Fifteen years! It has been fifteen years — to the day — since Dan Marino was immortalized in Canton, Ohio as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Marino, who retired from the Dolphins in 2000 and owned every major passing record at the time of his retirement, was a first-ballot inductee who helped serve as a trailblazer for the game from a “grind it out” offensive display to a high flying, aerial assault driven league.
Marino’s induction was alongside former San Francisco 49ers QB Steve Young, offering fans with an impressive 1-2 punch of all-time quarterbacks to go into Canton alongside one another. The Dolphins have struggled to find their “next” Dan Marino, but fans are hopeful that 2020 1st-round pick Tua Tagovailoa can work his way out of Marino’s looming shadow and usher in a new era of winning for the Dolphins after all of these years.
Happy anniversary, Dan! To help commemorate Marino’s induction, here is his acceptance speech from fifteen years ago today.
