Dan Marino is arguably the greatest NFL player to never win a Super Bowl. He got close, but couldn’t quite finish during his 17-year career with the Miami Dolphins from 1983-1999. Marino had a ton of individual success, racking up six All-Pros and an MVP, but his Dolphins were always competitive as well.
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His 147 wins were second in NFL history when he retired, and he only had a losing record once. That sustained success had a lot to do with not only Marino’s consistency, but his chemistry with his teammates. Playing from 1983-1999, he had more than a few groups of guys come and go while he was there. He managed to work well with all of them.
One of the ones he worked best with was wideout O.J. McDuffie. A consensus All-American in 1992 at Penn State and the No. 25 pick in the 1993 draft by the Miami Dolphins, McDuffie spent his entire career with Marino and the Fins. The 1998 NFL receptions king recently sat down for an exclusive interview with The Sports Rush, and he talked about what made Marino such a good teammate for so long.
“It all starts with talent, first and foremost. We both know that Tom Brady and Dan Marino have a ton of talent. Tom displayed that right away, and so did Dan Marino. What he was doing in the mid-80s, as a quarterback in a league that pretty much just ran the football all the time, was truly, truly special. And for me, to be able to go down to Miami as a wide receiver and play with the great Dan Marino was amazing. So it starts off with his ability.”
Of course, it’s hard to follow a leader if you don’t believe in their ability or talent. But it wasn’t just Marino’s skill that made his teammates want to run through a wall for him. It was just as much about his “mentality”.
“We all know that he has great, great talent. Then you look at his mentality. A student of the game. Knew the offense inside and out. But not only that though, his confidence, his confidence oozed out to the rest of the offense. We knew that if it was late in the game and we need to go down and get a score. We knew that Dan Marino was the guy that could drive us down there and either get us a field goal if we needed it—which he never wanted; he always wanted to score a touchdown to win a game—but if we needed one, he would still manage that.”
On top of that, McDuffie talked about arguably the most important part of Marino: his confidence. Great players have to have a nearly insane level of self-belief, and Marino’s confidence was so contagious that McDuffie felt it “oozed” from the QB and over to his teammates, especially on offense.
“But we always knew that we can get down the field and get in the end zone because of his confidence, but also his ability. So he gave all of us confidence that we can go out there and get it done. And we all want to go out there and get it done for him. The five guys in front of him in the offensive line. Always important. Because they never want anybody to touch or even get close to Dan Marino. For us, it was always important for us to get open for Danny. … We felt really great with him being our leader.”
Dan Marino is one of the greatest passers in NFL history, but his ability to remain a positive, confident, and productive teammate through so many disappointments makes him unique. And if there’s anyone qualified to talk about this gunslinger, it’s O.J. McDuffie.
Apart from the Marks Brothers (Clayton and Duper), no one caught more passes from Marino than McDuffie. His 401 receptions from 1993-1999 while he was playing with Marino ranked 12th in the NFL during that span.
