Not Zach!
My beloved, beleaguered, bedraggled Dolphins released Zach Thomas yesterday.
The team is purging salaries now, which is really the only possible direction following its dismal, hopeless 1-15 showing.
But saying farewell to Zach is devastating. Over his 12 years with the team, Zach did his business with excellence — stuffing egomaniacal running backs, picking off ill-advised passes, turning tight end receptions into incompletes, and basically taking away the middle of the field. He made every player around him better. He never went for the big hit or the big ad campaign, never got arrested in a nightclub, never said a discouraging word. He just racked up Pro Bowls (seven of them) and screwed up the plans of the league’s offensive coordinators.
He may end up with another team in 2008, but his Hall of Fame bust will say Miami. Zach, don’t go!