The Jason Taylor Saga

Something I've neglected to give my thoughts on recently has been the Jason Taylor soap opera. After finishing 2nd in the Dancing With the Stars competition, it became public that Taylor will not be attending any of the Dolphin's offseason training activities.

Clearly, the situation has become messy--- far messier than I would have liked to see. Luckily the team is awful so if this is a distraction, it isn't going to make much of a difference on the performance of the football team. I have always been one to defend Jason, especially when he made the decision to start looking at opportunities off the field.

However, I think it's time to start placing some of the blame on his shoulders. I understand that he is unhappy and that he would prefer to play for a contender. The problem is that by publicly distancing himself from the Dolphins, he has screwed them over. His value on the trade market has been greatly decreased because now there is either the threat that he simply retires or the possibility that the Dolphins will outright cut him (won't happen).

The Dolphins organization might not have handled this in the best way, but I wouldn't go so far as to say both sides are completely wrong. They have their priorities, and catering to Jason isn't one of them. It shouldn't be. He should have been traded at the draft for whatever fair deal we were offered. Hell, I would have taken a below-average market offer for Jason, considering the alternative we are faced with now: either a 4th round pick or him never playing for anyone again.

What the situation has shown us is that the NFL is still a business. As much as it hurt to see Zach Thomas leave to Dallas, the departure was amicable enough and handled well. As fans we have a similar attachment to Jason, but this time around the breakup has been ugly. Jason has been showing that he has placed his playing future and his life after football as his priority. Maybe that's being selfish, maybe it's being smart. I wish he would put a little more thought into how he is hurting the team he's played for all these years, but he has stood by the Dolphin's side for years as they churned out awful teams and wasted his career.

Hopefully we'll be able to unload him for a conditional pick at some point in the next month or so. Both parties have much to gain from the split.