), but they don’t quit.

Not this year, pulling out four victories in games they were the underdog.

Miami lost the two players — Josh Sitton and Daniel Kilgore — that improved the offensive line, yet that unit put together a dynamic performance against Chicago, the NFL’s best passrushing team, last Sunday.

Miami lost its best pass rusher (Wake) and best run stopper (William Hayes) to knee injuries, and cut Jordan Phillips, but somehow that unit is being held together by three former practice squad players in Jonathan Woodard, Cameron Malveaux and now Jamiyus Pittman.

The Dolphins have been forced to play games without key starters like Jones, Bobby McCain, and now Tannehill, but the wins keep coming.

What could go wrong has so far, and yet these Dolphins still possess one of the best records in the NFL, and sit atop the AFC East with home games against the New York Jets (Nov. 4), Buffalo Bills (Dec. 2) and Patriots (Dec. 9) on the horizon.

Even though only three teams in the entire league have a better record than Miami heading into this week’s games, most Dolphins fans are impatiently awaiting for them to fall back to earth.

You don’t need another quarterback drafted in the first round, or another coach or general manager to make this franchise whole.

What fans need is healing from the trauma that prevents them from enjoying an NFL season, one where the Dolphins are actually competitive.