Fins Flashback | 1994 Season Opener with Irving Fryar

Dolphins thirty nine to thirty five victory. Dan Marino, fresh off the Achilles injury, throws for five touchdowns in the pouring rain, three of which went to my guest today, Irving Fryar. We'll talk to him about Marino playing in the mud against his former team and all those long

scoring plays. On this Friday, May the fifteenth edition of the Drive Time Podcast, and we are going back in time to n four on today's edition of the Drive Time Podcast, and as the broadcast of that particular game says, this was the first game of Marino's career where he was coming off a prolonged absence in his career because of that Achilles injury. It was the first time he really missed significant time in his entire career, and the nineties were just a different time when it came to sports.

This wasn't a time where a c L injuries were essentially a six to eight month prognosis. This wasn't a time where quarterbacks played well into their forties, and it certainly wasn't a time where players coming off a serious injury on the wrong side of thirty just returned to form. But Marino did, and it started in that game. You watch that game and he is laboring throughout the whole thing.

It's actually kind of painful to watch. He's got that clunky brace on every step comes with a significant hunch favoring one side of his gait. They played an interview on the telecast with Marino from training camp where he said, at this point he's just tired of talking about the injury. And in the midst of the Michael Jordan's documentary and that mentality that I'm just gonna go win games no

matter what it takes. I mean, there were certainly elements of that there in Marino's game, and you kind of sense that from that interview. So it's season opening game, the Patriots and Bill Parcels and second year quarterback Drew bledsoe Go Coogs are coming to town. This was also just after the Marlins moved in to what we now know as hard Rock Stadium Joe Robbie Stadium at the time, and the rain had been pretty steady for about two hours,

maybe ninety minutes before kickoffs. So you've got this whole mess of a football slash baseball conversion field. When the Dolphins lined up for point after tries after touchdowns on the infield dirt and there were plenty of those, they snapped it from the left hash and the holder even moved over just enough to be able to place the ball on the grass for Pete so Yanovitch to kick from. When they pay into the sun eideline shots, it looks like they're on a beach. The sideline just has excess

dirt and mounds of mud. And I'm not talking that nice hard sand that is hardened by the tide of the ocean. We're talking back of the beach sand where you can build up some nice Johnny Drama calf muscles. Within just one workout session, the Dolphins come out of the gates a little bit slow in the game, and even the broadcast booth mentions that the previous two preseason games were not the Dolphins sharpest, and I think that

showed early on. Marino was a little bit off. Some passes were dropped, but things eventually got turned around and the Dolphins rip off a thirty nine thirty five victory.

There were three lead changes in the fourth quarter, and they scored four touchdowns in the second half, and three of those touchdowns went to wide receiver Irving Fryar, who joins me now on the Drivetime podcast and joining me now on the Drivetime Podcast is Dolphins wide receiver from through He went to two Pro Bowls in those three years, including four season. It started off with a victory and the opener he is Irving Friar. Irving, thank you for

joining me today. Good to see you, good to be here. It's amazing how we have to do these kinds of things now online, podcast and zoom. It's it's uh different times now isn't. Hopefully someday in the future we can have you into the actual studio at the facility, but for now we have to make do with what we have and I want to start kind of in that area Irving, Because first thing, I always like to ask the alumni, if you will, what are you up to

these days? And obviously right now it's a little bit different, But let's say, pre COVID, what have you been up to in your post post playing career. I was going to say, I'm staying stay, staying home. That's going to business. That's what I'm doing right now. But prior to COVID nineteen UM, I am the chief operations coordinator at the Youth Challenge Academy. I don't know if you know what that is all about. There's about thirty six of them

around the country. It's a quasi military UH setting where we bring in UH somewhere between anywhere between eighty five to a hundred UH youth there ages sixteen, eighteen, male and female. They're they're they're not they're disconnected you, they're not troubled youth. They come from obviously dysfunctional backgrounds, difficult backgrounds, and we house them in a military base. UH. They put on they have uniforms UH and they're in danger

of not graduating from high school. So what we do in a five and a half month period of time twenty two weeks. We uh we educate them the basic skills, you know, the English, the math, science, the history, all of that. And at the end of the five and a half months they take their g e D test pastor g e D tests. They don't get a g D. They actually get a New Jersey a State of New Jersey UH high school diploma, and then we engage them with uh other entities to keep them moving in the

right direction. So I am the chief operations with NATOR for that facility and UH proud, proud of it because we do a lot of great work there. You challenge, Yeah, I think that's certainly something to be proud of. And as far as a post playing career, one of the more unique answers I've heard so far. So congrats to you and all that success. That sounds really cool and very admirable. Definitely, and h kind of kind of hard to transition out of that into football, but I'm gonna

try my hardest here and and and ask you. You know, we we were talking about you and I were talking about how we watched the season opener Dolphins and Patriots, one of the classic games and team history, and the first thing I wanted to ask you on here, Irving, was how important was it? I know it was your second year in Miami, but how important was it for you to have a big game against your former team? Little important? What do you mean? It meant the world?

I mean, I U. I had been traded, asked to be traded to Miami and that and that's just there's a story behind that. I had been trying to get out of New England for years and it just so happened. Every time we will played Miami. We played Miami twice a year, probably going back six years before I actually came to Miami. Every time we played Miami, I would go up to coach Shula after the game and shake his hand and say, Coach, you gotta get me out of here. You gotta get me out of here. You

gotta get me out of here. And he would laugh, he would laugh. And finally, when we asked to be traded, we called Miami and they pulled the trigger. So sorry, that's all that's my working. I asked to be traded and they traded me. So yeah, I wanted to play well for sure. Well, I gotta ask you, I gotta kind of pill the onion back. Can you give us some more on those conversations with Shula and the reception

of the of that request. Well, I mean it was basically just that it wasn't It wasn't a whole lot of back and forth. It was, you know, after the game of guys come up and they shaved one another hand. It's not a whole lot of conversation. But I would always make it a point to make sure I found Coach Shula, go up to him and shake his hand, say a good game, and let him no listen, I'm trying to get out of here. Can you can you help me out? And we all he didn't get it together.

So it was just it was just a pleasure to be able to come down there. And you know, uh, he was a great man. We know he passed away just recently. Um our condoles just to his whole family, to his wife, but man, he was. He was the best. He was the goat. You know, forget Tom Brady, You're

you're preaching to the choir here, sir. I mean, that's that's what we talked about all last week on this podcast, and so many great comments and just notions and stories about Coach Shula over the last week here on Miami Dolphins dot Com, drive Time podcast and everywhere you can find all of our content. And you talk about a goat. Now you come down to South Florida and link up with another goat at the quarterback position. You said, forget Tom Brady. I agree Marino is in fact the goat.

But I want to ask you this question. He got injured your first year here, So what was your thoughts when you finally get to Miami. You get to play with this legendary Hall of Fame quarterback and a few games into the season he's out. I must I thought it was me. I said, I must be like slip where anybody thinking go wrong it will. Yeah. When I got there, he had never been hurt before, he never missed a game before, and I come into town and

he busts his achilles. What does that? I mean? I mean that's a that's an injury where a lot of people don't come back. So it didn't look good, it didn't sound good, it didn't feel good. So um, yeah, I was I was very uh not disappointed. I mean, we don't get hurt on purpose, but I just I didn't think things were gonna go You know, when that happened. I didn't think they were gonna go as well as they did. He was walking around that day five touchdown performance,

so obviously it didn't affect him all that much. But he had a really pronounced limp. Is that something that he was doing throughout the course of training camp in the preseason? While he did that for the rest of my time there. I think even now when you see him walk, he still has a little bit of a hitch in his gudea. So, um, I think that just never went away. Um. I don't know that it's painful

for him. I just think maybe that there's just a space there or whatever causes him to have that definite limp. But he he carried that limp, you know, from the time he came back until the time I left Miami, and even now I think I saw him a few months ago, doubt actually his last year down in Miami. I think he still doesn't limp from that. Yeah, he he definitely carried for the rest of his career. But

he did have a long career after that too. And I'm curious to know when did you guys know, Like, obviously you go through practice in the entire entire offseason program, you get the preseason, you finally get out there for opening day. When did you know, like, okay, Dan's Dan again? Um, when he came back. You know, when he came back, we knew, or at least I knew that he would not come back. Uh, and he would not play if he wasn't right. Um, though he did have the limp.

Dann wasn't a great mover anyway. He's not a fast guy, but he's he's a lucid. I can remember times Dan saying to me, watching me make this guy missing the pocket, watching and it's just a step or moving the shoulders. But he was very, very creative when he came to that.

He was very elusive when it came to just making the right step in the right direction, knowing where guys were around him, knowing where the soft spot in the pocket was, and being able to get there to buy a little more time to give us an opportunity to get over. That's a perfect transition. And my next question for you here, because he has a run for a first down right at the end of the first quarter there and he kind of dives into the mud and it looks kind you know, Dan doing his thing. How

how fast was your heart beating on that play? Well, I mean, now, you gotta understand when quarterbacks ran. When I played, that was a part of the game. It's it's people didn't worry about them getting hurt. You didn't worry about Dan getting hurt or hurting his befoot again, or hurting his achilles again. I'm sorry, um, that was a part of the game. That's what we did. Now, just like playing tat flag football, you don't want the quarterback to run and don't touch the quarterback. So no,

I didn't. Uh, it didn't bother me at all. And a matter of fact, it was encouraging just to let me know that Dan was engaged, that Dan was you know, he's all out, he's all in. Let's get it going. It almost seemed like the moment when the offense kind of started to get things clicking a little bit, because you guys don't score any points in the first quarter,

and then from there it was on. And so I was curious to ask you because it was a little bit sloppy at first, and the weather could have had something to do with that first game of the season, first game back for him. There was a couple of drop passes, some off target throws, and he he looked like he was getting frustrated. And so that makes me curious, irving, what's it like to be on the other end of a Dan Marino ash chewing. I never did get a Dan Marino, Uh, asked Joy, Yes, you would call it.

I've seen him try. I think that changed a little bit when we got there, myself and mark Ingram and Keith Jackson and Keith Buyers. Um. I think Dan knew that we were a little bit different than the guys that he had been dealing with prior to us coming there. So yeah, Dan, we'll get upset. And and that just meant he really was into what he was, you know, he he cared about what we were doing. He wanted to win. He's a competitive We all get upset, we

all get mad. Nobody makes mistakes on purpose, at least I don't think so. Um, but that really never happened while I was there. Um, it may have happened with a couple of guys that may have not been starters, like in practice, doing something stupid, running into a starter and maybe hurting a start. I remember one day I got poked in the eye by one of the dvs who weren't uh wenna starter and everybody was upset with a guy because I had to miss practice and and

you know I was. I couldn't see for a little while. So, um, but I never I never was on the other end of that. Um. I don't think it would have turned out too well if it If it did never happen, Uh, it would have turned out too well for Dan. So is that something you would tell him today? Oh? Yeah, he and he knows he he knew me. I wasn't you know? I was a kind of receiver. Yes, I did catch balls, I could run, but I was I just wanted to go out there and knock somebody's head off.

That's what I wanted to do. Every game. I would tell receivers, when you kissed the ball, run my way, and whoever chasing you is not gonna catch you because I'm taking them off your shoulder. Um. That's what I wanted to do. That's that's how I prepared myself for the game to be physical. Hans Ward is not the first receiver. He's not the one that invented the physical receiver. That was That was me. That was me. Uh. And I think if you ask guys that I played with

or played against, they'll tell you the same thing. Well, I love it, and that's part of a sixteen year career for you. There earning which I mean, you missed one seventeen. Don't start me. I wouldn't dare my apologize. Maybe I think Dan was seventeen two. So there, you got a good company there. One more Dan question for you, then we'll get to your game. Here. He threw his three hundred touchdown pass of his career in that game. You obviously were part of a lot of special moments

in your career as well. Where does that rank for you in terms of all time like teammate accomplishments that you were very happy to be a part of. Well, I didn't catch three hundred. I called three O one three or two um three or three UM. I mean it was just a part of history. I'm a part of history. I'm I'm I am honored uh that you have me on your show. Uh. Reflecting back on a game that I played in that's considered a classic, I didn't know it was a classic or considered a classic game.

I was watching TV the other night and my cousin text me and he said, the class of the game. It's on Miami Patriots, first game of the season, whatever it was, and so I turned it on and watched it myself. I didn't know it was a classic. So it's just an honor to be connected with with moments like that, with people like that Damn Reno, coach Shula, people that played with over the years. Uh, it's just it's just great to be able to say I know those people and they know me. Let me tell you

a fun story that you'll appreciate here. I saw. I grew up in Washington State and a Dolphins fan my entire life. But I used to get VHS copies mailed to me from a friend who had all the Dolphins games on VHS, and he sent me that back in like two thousand and five, and I popped it on and watched that thing religiously. I loved that game because you guys were so explosive and so much fun to watch. So it definitely is a classic. Irving, I'm glad that you are very well aware of that at this point.

And part of the reason for that was because all those touchdown passes. The touchdown pass was the second of the day for Dan. Then you go four or three more after that, all of them to you, and the first one an absolute bomb for fifty four yards, almost hit you right and stride. And that was the second time you got behind the defense. What was it about the coverage that allows you to keep getting behind them like that? Well, I just I knew those guys. I

played with those guys. I knew I could outrun all of them. I didn't have to give any moves. I didn't have to do a whole lot. I just knew once I got an opportunity to be one on one with any of them. And damned that too, because I told him that I could outrun them. All you have to do is throw the ball up and I could get get to the ball before they did. So, Uh, they knew it. Again, Like you said, early in the game, we were just, I guess we were a little bit sloppy,

trying to get it together. It was the first game of the season. Um, there was an unexpected, uh glitch with the field. You know, the field had been rained on, it wasn't covered, so it was a quagmire in the middle of the field. So that was something that we didn't anticipate. Something that we didn't expect, and I think, uh, even that may have thrown us off a little bit. But yeah, we we started out a little bumpy, but

then thanks certainly got cranking. The next one was a flee flicker where you go all the way across the film like a deep over route and Maurice Hearst gets caught peeking in the backfield the big no no there, And I was curious, was that something you guys saw on film, like, hey, we can go after him right here. Wasn't an in game adjustment or how did that call

come to fruition? Well, that was something we saw on field film, just like we saw We played them another time up in New England and they were running a corner blitz and people were adjusting to the corner blitz by running a hitch with the receiver. So we decided we're going to run a hitch and go because the safety had to come down to cover the corner where the corner was leaving to come to the corner of the receiver. I'm sorry, So we do a hitch and he comes flying down, hits and go and I scored

a touchdown on that in New England. But yeah, and It was also the fact that I was running in and and blocking the safety on most of the runs. So I would leave where the corner was and take an inside release and run at the safety like I was going to block him with the With the running back receiving the ball from the quarterback in the backfield, the safety starts coming down, he's trying to beat me, trying to get to the runner. I'll just take off right behind it. It was all work together, to all

work together. It was so perfectly the way you mentioned it was. It would just look perfect on on the replay on the actual broadcast version. And then though, Irvan, you get into the end zone and you hit him with a dance. Now you told me there was a story behind that dance. Let's go ahead and hear that well that it wasn't actually a dance it was I

would imitate. That's what my pastor Robert RCI Stanley and Pablo Beach at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, he would do that in the pool pit when when he gets excited or when the holy ghosts would hit him, he would he would stop his feet and shrugging shoulders. Yeah, shrugging shoulders like that, so I was, I was doing my imitation of him. Uh, in honor of him, in honor of the church. And that's what a what a great ode. That was a great I should be paid there. I

loved watching it. And then finally the fourth and five game on the line, you guys are behind at the stage of the game late and there goes number eighty again behind the defense. What like, when did they how come they didn't learn their lesson there? Well, uh, you guys, I guess you guys don't know about that play. This, This is what that play really let me know. I had been released from Hill when I left New England

and came to Heaven in Miami. Now in New England, we did whatever whatever play was calling in the huddle, that's what we had to run. If it just so happened to be the wrong play, we chalked it up. And this is my whole time and doing it all the different coaches. It happened to be the wrong play, we just chalked it up as a win for the defense. But we never were able to make audibles. You had to hurry up and do things as it received, hurry up and get open straight line, whatnot. And so forth.

Whatever it was called. That's where we ran. I came to Miami and we had situations where Dan could come up to the line scrimmage and give me a signal and whatever play was called was off. It was just he and I at that point, and that's what happened. In that play. We had a different play called. In the huddle. We come up to the line of scrimmage. It's fourth and five games on the line. We don't

get the first down. Game is over for us. Dan comes up to the line scrimmage and gives me a go and it's me and him ran by him called the touchdown. Games over. Thank god. I'm watching the game the other day. The there was a triplet set on the left side. I was on the right side, and the triplet said, none of those guys got open. Thank god they did hand through the ball because there was nothing on the other side. I don't know what those guys were doing. They none of them got open. None

of them were open. I saw, I saw what I saw. What I was watching. It was every single time you got deep, they were giving you that outside release, and you were just see every single time I was taking the outside release. Yeah, I mean exactly, I was taking it. It was just um, you know, it was fun. It was like I said, it was a matter. It was just a split second then comes up and gives me the go and then you don't think about it. You just do it. Just do it. We We've done it

time and time and time again. So that's why it becomes second nature and that's why we perform on the field. So we talked about you guys kind of exploded in that second quarter. Then things really got rolling on the second half of you offensively. Was there like a halftime adjustment or an adjustment you guys had to make in the game that maybe had to do with the weather, the mud on the field, like what what was the what are the circumstances caused the offense to change? If

at all? I think it was just we kept playing. I mean, we knew, uh, we had the ability to score. We knew that we had the talent to school, we knew we had practiced together, we knew we were sync together. It was just a matter. It's like any other game where things aren't going the way you want them to go because you got somebody across on the other side

of the ball. Trying to stop you, whether you're the offense or the defense, Do you have an opponent who is talent, who has ability, who has a game plan trying to stop you. So you just keep plugging, You keep plugging, and usually the stronger team wins, the ones who can keep plugging and keep their intensity and keep their consistency in terms of pushing and pushing and pushing near the end of the game, near that when it starts getting towards the fourth quarter, that's when they start

to prevail. And then and then also for us to remember, it was the first game of the season, so it's hotter in Miami than it is in New England, so the heat probably played a little factor in it too in terms of them not being uh as spry as they were earlier in the game. And we love having that home field advantage. I'll leave you with this question, Irving. I'm curious to at your take because that day it

was a sandbox. I mean that that infield dirt was just so messy and clunky, and I mean, i don't know how you get your footing in that, but I'm curious to ask you it's either that or the typical like you mentioned the September heat in Miami is is brutal and you get that basically concrete infield dirt surface, which one of those two is worse. Well, you know

what what is hard? Your your please don't dig in and sometimes you you gotta slide across the the dirt when it's soft like that, when it's real soft like that, then obviously it's muddy. You can't really make cuts, accumulate the mud and it gets heavy and it gets dirty. Um. I guess if I had to have my choice, I would take the harder surface for sure. The harder surfaces sure. Either way, the advantage goes to the offense, because the

offense knows where they're going, particularly receiver. The receiver knows where he's going, and the defensive back doesn't know where he's going. So the defensive back has to react, and reaction always takes a little bit longer than bash, and their reactions were definitely slow on that day. Five catches over two hundred yards, three touchdowns. Irving, We really appreciate your time, man, This was awesome. You're you're the man.

Thank you so much. Well, I appreciate uh, Travis, take care of yourself all right, you as well, Thanks, and away he goes. Irving Friar N three arrives in Miami, two Pro Bowl seasons, leaves for Philadelphia after the nine five season started. All forty eight games that he was here with the Miami Dolphins, caught a bunch of footballs. One hundred ninety nine catches and three years, three thousand, one hundred ninety yards, twenty touchdowns. He was a production machine.

I short changed him one year in his career. He did play seventeen years in his NFL career, because well, I can't add up nine plus three plus three plus two nine years in New England, three in Miami, three in Philly, and two up in Washington. But seventeen year professional career for Irving Friar. What a great guest. He was. Some great stories there about Marino and Shula, the infield dirt there at Joe Robbie slash Pro Player Stadium slash

now hard Rock Stadium. Just a really fun interview. We have the article up on Miami Dolphins dot com, and my goodness, he dropped a perfect quote to start that story off with so Irving Friar flashback Friday, Patriots and

Dolphins Dolphins win thirty thirty five. We're gonna open back up the suggestions for next week's flashback, as we have now covers Super Bowl seven eight five Bears and Dolphins tilt now this contest, the two thousand three Thanksgiving game we covered OH two in Denver, and of course the Wildcat Game of two thousand eight. So send me some suggestions for next week. What do you want to hear about?

I think we covered most of the suggestions we've gotten so far, but we can continue to do these things. Get us through the offseason, get us through the down period here, and try to marry up some of the current content with flashback content and get you everything you need to know about your Miami Dolphins. But asked for today's podcast, That is gonna be my time. You all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcast or Spotify, hi, wherever you get your podcast from.

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