FOOTBALL FEVER
By design, opponents sweat while Dolphins sit in shade
The big secret sat amid the sweaty jerseys on the floor and slathered bodies at the lockers of Sunday’s losers. The Chicago Bears, defeated and dehydrated, tried to answer how they lost to the Dolphins, though cornerback Kyle Fuller hit on something when he said, in an aside, “Man, it was hot.”
The old saying is everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. The Dolphins did something about it. Their threeyear, half-billion-dollar renovation of Hard Rock Stadium is a designed testament to that big secret, even if they decline to say so.
For three hours, as Fuller noted, the sub-tropical sun roasted the Chicago sideline last Sunday, while the Dolphins stood in the shade on their sidelines.
It’s why former NFL coach Rex Ryan said the Dolphins have the “No. 1 home-field advantage in the league.”
It’s why Dolphins tackle Ja’Wuan James said he’s seen plenty of opposing defensive linemen “throw up during the game.”
It helps explain why the Dolphins are 14-4 in Hard Rock Stadium (and 6-12 on the road) since the canopy went up during coach Adam Gase’s first season in 2016. That’s their best stretch at home since in similar a run between 2001 and 2003.
The longer the game goes, the better the Dolphins play, too. They’ve outscored teams 49-27 in the fourth quarters and overtime of their three home wins this year.
It’s all by design, too, folks. The Dolphins’ 12th man was the team of architects and engineers who hung the stadium’s canopy to have this hot-house effect on opponents, even if
the Dolphins won’t discuss it. Not in this sport. Not in this league where there are rules about competitive advantage.
But think about it: Dolphins owner Steve Ross made his fortune in developments in founding The Related Group. Dolphins CEO Tom Garfinkel, too, was so detail-oriented in this stadium renovation that sound engineers did expansive studies so the
canopy would maximize crowd noise and provide the largest possible homefield advantage.
Don’t you think the Dolphins similarly played with the size and angle of the canopy opening to maximize the afternoon sun’s impact on the opponent? And to keep the Dolphins in the shade?
The Dolphins players chuckle how opposing teams congregate in the
shade during timeouts on the field. They note how the shade creeps across the field toward the opposing bench as the afternoon progresses — but never quite reaches their sideline.
“It stops right before it gets to their bench,’’ Dolphins rookie Minkah Fitzpatrick said. “It’s pretty funny.”
NFL teams are known for manipulating homefield advantages. A sign in the visiting locker room in Denver reminds opponents of the debilitating altitude factor by reading, “Elevation 5,280 Feet Above Sea Level.” Al Davis, the former Oakland Raiders coach, supposedly cut electricity to opposing locker rooms, so Don Shula’s Dolphins once did their halftime talk in darkness. And then showered after the game in cold water.
For years in New England, dating to former Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt’s time, the Dolphins made doubly sure not to discuss any game plan or leave any strategic scrap of paper in the locker rooms for fear Patriots coach Bill Belichick was watching.
The Dolphins have smartly struck on something organic. And infernally devious.
“The most underappreciated home-field advantage in the league is Miami early in the season,’’ Ryan said on ESPN’s “Get Up” show. “Trust me, I’ve been on that sideline. It is so hot. Your team is in the sun the entire game.
“They have this new crazy soccer thing [the canopy] where their team is in the shade. They wear the white-colored jersey. Your team is dark. Believe me, I’ve been ahead by 14 points in the fourth quarter, and my guys were gassed and [the Dolphins] came back and won it.”
The sun has always been a Dolphins’ weapon. During their Super Bowl run in the early 1970s, guard Bob Kuechenberg remembers praying for clear skies and scorching days, knowing, “It will be hard for me, but it might kill the guy across from me.”
Dolphins safety Reshad Jones updates that idea.
“You see a lot of suffering in the heat out there by some teams,’’ he said. “We’re used to it, though.”
Sunday’s forecast when Detroit comes to Hard Rock Stadium: Blue skies and 85 degrees.
“Another hot one,’’ Jones said.
Another one where sun — and the canopy’s shade -will play their designed roles.