Raheem Mostert is an avid Florida Panthers fan and he got the chance to take part in their championship parade and championship celebration Sunday, even being invited to lift the Stanley Cup on the makeshift stage on Fort Lauderdale Beach.
While the excitement in Mostert’s face was plain to see, it should be obvious this is not the trophy that Mostert really wants to be showing off for fans.
That, of course, would be the Lombardi Trophy, the one given to the Super Bowl champions.
This Stanley Cup title was a first for the Panthers, and it has left the Dolphins as the South Florida franchise with the longest championship drought among the four major North American professional sports league (with apologies to MLS).
Before the Panthers, the last South Florida franchise to win a title was the Miami Heat winning its third NBA title in 2013, and the Florida/Miami Marlins won the World Series in 1997 and 2003.
For the Dolphins, the drought goes back more than 50 years, all the way to the 1973 season.
HOW CLOSE ARE THE DOLPHINS TO THE SUPER BOWL?
So as Mostert lifted the Stanley Cup to the delight of a very large crowd on a rainy South Florida day, maybe he was dreaming of a similar scene playing out, say, next February.
The question, of course, is: how realistic is that?
The Dolphins do have a lot of things going for them, starting with the fact they’re one of only four teams with a winning record each of the past four seasons, the others being the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers.
Let’s also not forget that the Dolphins went into their Week 17 showdown at Baltimore last season with an opportunity to land the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs before the season went south, in part because of some untimely injuries.
The Dolphins also finished the season with the No. 1 offense, though it didn’t produce enough against those opponents that ended up in the playoffs. But maybe this is where the additions of playmakers like Odell Beckham Jr. and Jonnu Smith can make the difference in 2024.
While there are question marks on defense, the arrival of new coordinator Anthony Weaver from the Baltimore Ravens has brought with it some heightened expectations.
The teams listed as bigger favorites than the Dolphins are the same in both sportsbooks: Kansas City, San Francisco, Baltimore and Detroit are 1-4 in each instance; 5-11 vary, but both include Buffalo, Cincinnati, Houston, Philadelphia, Dallas, Green Bay and, yes, the New York Jets.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Of course, it might be silly to be talking about the Super Bowl as a possibility when the Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game since 2000 — in case you haven’t heard, they have the longest active drought in the NFL — but it’s not like previously underachieving teams haven’t gone to the Super Bowl before.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had missed the playoffs 12 consecutive seasons before they won the Super Bowl in the 2020 season — though, yes, it helped to have added Tom Brady to their roster. And the 2021 Bengals went to the Super Bowl after having failed to win a single playoff game since 1990 (sound familiar?). And the 49ers went to the Super Bowl in the 2019 season after not making the playoffs the previous five seasons.
So just because the Dolphins came up short last season doesn’t automatically mean they’ll come up short again.
Shoot, the Dolphins could take inspiration from those very Panthers that Mostert celebrated. After all, they had won exactly one playoff series in 26 years before they made their run to the Stanley Cup Final last year — before they did again and this time won.
The Dolphins are not the Panthers, but they do have a lot of things going for them and who knows how far they can go with the right breaks if they max out their potential in 2024.