-In 1971, Larry Csonka led the entire NFL is average yards per rushing attempt at 5.4.

-Larry Csonka was selected to five straight Pro Bowls, fro 1970 to 1974.

-Larry Csonka started and ended his career with the Miami Dolphins. In between though he spent one season with the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League and three seasons with the New York Giants.

-Larry Csonka was selected with the 8th overall pick in the 1968 NFL/AFL Draft. The seven players selected ahead of him were offensive lineman Ron Yary, center Bob Johnson, defensive end Claude Humphrey, offensive lineman Fred Carr, defensive lineman Dennis Byrd, and defensive end Kevn Hardy.

-The most touchdowns ever rushed for in one game by Larry Csonka is three. He did this twice, both in 1979, when he scored three against the Chicago Bears in week four and then scored three against the New England Patriots in week fourteen. Both games were wins by the Miami Dolphins.

-Larry Csonka was inducted into the Miami Dolphins Honor Roll during its first year of existence in 1990. The other four people honored were former owner and team founder Joe Robbie, quarterback Bob Griese, center Jim Langer, and wide receiver Paul Warfield.

-Larry Csonka was the second running back that the Miami Dolphins franchise had selected in the first round of the draft. Two years earlier in 1966 they picked Jim Grabowski out of the University of Illinois with the number one overall pick. Other running backs selected in the first round over the years by Miami include David Overstreet in 1981, Lorenzo Hampton in 1985, Sammie Smith in 1989, John Avery in 1998, and Ronnie Brown in 2005.

-Larry Csonka’s first 100 yard rushing game came in week nine of the 1969 NFL season when he carried the ball 16 times for 121 yards (7.56 yard average) in a 17-16 win over the then Boston Patriots.

-During college, Larry Csonka was the Most Valuable Player of the East-West Shrine Game, Hula Bowl, and the College All-Star Game.

-Almost 75 percent of Larry Csonka’s 68 career rushing touchdowns (21) were scored from inside the three yard line.

-Larry Csonka was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989.

-In 1972 Larry Csonka rushed for 1,117 yards and his teammate Mercury Morris ran for exactly 1,000 yards. This was the first time in NFL history that two players on one team broke the 1,000 yard rushing mark.

-Larry Csonka caught four touchdown passes during his career. Three were thrown to him by Bob Griese and one by longtime backup Don Strock.

-Larry Csonka worked for a time for the Jacksonville Bulls of the United States Football Laague in the roles of both director of scounting as well as general manager.

-Larry Csonka scored more touchdowns in the fourth quarter than he did during any other quarter during his career.

-One of Larry Csonka’s post football jobs was as an announcer for the television show “American Gladiators”.

-Larry Csonka scored 68 career touchdowns in the National Football League. Interestingly he scored 34 on the road and 34 in home games.

-In 2005, Larry Csonka and others were stranded on a disabled boat caught in a severe storm in Alaska and had to be rescued by helicopter.

-Larry Csonka’s highest touchdown total in one season is 13 and this occured during his last season in the league.

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Two of the most important attributes that a coach or fans look for in a quarterback are their ability and their durability. Everyone wants a great quarterback, but if they’re never healthy it doesn’t help much. Similarly, everyone wants a long lasting quarterback, but if he isn’t any good then why hold onto him?

There is an interesting, some might find it amusing, effect though that having long lasting good quarterbacks can have on a team’s record book.

We’ll use the Miami Dolphins as an example. All these stats are through the end of the 2009 NFL season. The Dolphins have been around for fifty seasons through 2009 and two of their best quarterbacks were Bob Griese and Dan Marino. Bob Griese was the quarterback of the team during some of its dominant 1970′s years, including being a part of that 1972 team that went undefeated and won the Super Bowl. Dan Marino was statistically best quarterbacks the National Football League has ever seen, and though he never was able to win a Super Bowl, he was incredibly successful.

Marino played 17 seasons at quarterback for the Dolphins, from 1983 to 1999. Griese played 14 seasons at quarterback for the team, from 1967 to 1980. That means that those two great quarterbacks were playing for 31 of the team’s 50 total years in the league. They both should dominate the passing record books for the team, and they do. But it also means that because of their longevity, other quarterbacks who played significantly less may rank surprisingly high in a number of team passing categories.

For example:

-In third place on the all time passing yards list for the Miami Dolphins is Jay Fiedler.

-Don Strock, who was almost exclusively a backup quarterback throughout his long career in Miami, is ranked third in team history for quarterbacks in games played, fourth in touchdown passes, and fifth in completions. All this despite the fact that he only started 20 games.

-Chad Pennington has only played two seasons with the Dolphins but is less than 500 yards away from breaking into the top five in all time passing yards for the team.

-Gus Frerotte played just one season in Miami, threw for just less than 3,000 yards, and is ranked 7th all time in team history in career passing yards.

-Other Dolphins quarterbacks in the all time top ten for passing yards for the team include David Woodley, Chad Henne, Joey Harrington, and Cleo Lemon.

Nothing against any of these players, it just shows that when a team has been blessed with a couple of very good long lasting quarterbacks, it logically doesn’t take too much for the other QBs that come along to break into the leader board in some of those categories.

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During his career, Dan Marino threw 420 regular season touchdown passes. Here are some interesting facts related to those touchdowns.

-The team that Dan Marino threw the most touchdown passes against was the New York Jets. Over the course of his career he amassed 72 touchdown passes against them.

-The first touchdown pass of Dan Marino’s career came in 1983, his rookie year, and was thrown to Joe Rose.

-The player who caught more touchdown passes from Dan Marino than anyone else is wide receiver Mark Clayton. During their time together, Clayton would catch 79 touchdown passes from Marino.

-Approximately 37% of Dan Marino’s touchdown passes were thrown in the second quarter of the games he played in.

-The longest touchdown pass Dan Marino threw during his career went for 85 yards. He actually did this twice, both times the passes were completed to wide receiver Mark Duper.

Dan Marino never won the Super Bowl during his time in the NFL, but he sure knew how to throw touchdown passes.

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When Dan Marino retired, he had put up 400 or more passing yards in 13 games during his career. That was and is the most 400 yard games anyone has ever had in their NFL career. To put this into perspective, two players were tied for second place with 7 career 400 yard games, Joe Montana and Warren Moon. Peyton Manning has since joined that club with 7 career 400 yard games of his own.

Dan Marino sits atop the list though with those amazing thirteen 400 yard games. Yet another sign that he was truly one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.

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-During high school, Jim Kiick was a star defensive back.

-Jim Kiick was the Most Valuable Player of the 1966 Sun Bowl in which his Wyoming Cowboys defeated the Florida State Seminoles.

-Jim Kiick made the Pro Bowl after his first two seasons in the league, 1968 and 1969, but didn’t ever make it back again.

-Jim Kiick led the the Miami Dolphins in receiving from the running back position in 1970.

-During his career, Jim Kiick completed two passes, one in 1970 for 25 yards and one in 1974 for 13 yards.

-Jim Kiick’s only touchdown of the 1973 season came from one yard out in the team’s Super Bowl VIII victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

-Jim Kiick ran for more yards against the New York Jets (611) than any other team he played against over the course of his career.

-In 1975, Jim Kiick would leave the Miami Dolphins and sign with the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League. His Dolphins teammates Larry Csonka and Paul Warfield also signed with Memphis that season.

-12 of Jim Kiick’s 31 career rushing touchdowns came on one yard runs.

-Jim Kiick’s last season in the NFL consisted of just one game as a member of the Washington Redskins.

-The first touchdown that Jim Kiick ever scored in the NFL was a one yard run against the Buffalo Bills in 1968.

-George Kiick, Jim’s father, played running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1940s.

-More than a third of Jim Kiick’s NFL touchdowns came in the 4th quarter (12 of 33).

-One of the many jobs Jim Kiick had after his NFL career was over was private investigator.

-During his career, Jim Kiick had six 100 yard games. Five of those were rushing performances and one was a 100 yard receiving game.

-Jim Kiick scored 33 touchdowns during his NFL career. The team he scored the most against was the Buffalo Bills with 7.

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-With 25 career touchdown passes against the Colts, Drew Bledsoe sits in fourth place on this list.

-In third place is longtime Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly with 28 touchdown passes.

-Another Buffalo Bills quarterback, Joe Ferguson, has thrown the second most touchdown passes against the Colts. He is just three ahead of Kelly with 31.

-The player who has thrown more touchdown passes against the Colts than any other player in history though is Hall of Famer Dan Marino. During his career, Marino threw 54 touchdowns against them.

The Colts have been really good, really bad, and even somewhere in the middle during their history. The quarterback who has experienced the most success against the team by far though is Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins.

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The Miami Dolphins came into the league in 1966 and despite struggling during their first few years, they rose to the top with back-to-back Super Bowl wins in the early 1970s. The worst season the team has ever had though came in more recent years, 2007 to be exact.

After two disappointing seasons, much hyped head coach Nick Saban left pro football to return to coaching at the college level. Cam Cameron came on as the new coach in 2007 and with him came a number of other changes too. The starting quarterback position was a mess with three different players starting at least four games; Cleo Lemon, Trent Green, and John Beck. The running and passing games both suffered from injuries and poor production, and the defense was ranked at the bottom or in the bottom half of the league in most categories.

The team began the year with a three point loss to the Washington Redskins. This close game may have given some hope that the team was going to be competitive, but just 13 weeks later, with a record of 0-13, there were few people in Miami that could be described as hopeful.

Then it happened. Sunday, December 16th 2007 against the visiting Baltimore Ravens, the 2007 Miami Dolphins got their first win of the season. Late in the fourth quarter the game was tied 16-16 and then quarterback Cleo Lemon hooked up with Grag Camarillo for a 64 yard touchdown pass and the win. The leading rusher for the Dolphins in the game was Samkon Gado who carried the ball 18 times for 43 yards and one touchdown. The leading receiver was Camariloo who caught three balls for 109 yards and one touchdown. Lemon put together one of his better outings at quarterback that year going 23 of 39 for 315 yards and one touchdown.

Just like their first 13 games that year, the Dolphins would go on to lose their last two games of the season to and finish with a franchise worst record of 1-15. Six of the Dolphins 15 losses that year were decided by three points or less including three point losses to the Redskins, Jets, Texans, Giants, Bills, and Steelers. The biggest blowout they had to endure during that horrible season was a 27 point loss to the rival New York Jets at home, that game ending with a final score of 40-13.

All things being related, sometimes it takes an awful season to appreciate the better than average and great seasons in sports. The Dolphins worst season ever happened fairly recently, but at least it is in the past.

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-Dan Marino’s first 300 yard game came during his rookie year against the Buffalo Bills when he passed for 322 yards in a 38-35 loss.

-During the 1984 season, Dan Marino had an amazing eleven 300 yard games.

-During his career, Dan Marino passed for 300 yards or more 67 different times.

-Dan Marino even passed for more than 400 yards 15 different times, including throwing for 521 yards in a 1988 loss to the New York Jets.

When it comes to most statistical accomplishments, Dan Marino sits at or near the top of the leader board.

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He burst onto the scene as a rookie in 1983 and within a year was leading the league in a number of quarterback statistical categories. By the time he retired following the 1999 season, he had racked up sixty-seven 300 yards games. Dan Marino also threw four or more touchdowns in a game 22 different times. But what are Dan Marino’s best games?

Marino threw for his most yards ever in one game in a 44-30 loss to the New York Jets in 1988. In that game he accumulated 521 yards. This was the only time he threw for more than 500 yards in a game during a regular season game.

Marino was a touchdown throwing machine during his career, but never did he do better in this category than in another loss to the Jets. This time in a 51-45 loss in 1986, Marino threw six touchdown passes to five different receivers.

Dan Marino was a great quarterback who brought a number of great wins to the Miami Dolphins franchise. As happens with quarterbacks though, his two greatest games in terms of passing yards and touchdown passes came in losses.

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