The Dolphins say “Ight ima head out” 

Miami Herald presented the latest in a recent news article on the Miami Dolphins and the start of their new season. The Miami Dolphins’ roster is usually what’s blamed for the unsuccessful outcomes of their games. However, ever since the football team was given a new coach named Bryan Florez for the season, and the team took a historic loss against the Baltimore Ravens on September 8th, 2019, The team members and fans are beginning to look at Coach Flores sideways. Coach Bryan Florez is an American football coach who has taken on multiple roles with the New England patriots. He’s mainly known for his long-time job as a defensive assistant for the Patriots, and his work has shown through Patriots’ success. As new head coach of the Dolphins, he decided to put the team’s most talented players on defense: Xavien Howard, Reshad Jones, and Charles Harris are just to name a few. This decision may have been a mistake even though as an ex-defensive assistant, you’d think Flores would know the right strategies to bring home a win. 

 

The Ravens scored 42 points within the first half of the football game. According to the article, Coach Flores was the first coach in 100 seasons to allow the opposing team to gain the most points in an opening half of a game while it being the beginning of a new season (Columnist). The defensive line up Coach Flores constructed ended up being a recipe for disaster and it allowed the Ravens to take over easily. In other words, the Ravens “lit up the Flores Defense like a candle (Columnist).” The Dolphins loss this huge game 59-10. The team blamed Coach Flores completely and the loss caused many of the members to want to be traded to a different team with a better coach. The concept that applies to this matter is called Self-Serving Bias. Self-serving bias is when credit is taken for a good occurrence and blame is placed on the outside sources for when something goes wrong. In this case, Coach Flores was blamed for the Dolphins’ loss. The team members also used this as an excuse to leave the team because they now have someone to put the blame on besides themselves. As I stated earlier, the Dolphin’s roster already wasn’t the best and it has been partially responsible for their losses in the past. For the past 3 seasons the Dolphins were coached by Adam Gase and the Dolphins weren’t placed 1st in the American Football Conference (AFC) East ranking, nor have they been placed 1st in the past decade. For the past 2 seasons, they’ve had a losing record; they lost more games then they won. This shows that no matter who is coaching the dolphins are accountable for the way they play their football games, whether or not they win or lose. This is clear evidence that the team members displayed self-serving bias. 

One of the Dolphins football players Minkah Fitzpatrick acted on impulse and made the switch a reality. According to the article “Here’s how the Dolphins players reacted to the Fitzpatrick trade, plan to replace him,” The team “bemoaned his departure (Jackson).”  Minkah’s actions displayed the concept of individualism, which is putting one’s own goals and ambitions above a group’s, as well as establishing one’s true self in terms of personal attributions. Minkah was drafted by the Dolphins in the first round of the 2018 NFL draft directly after he finished college. Being drafted in the first round is known to be impressive because you are identified as a good candidate for whatever position you play whether it be wide receiver, defensive back, quarterback, etc.  Minkah traded to the Steelers for the 2019 season, which displays that he’s not willing to waste any time on a team that’s not elevating him in his career. This demonstrates the difference between individualism vs. collectivism. Collectivism is the concept of giving a group or team view priority over your individual opinions. Minkah Fitzpatrick’s decision to satisfy himself individually instead of being collective took a toll on his teammates. When asked about how he felt about Fitzpatrick’s trade, his fellow teammate Bobby McCain replies, “It sucks, it sucks,” and furthermore says how Minkah is a friend of his and a brother of the entire team, however, “It’s football, it’s the business (Jackson).” This confirms that sometimes when being a football player you have to make tough decisions but it’s all for the better. 

 

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