The sun had just set when hope began rising. An October Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium, late in the game and the future is rising up off the bench, warming up on the sideline. Fans in the spaced-apart, pandemic crowd of 10,772 were rising up, too, with a cheer that became an ovation.
That joyous noise, pent up for how long? Years? Two decades? Maybe ever since Dan Marino limped off a football field for the last time on January 15, 2000?
That big noise the small crowd was making _ it was the sound of the future arriving, becoming real.
"Tua! Tua! Tua!"
All of a sudden, it seems, what a time it is to be a sports fan in South Florida.
It has been a so-depressing 2020, sustained misery, the COVID-19 death toll now past 220,000 in America and cases spiking anew. Social unrest, political divide, even the common ground of shared values seeming to run away from us.
It is strangely in this oppressing context that Miami sports has pushed through and picked curses 2020 to create such an exhilarating ride.
We all needed a lift?
We got one.
As if taking a cue, seeing a need, our major teams have risen up and been there for us this strangest of years. You'd hardly believe it if you didn't see it with your own eyes.
The Miami Heat _ pushed into an Orlando bubble by the pandemic _ stuns the basketball world and expectations by somehow getting all the way to the NBA Finals. That they fell short to LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers hardly lessens the delight of the surprise run.
Jimmy Butler enters Heat lore and Miami hearts with those 40- and 35-point Finals triple-doubles. Rookie Tyler Herro with that 37-point game in the conference finals.
No fans inside that bubble except the digital kind. The bayside home arena locked and empty. But Heat fans at home were cheering a 21-game postseason run for the ages. The Big 3-era Heat championship teams were supposed to win. This time fans were riding with underdogs who transported them from real life for a minute.
The Miami Marlins _ playing in an empty home stadium and then a neutral-site bubble _ picked this year to reach the playoffs for the first time in 17 years. In a delayed, truncated season that saw almost half the team test positive for COVID at the outset, causing a slew of postponed games.
How is that young team, with impossibly long odds to make the postseasopn, surviving all of that to fashion the club's first winning season since 2009?
Miami Hurricanes football _ playing before severely limited, mask-wearing home crowds _ is 4-1 and ranked No. 11 in the national polls this week, transfer quarterback D'Eriq King leading a phoenix rise from last year's desultory 6-7 season.
Inter Miami soccer _ the new MLS franchise quite literally born into a pandemic _ sees the coronavirus shut everything down just days before their long-awaited home opener in Fort Lauderdale, and begins the season 0-5. But since? David Beckham's team has been competitive since that slow start, winning or tying eight of ts past 14 matches and along the way signing its biggest star yet in Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain.
Even the Florida Panthers, prone to underachieve, make the NHL postseason for only the third time since 2000, albeit benefiting from expanded playoffs.
And to the Dolphins we circle back. To the budding first glimpse of a new era led by Tua, the franchise's highest-drafted QB since Bob Griese in 1967.
Will Tagovailoa make his first start following this bye week or will veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick remain the guy for awhile longer?
For now the anticipation is enough, and that's all around, for all our teams now.
A general hopefulness is inspired.
Might the Heat actually have a shot at signing two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo in free agency next year?
Can the Canes keep building and get back to the ACC Championship Game?
The Marlins are poised to be even better next year with a strong young starting rotation leading the way and a farm system now stocked with top prospects.
The Panthers seem headed right with a big-time coach and new general manager.
Inter Miami is just getting started.
And the Dolphins? They've strung together four strong games in a row and reached .500 for the first time under coach Brian Flores, the ground-up rebuild on schedule, maybe ahead of pace.
There is a sound to summarize the optimism right now in South Florida sports, the feeling of hope blooming in a pandemic like a rose growing from a crack in concrete.
"Tua! Tua! Tua!"
It sounds like anything is possible.
