Fins Flashback with Oronde Gadsden

get to John Conjemmi's three takeaways. We'll welcome Seth and o J on the podcast to ask me to every single Friday. But the main event on this episode of Drive Time, Ronde Gatston joins us to flash it back to two thousand the Dolphins take down the Bengals in that season. We'll talk to Ronde Gatson about that, all of that more on this Friday, December the four edition of the Drivetime Podcast. Drive Time is brought to you by Auto Nation. Hey Dolphins fans, the New year starts

now at Auto Nation. Let's skip the rest of and get to big New Year's savings on your favorite Auto Nation Chevy's Force, Toyota's Hondas and much more. Shops safely at the Auto Nation store near you or Auto Nation dot com and save now, and you can check out John Congenmis three Keys of the Game up on Miami Dolphins dot com. Let's go ahead and get to your

Dolphins injury report here really quickly. Coach said, they're going to make a decision on the quarterbacks on Sunday, and we will know at that time whether it's going to be two a tongue of Byla or Ryan Fitzpatrick starting in the game. DeAndre Washington and Savan Akman are doubtful. The team has not declared their intentions on running back Miles gasking whether or not he's coming off the injured reserve.

Coach Flora said they have to talk with the personnel staff, with Brandon Shore, Marvin Allen, and of course general manager Chris Greer. Questionable on the game is going to be offensive lineman Solomon Kinley, and running back Matt Breed is dealing with an illness. He was back there for Friday's practice. They're gonna update us as soon as they can, said coach Flora. So plenty of questions about the Dolphins injury

report heading into this game for the Bengals. And joining me now on this Friday edition of the Drive Time Podcast is former Dolphins receiver Orande Gadsden. He's out in front of the Golden gate Bridge right now on the zoom call. I'm not sure where you are in real life, but Orande, thanks for joining me, man, I appreciate it. Hey, man, no problem. Give me a second, let me give a mask together, and then uh we can continue. But thanks

for having me. Yeah, no problem. Always got to have the mask at his life here in And we have you on today to talk about the two thousand game against the Bengals. But first I want to ask you. We had you on back in the summer talking about my personal all time favorite Dolphins game two thousand two at the Denver Broncos, a big Sunday night football win, and you and I had kind of exchanged some texts about getting that game into your hands. Did you ever

have a chance to watch that game? Yeah? I kind of agree with you. Man. That's probably in my top at least my top five of football games played. Man, that was a good, hard hitting game. Yeah, you got it to me and I watched that. I even watched it with h Patsertan and we we had h a lot of laughs and uh brought back a lot of memories. How often do you do that? Like? Is that something you would do more often if you had more more games available to you? Ah? Yeah, just the good ones

I'm show. We would pick one or two of them. Uh. Sale. He probably has a few games like that Radar game. He he talks about that quite often, about the Jay Rice interception. And you know, I got one of two of the codes games that I like to But we definitely go go back down the memory land if we had chance. We got to get Pat on the podcast here one of these days. I know he's a big time high school football coach these days, taking boys over

to state championships every single year. So that's cool, man. I would love to be a fly on the wall in that room watching games with you guys. Uh. Today, we're going back to two thousand, a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Dolphins are hosting the Bengals this Sunday at hard Rock Stadium, so we're doing flashback with the Bengals. And this was your first season a Ronde without Dan at quarterback. And at that point Dan started all thirty

two games of your career at that point. What was the feeling among the receivers and yourself when Dan retired and you had to go into the two thousand season with a little bit of an unknown at the quarterback position.

It was kind of tough, you know, Um, you know, losing Dan and knowing what kind of person he was, and you know he was a gun slinger and you know he was he was wanting to throw at our costs and didn't know much about Jay, just knew Jay hung up a few testdowns on us that Jacksonville game. But we we we quickly got acclimated to Jay and and found out he was just as tough as nails and you do everything he can to win the game

and as to receive. That's all you need to know. Yeah, that's that's a great prelude to the next question here, because he obviously goes and wins the job in camp

over Damon Heward. And you mentioned the toughness and something that maybe maybe back then it was different, But to me, you can't really prove that metal without playing a true regular season game, but maybe back then you could did did you guys see that in his training camp in the preseason, Like did you see that toughness and that kind of gritty mentality that we knew he had later

early on fanning camp. Obviously going forward, we thought Damon Hewitt was our guy because we played a few games with him, uh before and when when Damn was injured one of two games. But I think j J showed it wanted training camp, and uh we followed his lead. We knew he wasn't you know, gonna gonna win games pretty but we were gonna win games because he do what we needed to be done to win the games.

And so I think, you know, just like now, I think the running, the running asked act of it, you know, playing a big pot and us you know, knowing we had a great defense, we just need to get some first downs and and get get Lindo in position too, and we win the game. But we knew Jews, I mean, Jay head, what it took. Yeah. So for your younger Dolphins fans out there, and look a look at me being the old wise one these days. But for your younger Dolphins fans before Jason Sanders and Linda Mario was

money in the bank as well. So you heard AROUNDE talk about his ability to put the ball through the uprights back in those days. But in this season, you guys start off three and one, you're on the road against a winless team, and they come out and jump on a damn good Dolphins team with a thirteen nothing lead.

Now I'm curious to get your take here because Dick lebou this is his first game as interim head coach for them after they fired their previous head coach, and at this point of the game, like, do they have a little bit of that new interim head coach juice coming out of the gates? Why do you think in your opinion, it took you guys a minute to get going in that game. You know how tough it is

man going up against win this team. I think you sometimes played down to your your opponents and for them to score two touches, for them to have thirteen points and our defense that was that was pretty That was pretty tough. That doesn't usually happen right away, Like you may get thirteen points in the game, but not not thirteen points right away, and so um, you know, uh, it's a it's a team game. And so the defense was uh lacking a bit. So the offense had to

step up, which usually is the other way around. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about one of those players on that defense that made us so good, Zack Thomas. Also coming up on the Hall of Fame ballot once again. Let's get him into Canton this year finally. But you may, yes, yes, we we all think it should happen eventually. I think it will. Hopefully this is

the year. But back to this game. And you know, we actually talked with Channing last week about a Broncos game or two weeks ago, and he Jack made like four goal line stands in a row. It's just I can talk about that guy all night long, man, But let's let's transition here. Uh. You mentioned them scoring some points early. One of the ways they did score was a Peter Warwick how's that name? For a flashback? He caught up one handed touchdown in the back of the

end zone. And we referenced your appearance on Drive Time this summer already we talked about that Broncos game and since that was the same year as your fame one famed one handed sprawled out stab on the infield dirt there Pro Player Stadium, we went in on that catch, you and I did. So if you guys want to catch orande breaking down that catch, go back to the

summer's episode and check it out. But I'm wondering, since that was kind of your move at that stage in the NFL, like guys weren't making the one handed catches like to do now like it was your move in my opinion, did that play maybe make you think yourself, all right, it's my turn to go make a play. Not really like like I said, I saw him doing. It was a great kids, you know you you know what Peter Warred did it uh Flowing State, and you know what he did earlier at the Bengals. It was

just you know, it's just competition. That's what it's all about. If he if he could do it, I know I could do it, and you you want the ball. I don't think you see it, but but you feel it inside. And I think everybody knows, like, oh man, he did a one hand the kids? Uh can can you? Because you do want to show him up? But I don't think it was sad, but I think it was in fur.

You certainly did. You went out there and made a couple of plays and you know, speaking of Peter Work, I would love to see Peter Work in today's NFL. He might fit a little more than he did back down with a more physical and bruising type of game. But uh, that's besides the point. But you know I mentioned this. You did score two touchdowns in this game,

and both of those were on fade routes. Now, help me out here, Randi, because I have to imagine that your play style, your body composition, all that stuff, the big strong hands, I have to imagine you love the fade route. So without a doubt, I think you know, coming from a basketball background, just like a lot of the receivers today are coming from. I think when you get a match up against a smaller corner that that

just helps us, you know. And and so if you if you get time to jump and you've worked with it, you know, with the quarterback a few times, I think you can master and that it was just something that I was used to doing coming from Winston Salem State

and it was just second nature to me. Well, so help me out here, because and I don't know how much you get on social media Rounde, maybe not at all, but a lot of smart move a lot of fans, and we even seen we saw two touchdowns that I can recall off top of my head this year from Devonte Parker and mac Hollins, one in Denver, one in Arizona where they caught touchdowns on fade type of routes

into the corner of the end zone. But if you go on social media, if a team calls a fade route and it doesn't go complete, because that's how this lead works. If it doesn't work, you're not smart. If it does work, your genius. But they'll see these fade routes fall to the turf and they lose their minds. So help help me convince fans of fade routes are not the worst thing in the world. No, no, definitely not.

I think, once again, it takes practice. But I think more times than not, I think, you know, well, when a deep ball is more fifty fifty, I think a fade route with with with practice is at least seventy thirty. So I think, uh, you know, it's best to throw, especially when you have a high difference. I think, uh, you know. I watched Holland's obviously he has the eighties six on, so so I watched him and it was a perfect thrown ball and he went up and called

it in the one in uh Denver. I think the d bunting Farker Canting had to foot out of bounds. I think, uh uh. Just the other day, I think, and so um, if you if you got the height of bands, if you used use six three six four and you gotta dB five tan, I think, yeah, odds are definitely in your favor. So that's a great prelude into the next question here. I think it was at the jetson It might have been like two thousand six.

I know it was after your playing career. But there was one instance where they flexed out Jason Taylor who came in and checked in as a tight eligible and they flexed him out and I'll never forget the still image. It was him lined up like a wide receiver. He had a little stance, he was probably feeling himself, and they put a little five ten cornerback out there and it was just like, okay, that's where the ball has

to go. And they did it, and the cornerback just pulls him down by the part of the inside call it collar bone on the front of the jersey. It was hilarious to watch. So the reason that's a good example to lead into here was because JT had a huge play in this game, a strip, sack and score the hat trick. He loved doing it. You guys are down thirteen to three at this point in the game. First off, there's eight seconds left in the first half. They've got the ball at the minus thirty five yard line.

Are you thinking to yourself, what the hell are they doing putting the ball up in the air right now? Yeah? I mean we all thought they'd run the clock out and we go in and have to come up with a different game plan. But you know, like I said that that defense, specially with the the back half of it be having you know, Patt and Sam and with Zach in the middle and and j T coming coming off the edge. You know, but passing was good luck,

you know what I mean? So, uh, they passed and j T did he do the Jordan on that one at the end when he scored up the goal line. Was that that the one you know he did? He always did it. Yeah, So that that was that was a big deal. That was you know that that was a big deal in a in a bunch of ways, for him, man for us. So, um, you know he's a great athlete. Um, you know we we we we still. I still see him all the time. Uh he I'm at I'm at American Hair it is. He's at St.

Thomas and so we we coach against each other. We we we play, we played football, still live flag football. So I see j t all the time. These South Florida kids are so lucky to have so many former Dolphins and alumni coaching down here. I'll go for a walk sometimes around the neighborhood and all look across the park and there's there's kids working out. Man Like, it's just different down here. I love being around this football culture. It's so cool. But we we mentioned Jason Taylor there.

You know, his favorite playing football the hat trick, the strip, sack, scoop and score and from there it goes, you know, from thirteen to three and the final score of the game winds up being thirty one sixteen. So you guys just roll them up there. That that's tech, the kind of play that just changes the course of the game, right yeah. I mean, you know it's tough to say, but if you if you play in any tipe of sports,

you know, frequently up for a long time. You know, momentum is real and and so when you're playing the game, especially when you're behind you anything, anything changes momentum. And play like that definitely does. When he when he sacks, get the fumble and score, that gives us points. Uh, without the offense being on the field. It's great and gives an offense some juice as well because they know we only have to score, you know, once or twice to get ahead, and then the defense is probably gonna

be solid as usual. And you were the one that went on to score once or twice it was two times. In fact, finished the game with thirty one of the final thirty four points. You moved to four and one. You wind up that season eleven and five, You win a playoff game, the epic Colts overtime victory Lamar Smith game. Was that your favorite? Was that your favorite year as a pro? Around a two thousand? I think so? I think you know, um uh, everybody had been on top of that game. Um you know, we we we we

did everything we were supposed to do. Um. Eleven and five was was you know in the NFC East, was what was tough to do and we did it, and we went onto the playoff game of Lamar themar had a great game, uh at home. I think that's still been the last home playoff game that we won, so um that that still sticks out. And I think he might have had like forty two carries to win the game. So that was that was pretty That was a pretty tough,

ruggy game. But things were things. Football was just different then. Um, you know, football is is great now, but I just think back then, when when the rules were different, football is a lot tougher, the wins were harder to come by, and you just love playing the game. So I think if I had looked back that level of five, ye, it was probably probably my best year as a pro. So maybe maybe you can maybe you cannot answer this, but you mentioned, you know, getting that tough win and

the playoffs over time. Lamar carries the ball over forty times two hundred something yards the game when he touchdown. What was what was that night like for you guys, Like, because you obviously had to prepare for the Raiders and if I'm correct, if I'm wrong here, but I think it was on Saturday, so you're already on a short week, like did you really have time to truly enjoy what you guys did that day or was it like we got to get back to work already. Um, it was tough.

We we enjoyed that one. It went in over time, and you know how tough the Colts are, and and you know that the main thing is when you go into playoffs and have to play, you want a home game. And so um we we kind of played as hard as we couldn't a regular season to get that game. And then we knew that game it was gonna be tough because that that that at that time, it was the third time we played the Coats, and so it's tough to be beat any team once as far as

you know, having to play him three times. So, um, we we enjoyed that one, knowing it was a show week. We you know, a lot of the team, a lot of the players on that team were veterans and we've done it before. It didn't always work out for us the best because I think that the Jacksonville game was on the show a week as well, and so we knew it was gonna be tough, and you know, we had to go out of the Raiders. It didn't didn't

didn't go the way we wanted it to go. But I think, you know, looking back on it, that's still one of the best games that that was. That was a team every but it was a bruising game. We didn't we didn't pass a lot and if you look back, I I did give a good block to Spring the mall for the touchdown and over time. But anyway, who's who's who's counting? Hey, I count it. I just asked coach Grizzard a couple of weeks ago, the receiver's coaching for the Dolphins, about blocking, and he said, if you

don't block in this room, you're not gonna play. So good company there rounde Gas and good company we're actually every Friday arounde we have SETH and O J from the Fish Tank podcast. They're gonna come on after you and talk about this game as well. So it's funny, you man the eight six with Mac Hollins because o J he has an affinity for the eighty one jersey, so you kind of have that same thing with eighty six. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

we we we we have uh as older guys. We we we got a group of us, probably four five us who look all over the league to see who has it. Uh Tonio Freeman was one of those guys. He had it in in Green Bay and we talk all the time about what the other eighties six is doing. So yeah, that that that is, that is kind of near and dear to you because you know the people

that have it. It's not a it's not a glorious number, but you make do with it, and you know the people that have and especially if you do something with it, then we we we definitely welcome you to the club eighty six. You're talking about a language, man, because I am team I will say it till the day I'm dead. Receivers should be wearing eighties, not the team Jerseys. Man, give me the eighties. Yeah, yeah, get the eighties back, you know, because we all you know Jay Rice, Michael

Ivan man, they did they embedded in their hands. Man. We grew up watching Jerry Rice and Michael Irvan. They had the eighties numbers and those were I got my guys anyway, and you wanted you wanted to emulate them, and then those were the numbers you wanted. I don't know when the numbers came uh lower, when everybody wanted the team numbers. That that's a college thing, I think, but when you get to the pros, you want the big boy eighty numbers, and and uh that that's what

I wanted. That's what I wished for, and that's what I got. I think when I came in the Dolphins the first preseason games, I had three and I wanted to get out of that three so bad. Hey. When I was a kid and I played high school basketball and baseball, I wore twenty four because I was a big Maryors and Griffy fan. And I wore thirteen on the basketball court because of Damn Marino. So, like you said,

we all follow after our our heroes. There, Rende Gaston six years in Miami, over three thousand receiving yards, twenty two touchdowns. Ronde, appreciate your time today, Man, Thanks for why us why you're picking up the kitchen school there? Hey Man, thanks, I appreciate it. Man, And we turned now to our crossover edition of the Drive Time Podcast as I am joined by Seth and o J of the Fish Tank Podcast. Fellows, Thanksgiving is over. We didn't get juice last week, so go ahead and start with you,

o J. How was the holiday? Man? Man, holiday was great. You know, a small party consider what we're used to having over here to McDuffie house, man a party of six, but it was great. All our family members actually live here and plus one, so we had we had a great holiday. Man, I ate too much. I did put on that Thanksgiving fifteen, you know, trying to work it out. We even going a little on in the weather. But I'll get it off, big seth, I'll get it off. I got faith in your juice. I know you do.

I figured it was a good Thanksgiving when we you know, we couldn't find it on Friday morning? Was jets problem? Told he did get on the podcast. He also mentioned that he was at Marino's pool, so I was wondering if you ever got kicked out of there or not? Yeah, you know what, man, that's that's pretty quick. Don't let him fool you. Man, he's quicker than Marino. That's yeah. Not find much though, right there? You guys clock in the six six second forty yard dashes these days? Is

that is that still too much to ask? But we got to finish. The actually finished, so we had a ronde on for Bengals obviously coming up this week at hard Rock Stadium. We had him on to talk about the two thousand game. Um, we were thinking about this one or the walk off wake Sack, but we figured if we're gonna do that game, we better get cam Wake on. We couldn't make that happen, so we wanted to focus on this one seth had had mentioned it

because of a a particular player. We'll get to here in just one second, but I wanted to first ask you, Juice. I had a Rhnde Gas on the podcast, and the second time he's on the podcast with me, come to find out he's I showed him the YouTube clip for the two thousand two Broncos game the Sunday night Prime time Uh, Jason elam me Lindo Mare, and he told me that he and pass ur Tan actually got together

and watched that game together. And that made me feel like really good, Like I'm here, I am helping my my my favorite Dolphin players of all time get together and watch a game that's one of my favorite games. I thought that was really cool to hear Rondo just a really cool guy. I wanted to ask you, Juice, like as far as a teammate and the kind of guy that Ronde is what do you remember about Rhondo Gaston with the Miami Dolphins. Man, I met a Rande

well before the Miami Dolphins. Actually remember when he was with Dallas, you know, and he was on the Dallas Cowboys and we played a little charity basketball game, and you know during warmups, that's that's when everybody shines. When you're football players trying to play basketball, everybody shines, and warm ups, you know, everybody was dunking. We were all dunking. Met Terry Kirby and all the guys were, you know,

tossing it up and putting it down. But I looked down to the other end and I watched the Rande with those big old myths of his man like he was like above the square, jumping in Duncan man and you know the way he was palming the basketball. Said, and that's one hell of an athlete. And I didn't know much about him as a football play because he

didn't really see the field then. But then when he came to us, you know, Jimmy Johnson, air coach, Robert Ford, you know, and he just played I think World League arena ball. He's done all these things and he had a whole season of football and pass and then he came to us and I was like, who is this guy? All I knew was this dude to catch anything anything in this area. With those big myths of his he could catch anything, man, And so that it gained a

trust factor from Danny. Boy couldn't run routes for ship, he couldn't run routes for but uh man he put in his area and it was all big old ball man. So it was fun to have him on the other side because you know, he gets some of those one on ones when I'm getting a double team on the inside, and guys found him, you know, from Danny finding to Ja Feither find him, and that was it was always fun for me and having him as a teammate and

played oppositely. Well, I want to circle back to you know you mentioned him going up and getting the football. He did it twice in this game, and tight coverage down the end zone for a couple of touchdowns. But this game didn't start that way Seth and I think too many people surprised because this was a three in one,

four and one Dolphins team coming into the game. The Bengals were winless at the time, they had just fired their head coach, Dick le Beau, of all people, I mean, the legendary Dick Lebou was the interim head coach for the Bengals in that game. And they come out and put thirteen points on the Dolphins to start the thing off. And you know, this was an era where Miami was was Miami and Cincinnati was Cincinnati. So folks probably were

pretty shocked by that. Seth When when you're around a team that is expected to win like that and they don't start off that way, is there a certain like driving factor that kind of kicks in and gets these guys you know, hey, it's time to go here. I imagine O J could probably answer that better than I can. But but as far as setting the table, I mean, you're right, And it wasn't just that they were rolling

four and it just fired their good coach. This is a team that was four and twelve the year before. I think they were three and thirteen the year before that. I mean they were they were one of the doormats of the league. And you know, you hate to say that about a franchise, but they were struggling and um, and so it wasn't just ah all of a sudden, the coachesn't getting their job done. So this was a team and you talk about the Dolphins in two thousand,

we expected to be good the player. It wasn't about the playoffs. It was about can we get the home field, you know, advantage? Can you know, can we play more games at home and see if we can get into the dance. That was the type of team that we felt we had here. And to start off that way and get punched in the mouth, really by by an opponent that was not an opponent that should be doing that to you, I mean, that was it was disheartening,

certainly for for an employee. It was I can only imagine what it felt like for guys in the locker room. And they said, O. J could probably answer that better. How how leaders have to step up? But you're right, I mean they were, they were down. They had just kicked that field goal to have some semblance of hope. But I I don't know that you felt momentum at that point in time, because the fact they even had

to settle for a field goal is disappointing. And for whatever reason, Cincinnati decided to use those last thirty seconds or so to try and drive the ball. I guess they were doing themselves at that point. And Kelly Smith, who was in the second year, I believe, um, you know, probably had a lot of confidence. And uh. And for whatever reason, they called passing play and JT did the thing that helped make j T a Hall of Famer. You know. It wasn't just big plays. It was big

plays at big times. And and so I think when leaders step up like that and he not only gets the sack, but the strip sack picks up the fum bowl returns it for the touchdown. Uh and um again, Jews, You've got to answer this better than I could, But that to me felt like a momentum swing. That's where I think the Bengals probably felt, oh no, here we go again, and the Dolphins felt like, Okay, we're right

back in this game. Yeah, that trieffected right there. Seth was huge, you know, and JT did that a lot in his career, you know, not to mention just this game, man, he did a lot. Um where was our best offense at time? It seemed like and uh and and that play right there was a huge momentum builder right there.

You know, Corey Dillon was running well against US, Peter Wark was playing well against US, you know, and they that mistake Cincinnati made to to to try to move the ball down the field there instead of just going in with a nice little lead, you know, and make well enough alone, especially with a young quarterback and Achille Smith. Um, I have a huge mistake and JT made him pay for it. So that's definitely a momentum change for US.

And I definitely sparked this on the offense side of football because the guys who knows how the halftime talk win. I bet JT said, man, you know, step it up. You know I'm making place. You gotta step it up. Man. The offense seem to do that in the second half. I don't recall that ever happening. And besides this player where a team tried to pass from their own side of the football field with pretty much what was gonna be the last play of the half and a strip

set goes the other way for six. I cannot recall that ever happening in a game. So it just speaks again to the greatness of JT to make plays in those spots, and like you mentioned, o J to be able to go out there and say, hey, offense, I got more points than you. What the hell is going on out here? Let's pick this up right now. Um, And I'm probably not afraid to say that he definitely epic time and post game rants, so it's not beyond him to to let folks know that it's time for

them to step up. Seth. You mentioned something that I wanted to go back to with you, and you said that the expectation that year in two thousand was that this team was gonna not just qualify for the playoffs, but get a home playoff game and make a run once January got here. But that was post Marino, like, that was the expectation, even after saying goodbye to the Goat. Well,

I think that that was, you know. I mean, Juice can talk a lot about Jimmy Johnson in different capacity, but I do know that Jimmy would preach that all the time. You know. It's like the the expectation is you're going to the playoffs, and now we've got to figure out how to have games at home because it's the less games you have to play, and the more you play in front of your own crowd, the the easier it is. To get to where you gotta go.

So I think that Dave tried to carry that over and uh and while it was post Marino, you know, there are a lot of talented players on that team, particularly on the defense. But a lot of talented players on that team. And you can say what you want about Jay Fieler, but he did not lack for confidence either.

They had a lot of belief in his abilities. And you know, as much as we hate to say this, they did go to the playoffs that year, and they didn't want a playoff game, and and we're still waiting for for a playoff win and hopefully one sooner than later will come here. But um, but that, yeah, that was a good football team. Yeah, I mean I thought, I agree. I agree with that, Seth, And I think that,

you know, we were built. I think that the way they had built that team defensively and having Lamar Smith, they will be able to run the football that way. And Jay being a hell of a competitor in the game manager. But we've seen game managers win games, win Super Bowls, you know, So if you could run the ball, you have defense that can travel no matter what. And I think that there were a lot of high expectations. That defense is definitely built for us to win and

win big. At that time, Seth, you mentioned the playoff win over the Colts that year, the Lamar Smith game as I always remember it as you know, two hundred yards in that game. Always obviously you had a couple of big catches as well, but he got locked, he got the scoring going. Yeah. I always always loved that he got the scoring going on this one as well. But then Ronde Gats came back with a couple of

touchdowns on fade routes. And I wanted to ask a Ronde this because you know, we talked about a little bit off air. He if the ball was in his vicinity, he was gonna go snatch it and that was his game. And I asked him this if he was on social media. He said no. I said, smart move around it. And I said that if you go on there, if teams throw a fade route, it's like a primetime game. You're gonna see about a hundred tweets of people saying why are they calling the fade route? The fade route is

a wasted down. I wanted to get your take on that, OJ and just as a receiver. When they call your number on a fade what goes through your mind? Like you have to be thinking that's my football, right, not me? No, don't tell me a favor ute. I don't want a fade route, man, because for one, I didn't have Ronde's six three six four side. I didn't have his. I probably had the same vertical. But you know, with his

reach and his hands, man, that's his favorite. I'd rather run routes, you know, because I'm not gonna beat anybody deep, Travis. We all know this. I can talk about that now. I wouldn't talk about that like that when I was trying to reegotiate my contract. But now that I'm retired, you know, I can say I'm not gonna be deep. You need to throw me more intermediate, over the middle,

things like that. But guys like a Rande with that size and leaping ability and the ability, I don't know if I've ever seen anybody with the ability at high point of ball like Rande does. And we've seen some. We've got some some pictures and videos of him so stretched out, and those are overthrows that guys like me,

way overthrowing for guys like me. You know, but if those guys took a chance and they knew Ronde would be the guy that can go up and get it, they're not fifty balls on the Rande's guy and they're like eight twenties. It is either Ronde's gonna get there, it's gonna be in complete. And it was. It was special scene to go up there. But the fact that he hated running anything else. You know, he didn't want to run the dig route. He didn't want to run the skinny post. He post is kind of like an

inside fade oute. Anyway, he was okay with that. You'd take that fade oute all day, and now he was. He was really good at it. It's it's a good mention though, because this week coach Flora has talked about separation with the Vante Parker and how the separation sometimes on those in breaking routes is just the arm length. You stack the defensive back on your back and you reach those arms out and there's your separation right there.

So kind of an interesting way there with with the Rande and the current landscape of the NFL and current dolphins, and you know, you mentioned the reached out or sprawled out catches. I think everyone recalls the catch against the Jets, the the streak ending game. I think it was two thousand two against the Jets. The Dolphins beat New York in in the Pro Player Stadium at the time. It's changed so many times, I forget the name of it, but they won that game the land Shark Dolphin Dolphins Stadium.

He reached all the way out and he snags this thing. And this is like pre sticky gloves era, Like, I mean, this is before the ball just glues to your hand, and I mean, I'm curious being around that and being involved. Was o j from a reporter's perspective seth from the from the media pr perspective. Was there like a storm over that play as far as like, man, we gotta get Ronde and talk about that player. Was it just kind of something that he did all the time. I Man,

I saw a Rande. I saw rand make a catch in practice that stopped every everybody from doing anything. They caught a skinny post backhand and if one hand like and it kind of like then it was like it was like sick. It's like, come on, man, that's not that's not normal right there? You know, So he did this all the time. You can't you couldn't cover Rande in terms of he was never like wide open. There was a couple of times, but you threw it in his area and it was like he just makes sick

catches all the time. So when he when he did in the games, kind of like with Danny, you know, some of the throws he made in games, he made those day after day and practice. Yeah, the same thing with the Rande. You given those opportunities, man, he always took advantage of. But yeah, the back hand catch and practice was probably the sickest catch I've ever seen by any human beings. So yeah, there was that was nothing special that catch right there. But they don't get guys

hyped up though. But I I agree with you, Junics. I mean, o g did it over and over and over again in practice, end games. But that catch in particular, what stood out to me about it was it was over the middle. It wasn't you know, everyone loves the Odell Beckham catch, and and to me, Rande was doing that before Beckham was. You know, he did that one against the Raiders, but those are kind of faded the way and this was a bullet over the middle and the ball got away from Jack, right, I mean, it

really got away from him. But he put everything he had on the damn thing. It should have been a pit because O G really should not have put like a normal human being would not a cat that ball for it, yeah, right and right, or even gone for it over the middle like that, and he just stabbed his hand out there. So yeah, in the press box

the thing. And I don't know what it's like now, but when I was there, you know, you have all the monitors above where you sit, so you watch the game, and when there's a big play, you can watch two heads all turn up and wait for that replay to go back on the monitor. And that was one we wanted to see it over and over and over again. Unfortunately they played it again in the broadcast. And yeah, you know, Ronde great personality. The media was always gonna

talk to him. He was always happy to talk to the media, and I'm sure he had a few things to say after the game regarding the next game. There's a YouTube clip I've seen probably about thirty five times. It's It's Ricky Williams entire two thousand two highlights. It's like a six parter and they clipped out ronde catch in the middle of Hi Williams highlight video, So it tells you just how substantial and how well known that

catch was. Uh speaking speaking of capturing big moments, you guys had David Cross on the podcast like that transition their seth right there he was, He was in their podcast team photographer for Catching Up. How long was he on the team and can just guys talk about the podcast you did with him? Well, Dave started taking pictures even before he was working for the team in the seventies and and continues to well this year, I think

pre covid. I mean up until last year he still was has been shooting for the team even though he's not shooting an official capacity, but he was. He was the official team photographer from eighty four until about two thousand thirteen, so I mean had about a thirty year run.

And he you know, if you looked at his files, you're talking everything from black and white unbelievable shots of the seventy two Dolphins all the way to O J's career, Danny stuff and and Ricky Williams um just phenomenal shots both things that happened on the field, and think moments. He would capture these really special moments that were personal to so many folks, even outside of the game of play. So um and just a great eye for that and

a neat guy. We had a lot of fun with days. Yeah, we didn't no more fun than we talked about his his wedding on the plane. I got married on the team charter, on the team plane, on team charter. But the way back from ULA's record breaking win, that was that was absolutely hilarious, man. And that's the thing that us in the back of the plane knew nothing about until I heard the podcast. And that's a lot of

and that was a lot Seth. Seth has a lot of knowledge about things that I wasn't privy too because I'm in the back or you know, Seth knows these other guys very well. But the fact that he got married on the plane in the way that we're back there partying so much with Shula's victory that we didn't even have a chance, you know, So it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. I think he just tried to save some money. Juicy had all the food, the whole

thing was catered. He had all of the champagne that everyone was celebrating coach Sula's he didn't have to pay for a single guest, he didn't have to pay for a hotel room. I think Dave was you know, he made it seem like it just kind of happened. I think there was some strategy behind that's that's a resourceful man right there. You gotta do take what you get, man, take what the defense gives you. Guys, I say, it's

it's cool. It's cool to hear you talk about like a guy that's around the team in that capacity but also loves the team obviously. And there's a video of he pinned it to his Twitter profile, Twitter timeline, whatever it's called. Jim Wolack, one of our videographers right now.

It was after the high five play with with Jachem Grant Albert Wilson where he's taking the shot right there in the end zone and he gets up and give us a big fist pump, and I was like, that is so cool to see that moment unfold from that different lens, of different perspectives. So check that out. David Cross on the Fish Tank podcast. You guys also have another one coming to the pike here next Tuesday with

a certain Dolphin as well. Charles Jordan, right, Charles Jordan of former receiver Maybe not a name that people are going to think about like they would O j or Rande or receivers of that nature, Mark Clayton, Mark Duper. But CJ's story is unbelievable, Juice. Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, man, we go way back two days and growing up in l A County and uh, all the way through a current days man, and the stuff between Travis and will be very interesting during good listening. I'm looking forward to

you guys. You guys kind of teased it off air before the podcast and I'm sitting here just waiting for Tuesday for it to come out. So Fish Tank Podcast every single Tuesday here for the most part with the course of the season. You guys can check them out, oh J and Seth wherever you get your podcast from the Audible podcast obviously Drive Time here are weekly crossover as well on the Miami Dolphins podcast Network. It's all I got for you guys today, Seth, O J. Appreciate

your time. Is always boys, and uh, we'll see you over the weekend. Hopefully we get into the w and talk about the Chiefs next weekend. On Flashback Friday. Yeah, Travis, Thanks, Thanks Travis, take care And so there they go. Seth and o J from the fish Tank Podcast. Always a great time to get them here on the show. Some great stories they're talking about, Ronde Guest and David Cross,

Jimmy Johnson, Dave wants, said Charles Jordan. Plenty to come here on the fish Tank Podcast and the Miami Dolphins podcast network in general. As for today's podcast, that's gonna be my time. Will be back with you guys on Sunday night for the recap after Dolphins and Bengals with John Kin Jemmy. Give me a follow on Twitter. It's

at Wingfield NFL. Follow the team at Miami Dolphins of course, the fish Tank Audible and Drivetime podcast here as well as Miami Dolphins dot com for all your recap content for this weekend's game and for every day for your Miami Dolphins. Until next time, fins up.