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| Birth Name(s) : Dan Marino |
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Full Dan Marino Biography
Daniel Constantine Marino, Jr. (born September 15, 1961 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a Hall of Fame quarterback who played for the Miami Dolphins in the National Football League. The last quarterback of the legendary Quarterback Class of 1983 to be taken in the first round, Marino became one of the most prolific quarterbacks in league history, holding or having held almost every serious NFL passing record. Despite never being on a Super Bowl-winning team, he is widely recognized as one of the greatest quarterbacks in American football history. Remembered particularly for having a quick release and a powerful arm, Marino drove the Dolphins into numerous playoffs.
Dan Marino was raised on Parkview Avenue in the working class neighborhood of Oakland in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of Italian and Polish ancestry. During his Hall of Fame induction speech he joked with his parents about how far they had all traveled from a place whose name was ostensibly an oxymoron ("no park and certainly no view"). However, Parkview Ave. does have a sweeping view of Schenley Park, Pittsburgh's premier park. He attended St. Regis Catholic Elementary School before going to Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh, where he also started in baseball, and won Parade All-American honors in football. He was drafted by the Kansas City Royals baseball team in the 1979 amateur draft, but decided to play college football instead.
The defending AFC Champions Miami Dolphins chose Marino with the 27th pick in the NFL draft. After starting the season as a backup to incumbent starter David Woodley and seeing action twice off the bench to relieve an ineffective Woodley, Marino was given his first NFL start in Week 6 versus the Buffalo Bills. He posted a 96.0 passer rating- a rookie record until it was broken by Ben Roethlisberger's 98.1. He was selected to the Pro Bowl in his rookie year and became the first rookie QB to start in a Pro Bowl game. However, Marino's NFL first season ended in disappointment, as the Dolphins were upset by the Seattle Seahawks in a rainy game full of Dolphin turnovers. Marino looked shaky in that game, mostly due to a sprained knee he had suffered three weeks prior versus Houston, an injury that caused him to miss the last two regular season games. Those two games would be the last non-strike games he would miss until he tore his Achilles tendon in 1993, a streak of 145-game non-strike consecutive-games.
The following year, Marino would have one of the greatest statistical seasons in NFL history. In a year where Marino was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player, he would break six NFL season passing records including the records for most TD passes (48) in a season (since broken by Peyton Manning) and most passing yards (5,084) in a season. Miami's passing attack would propel the Dolphins to a 14-2 regular season record and secure them home field advantage in the playoffs, where they avenged their playoff loss the previous season to Seattle and defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC title game.
Marino later admitted that he seriously considered the offer from the Vikings, but that he turned it down not because of his arm, but because he wasn't sure that his legs could take another season. He also appreciated the fact that unlike many of his contemporaries, he got to play his entire career with one team.
On Sunday, September 17, 2000, at halftime of the Dolphins-Baltimore Ravens game at Pro Player Stadium, Dan Marino’s jersey number, 13, was retired. The only other Dolphins jersey number retired at the time was Bob Griese's #12. Since then #39, Larry Csonka, has been retired as well. Marino joined the Dolphins Honor Roll the same day. In a year of accolades from the franchise he led so long and so well, the Dolphins also installed a life-size bronze statue of Marino at Pro Player Stadium (now Dolphin Stadium) and renamed Stadium Street, Dan Marino Boulevard.
In early 2004, Dan Marino briefly returned to the Miami Dolphins as Senior Vice President of Football Operations, but resigned from the newly-created position only three weeks later, saying that the role was not in the best interest of either his family or the Dolphin organization.
Marino was a first-ballot selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame on August 7, 2005 and was introduced by his oldest son, Daniel. During his induction speech, Dan threw "one last pass" to former teammate Mark Clayton, who was sitting in the audience (Marino had initially intended to throw the ball as far as he could, then he spotted Clayton in the audience and surprised the ex-Dolphin by instructing him to "Go Long").
Presently, Marino lives with his wife, Claire, and six (four by birth, and two by adoption) children in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He also has vacation homes in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, San Francisco, California and Laramie, Wyoming |
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